¶ Leasing Horses
Did you know you can lease out your horses to other Ranches in Legacy? You can lease horses for a variety of reasons, which will be explained here.
Really quickly though for clarification:
Lessor = person who owns the horse, but is leasing it to someone else
Lessee = person who does not own the horse, but is leasing it
¶ What can a lessee do with leased horses?
Lessees can do what the owner of the horse allows them to. When setting up the lease, the owner is giving these options to allow:
- Allow Breeding
- In other words, allow a mare or stallion to be bred (includes semen collection if a stallion).
- Option to allow the Lessee to keep the foal or not if the horse is are a mare.
- Allow Showing
- Allows the lessee to enter the horse in shows. The lessee will have to pay the entry fee, but will get the winnings, if the show runs while they are still leasing.
- Allow Job
- Allows the lessee to change or give the horse a job. If they already had a job when the lease is arranged, and allow job change is NOT selected, then they will keep their current job, and the lessee will get the payment.
- Allow Training
- Allows the lessee to train or exercise the horse.
¶ What can a lessee never do?
Register, sell or geld the horse.
¶ Who pays for what in a lease?
The leased horse will go to the lessee's ranch, and the lessee will be responsible for their feed, vet and farrier bills, in addition to any fees for auto-trainers used, and show entry fees. But, the lessee also will get their winnings if they show, or payments from jobs.
As for the monthly lease payment, it can be set to pay the lessor with a positive number (>0), or the lessee with a negative number (<0).
¶ Can the lessee control a horse's feed?
Yes, the lessee and not the lessor will control the horse's feed during the lease. They will also pay for it.
¶ Why use leases?
Leases are used for two main reasons: 1) to allow another player to manage training and/or showing your horse and 2) for breeding. That's not to say you might find other reasons to lease though, these are just the main reasons.
¶ A note about broodmare leases
Mares may be bred when leased out, but who keeps the foal is up to the choice of the owner. When setting up the lease, they have the option to check ‘Lessee keeps foal’ or not. If checked, the foal will be owned by the lessee. If not checked, then the foal will go to the lessor once weaned, or when the mare is returned.
Why have both options? If the mare is being leased specifically for breeding, then you would expect that the lessee wants to keep the foal. However, if the mare is being leased for training, then the owner could choose to allow breeding but not allow the lessee to keep the foal, so that the lessor could breed the mare while she's away (though they would have to ask the lessee to do it for them), and have her return with a foal.
¶ So how do you set up a lease?
There are two options, you can either 1) set up a direct lease to another player, or 2) advertise the lease to all players.
¶ Direct Leases
To set up a direct lease, go to your horse's Management section, and scroll down until you see the ‘Leasing’ box. Enter the monthly fee you are requesting (which will be paid each game month while the horse is being leased!), leave the Advertise box unchecked, enter the number of game months they will be leased for in the Length box, then type in the Lessee's Ranch name in the Recipient box, and check any of the boxes for what they are allowed to do with the horse.
The lease will then be sent over to the potential lessee for approval. If they approve the lease terms, then the horse will be sent to their ranch for the lease.
¶ Advertised Leases
If you don't have a lessee arranged but want to lease out a horse, then you will want to advertise them in the classifieds. Setting up a lease this way is a bit more complex, and involves some back and forth between the lessor and potential lessee to agree on all the lease terms before the horse is actually leased.
To set up an advertisement, go to the horse's Management section, and scroll down until you see the ‘Leasing’ box. Enter the monthly fee you are requesting (which will be paid each game month while the horse is being leased!), and check the Advertise box. When you check the Advertise box, a blank text box will open up. This will be the written ad that will be displayed for other players to read, so write what you want them to know about the lease! Then you just need to check any of the boxes for what you will allow in the lease. Leave the recipient box empty, and you do not need to enter the lease length - which the lessor will request.
Once you are happy with everything, click ‘Submit’ and your advertisement will be posted on the Sales page, under the Leases tab. There, other players will be able to see the horse, as well as your written ad, and what you will allow in the lease. Please note that your horse will stay on your ranch until someone else requests a lease, and both of you agree on the terms.
Your advertisement will look something like this:
¶ When another player requests a lease
If a player sees your lease ad and wants to lease the horse, they can click ‘Request’ on the advertisement, and then they will be prompted to request a number of months to lease the horse, and what they want to do with the horse. Their options on what they can do with the horse will be determined by what you (the lessor) selected. So, if you selected ‘Training’ and ‘Job’ options only, the potential lessee will have the options to agree to do training and jobs for the horse, or they might just request to do one or the other.
For example, this is what the potential lessee will see if lessor selected that the horse can be trained, have a job, and/or go to shows. Here, the potential lessee has selected that they only want to train or show the horse, and they want to do this for 5 game months.
Once the player clicks confirm, the lease request will be sent to the lessor to approve or deny. To make that decision, go to your Ranch page, and find the SALES & LEASES tab. If you scroll down, you will see ‘Incoming Lease Requests’, which indicate the horse, the requestor (potential lessee), their Ranch, the length of time they requested the lease be, and then what options they requested for the lease.
If everything looks acceptable to you, click ‘Approve’. Note this will NOT start the lease immediately. The lease will then be bounced back over to the potential lessee to accept or deny. Once they accept, THEN the lease will begin. The reason for this back and forth is to ensure that everyone is happy with the terms, and then the lease only starts when the lessee is active and ready for the horse to come to their ranch.
This is what the lessee will see when the lessor approves their request:
And, once the lessee accepts the lease, then the lessee will see this:
¶ Where can I see what horses I am leasing out to other players?
This will be on your Ranch page, under the SALES & LEASES tab. If you scroll down, you will see ‘My Leased Horses’ detailing which of your horses are leased out, and to whom.
¶ Can a lease be ended early?
Leases will end automatically at the end of the agreed lease period, but either party can also choose to end the lease early by going to their Ranch page, and the Sales & Leases tab. For the lessee, the horse will be listed under ‘Active Leases’. For the lessor, the horse will be under ‘My Leased Horses’.
If the lease is ended by any party, the horse will immediately be returned to the lessor, and the monthly payments will stop.
¶ One warning about leases though
When leasing a horse, you are entrusting that horse to the lessee. They are then responsible for managing the Condition of the horse. They can therefore allow the horse to become fat or emaciated, which can result in the death of the horse. It is therefore recommended that you only arrange leases with experienced players. However, if the lease is not going to your liking, you are able to end the lease early, as described above.
¶ Details of Training Leases
Want to lease out your horse to another player to train, or want to train other player's horses to earn a little game money? You can totally do that! This section will serve as a guide to do so.
¶ First off, how do you make it so the trainer (lessee) gets paid for their work?
When the lessor sets up the lease, they need to input a negative number. This means they will pay that sum to the lessee every game month in exchange for the lease.
¶ What's a fair price for training though?
Well, the lessee is going to be responsible for all the horse's bills while they have the horse, so they need to be compensated for them in addition to the training, so let's breakdown the expenses.
Vaccinations + Farrier Bills will be about $50 per month. Vaccinations are actually paid yearly ($150), but for simplicity that is broken up by month here.
Feed and board bills are little more complicated, because stallions are probably going to be kept in the barn, while mares and geldings are typically kept in pasture. We also have to consider, is the lessee going to be showing or will the horse have a job as well? Then they are going to need to pay for the more expensive feeds then. Here's an estimation:
|
Monthly Cost for Stallions (Assuming barn-housed. Includes monthly bedding fee) |
Monthly Cost for Mares or Geldings (Assuming pasture-housed) |
|
| If they are training only (Supplemental Feed) |
50 (vet and farrier) + 250 (feed and bedding) = $300 |
50 (vet and farrier) + 150 (feed) = $200 |
| If they are training and doing a job (Performance Feed) |
50 (vet and farrier) + 350 (feed and bedding) = $400 |
50 (vet and farrier) + 250 (feed) = $300 |
| If they are training and going to 1 show/month (High-Performance Feed) |
50 (vet and farrier) + 375 (feed and bedding) = $425 |
50 (vet and farrier) + 275 (feed) = $325 |
So, we are up to $300-425 per month for stallions, and $200-325 for mares or geldings. But, this is just their monthly expenses, and does not include groom fees, if the lessee uses an automatic groom. A groom would add $65-180/month, though the lessee can always care for the horse manually to avoid paying a groom.
Now, how much should you compensate for training?
Well, if you recall from the Training page, auto-trainers charge $500/month for groundwork training, $1,000/month for undersaddle or basic driving training, and $1,500/month for discipline training. To benefit the lessor and compensate the lessee, you will probably want to pay a little less than that per game month. Otherwise, the lease does not benefit the lessor at all.
To sum it up, here are some recommended monthly fees for training leases:
| Training | Stallion | Mare or Gelding |
| Groundwork | $300 for room and board + $100-400 for training = $400-700/month | $200 for room and board + $100-400 for training = $300-600/month |
| Undersaddle or Basic Driving | $400 for room and board + $200-900 for training = $600-1,300/month | $300 for room and board + $200-900 for training = $500-1,200/month |
| Discipline | $425 for room and board + $300-1,400 for training = $725-1,825/month | $325 for room and board + $300-1,400 for training = $625-1,725/month |
Note that these prices are only suggestions. Whatever price you decide, the lessor will need to enter it as a negative amount in the lease agreement so that the lessee is paid for their work!
¶ What do I do if I leased out my horse for training, but the lessee is not training them?
Leases are unfortunately non-refundable, but, in this case, we recommend that you end the lease early, and just avoid leasing to that same player in the future.