Writing a will to protect your horses

[Caroline]

I am in the process of writing my will at the moment and would be grateful to hear what arrangements others have made to ensure the wellbeing of their horses after they go.

I took out an accidental death policy, to make sure that there was money there to look after them when I am gone if it was to happen soon. That obviously doesn't cover death from illness, so I am thinking maybe a Life Insurance policy is needed too?

As to who to leave them to and how to distribute that money for the welfare of the horses...

I am thinking that it is best to leave instructions for a certain amount to be given each month to the person or people I leave them too, with perhaps an additional facility to pay vet bills. How much is enough per month do you think? £100 per horse?

As to people, there is someone who helped me rescue Beauty, is younger than me and has her own farm, so she is the obvious first choice. But life can change circumstances for anyone, so I need to consider that.

As to TigerLily and Zee, I have a short list of people I woudl trust to love and look after them and treat them well. I don't know who would accept taking them on though or where they would be in terms of circumstances at the time. Is it best to leave it to an executor to ask who is willing from the short list when the times comes and choose the most stable?

Or maybe I should leave them to a sanctuary, along with their monthly support donations? I can only think of about one sanctuary that I truly trust to completely honour this.

All thoughts and discussion gratefully received!

[specialized]

We went through all this a few years ago and considered all the options.
We decided it could be unfair to will a horse to somebody, however well they might look after them, purely because circumstances can change and we would not want somebody to feel beholden to us at a later date.
We decided in the end to will them to WHW with a monetary bequest of a percentage of our estates.
However with things changing so much over the past few years and all the sanctuaries and charities full to bursting point, along with the shortage of people willing to offer homes to such horses, we are now considering whether to change our wills and make the decision to have the horses pts - that way we would know that there was no chance of them being passed on or abused in the future.
It is a very hard decision to make and one which we still have not finalised.

[lizpurlo]

I've done pretty much the same as specialized here, and had the same misgivings. So going to change the conditions a bit, and just leave the two nice useful chaps, plus cash, to WHW - they should be easily rehomed, being nice straightforward riding cobs. And the other, my troubled boy, to be pts here. Horrible thing to have to think of, I know.

A well-known 'name' in the carriage driving and eventing world lived near here, and was often to be seen jogging round the lanes in her carriage, drawn by a beautiful matched pair of grey Connemara ponies. Turnout absolutely impeccable, ponies' condition spot on. When she died, there was some local outcry, because both the ponies were put down, and many local people thought it was a shame. But I totally understand why she did that.

[taklishim]

Jan 18, 2015 22:43:21 GMT 1 specialized said:

We went through all this a few years ago and considered all the options.
We decided it could be unfair to will a horse to somebody, however well they might look after them, purely because circumstances can change and we would not want somebody to feel beholden to us at a later date.
We decided in the end to will them to WHW with a monetary bequest of a percentage of our estates.
However with things changing so much over the past few years and all the sanctuaries and charities full to bursting point, along with the shortage of people willing to offer homes to such horses, we are now considering whether to change our wills and make the decision to have the horses pts - that way we would know that there was no chance of them being passed on or abused in the future.
It is a very hard decision to make and one which we still have not finalised.

that is really interesting. We are in the same position with 10 and around 5 should be PTS, possibly more for welfare reasons. We have wondered exactly the same as you about the whole thing. Do you have a family executor who will carry out your wishes re PTS or have you thought of some other method of making sure it is done.

I don't think monthly support donations would work. I think from a charity POV it would have to be a one off payment on condition they take the horse.

Interested to hear any other views on this subject

[Caroline]

Jan 21, 2015 21:09:42 GMT 1 taklishim said:

Jan 18, 2015 22:43:21 GMT 1 specialized said:

I don't think monthly support donations would work. I think from a charity POV it would have to be a one off payment on condition they take the horse.

Interested to hear any other views on this subject

I thought about that, but I was worried that a large upfront payment might get used for other things and not to maintain my horses. We would be looking at a payment in the region of £50K-£100K in order to cover 3 horses for another 20 years. So maybe a compromise would be an initial payment of £2K per horse followed by a monthly amount? That would mean that the charity doesn't have to worry about early vet costs or euthanasia costs (some people dump their horses on rescues to avoid the euthanasia costs so they have to plan for that. I wouldn't of course, but I understand their position.)

[taklishim]

Jan 22, 2015 4:59:04 GMT 1 Caroline said:

Jan 21, 2015 21:09:42 GMT 1 taklishim said:

I thought about that, but I was worried that a large upfront payment might get used for other things and not to maintain my horses. We would be looking at a payment in the region of £50K-£100K in order to cover 3 horses for another 20 years. So maybe a compromise would be an initial payment of £2K per horse followed by a monthly amount? That would mean that the charity doesn't have to worry about early vet costs or euthanasia costs (some people dump their horses on rescues to avoid the euthanasia costs so they have to plan for that. I wouldn't of course, but I understand their position.)

Also

about 25 years ago I would have written that and probably tried to go along those lines but having got older and wiser I can see too many problems.

Firstly if a charity (or anyone else) takes your horses you have no control over what they do with them and you certainly cannot expect they will look after 3 horses in retirement for 20 years. It may not even be in the horse's interests to remain with the charity. Possibly one of the horses would be very suited to one of their loan homes or some other scenario. If the horse was in a loan home with the new "owner" maintaining it who would get the money for that horse's upkeep?

Also over a long timespan charities may change. You may make an arrangement now for your horses yet when you die in say 15 years time you have different horses and the agendas of charities has changed considerably. Possibly only the likes of WHW can be guarteneed to still be in existence. I would have considered your arrangement with a local charity for my ponies but now I see they are in trouble.

The other problem is the cost of what you want to do. Having now dealt with several estates simplicity is the key. Say you died and left your 200k estate for your horse's upkeep. Trustees would have to be appointed to administer the trust for as long as your horses lived. The mind bogles as to the cost of either legal or accountancy fees to administer the trust for 20 years. Someone is going to make a lot of money out of you and it won't be your horses. If one of your horses needs for eg a 8K operation who is going to pay. Can the charity go back to the trustees, will they agree to pay? Whilst a lovely idea in theory for your horses in practice I personally would think it too complex plus you would have to get a charity to agree all your specific terms.

sorry to appear a damp squib as I know you are trying to do your best for your horses. :)I don't really know the answer as to what to do with animals on death when there is plenty of money to support them but no way as such of doing so.

[Caroline]

Maybe it would work to leave it in the hands of my executors to use the money to keep the horses on livery somewhere? Both my executors are not horsey people, so they would have to put the horses day to day care in the hands of a professional - or maybe on loan to any of my list of trusted people (again, with financial support)? It's so hard to get it right!

Beauty is retired and about 25 now.I obviously hope to out-live her (and all of them!), but we can't be sure of these things. She couldn't be rehomed as a riding horse now - it wouldn't be fair.

Zeebee is an abuse/trauma victim who as come a long way, but will never make a safe riding horse. He would be a lovely pet for someone that appreciates and understands him as he is very affectionate when he trusts you, but there isn't much call for companion horses these days.

TigerLily is the only one of the three that will ever be a riding horse. I have done a little with her and maybe by the time anything happens to me, she will be further down the road. But even then, I wouldn't want anyone else to ride her when I am gone because she has been trained under a contract of consent and there aren't many horse people that think that way. It wouldn't be fair (or even safe!) for someone to change that. So I want her left in peace to just be a natural horse if I go before her.

I don't intend to get any more horses after these three.

[Deleted]

I suspect you'll find charities won't take donations that are for that one horse only. Mainly because they'd have a bureaucratic nightmare trying to make sure each horse had the right money spent on it and imagine the outcry if they left one without medical care because you'd assigned your money to your horse and they couldn't spend it on another in more need.

When Talin was rideable a horsey friend had agreed to take ownership and had my permission to then do as she saw fit with him, either keep or loan etc. Now he's not rideable I won't burden her with that responsibility. I personally wouldn't ask a non horsey friend to make any decisions about a horse's fate, if they're not informed on the subject they can't make informed decisions.

[mags]

I haven't written a will, but have thought about what I would like to happen to my animals (one horse, two cats) once I'm gone.
I think I would name a close (horsey) friend executor together with a family member, and leave the disposition of my animals to her. She knows me well and has similar views on welfare. I would trust her to keep/sell/PTS my horse and cats as she sees fit, and would leave her with a lump sum to cover livery/vet costs for a time while decisions are made. I think it is close to impossible to write a will that truly covers all eventualities. Circumstances change, and what seemed like a good idea at the time of writing may no longer cover the situation as it is at the time the will is executed.
I wouldn't feel comfortable to stipulate PTS in my will. Apart from it not being legal everywhere (e.g. not in Germany, where I may well end up again at some point), I also think that it just a tad conceited to think that no one else could possibly offer a decent life to the animals once I am gone. They may get lucky and someone will want to keep them. This is how I got my old mare Rosie - I took over her care once her owner had suddenly passed away. This is where I'd trust my friend to act in the horse's best interest and choose PTS over selling a horse of no (monetary) value if so indicated. But I wouldn't want to have written it in stone (or in a will).

[portiabuzz]

Honestly it's not nice to think about such things but being responsible owners we have to.

Sent from my SM-G800F using proboards

[nich]

We are members of WFW and have willed ours to them. We had to provide pics and details, and when Autumn died, we phoned to tell them and they were absolutely lovely.