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August 2007 Helpful Hint with Links - Consider a Pet Trust for Your Horse

Each quarter we offer a horsemanship hint, often related to current affairs on people’s minds.  Our hints don’t tell you how to treat thrush, or how to teach your horse to do a flying lead change.  You have (or should have) a regular veterinarian and trainer for those kinds of topics.  If you don’t, there are books and webzines galore to choose from.  We try with our horsemanship hints to cover topics that are seldom addressed elsewhere. 

August is a month of family vacations, moving to a new town for a new job, and unpredictable (even if hot) weather.   This month seems to be a good time to mention “planning ahead.”

Our September 2005 Helpful Hint covered Emergency Preparedness for your horses and barn.  If you DID NOT enjoy the flooding in Cave Creek and other parts of the Phoenix metropolitan area after just one night of heavy rain a few weeks ago, it may be time to review those suggestions.  Did you get to practice your plan?  Has your situation changed since you developed your plan?  The Del Camino Emergency and Disaster Procedures were based on us having as many as 20 horses stabled at Sandspur in Scottsdale.  Half of those were client horses in training.  It also reflected the fact that we had paid, trained staff familiar with those procedures.  Today, we have only four horses, boarded twice as far from our home, and only a tack locker at the stable in which minimal grooming, first aid, and tack supplies can fit.

REVIEW AND UPDATE YOUR EMERGENCY PROCEDURES ANNUALLY

For our beloved 10 year old boxer, LSR Clue, the waterproof instructions that wrap around her collar are updated accordingly.  In the unlikely, but possible event that both of us are incapacitated or killed in, say, a car accident on the way home from the stable, and Clue is at home patiently waiting for us, there must be someone local to call to retrieve her from our home.  Next, she must be provided for through her old age.  What to do?

Clue is taken care of, completely outside of our wills (so there is no waiting for probate, etc.) by means of a funded Pet Trust.  Never heard of a Pet Trust?  Pet Guardian, LLC Pet Trust Plan is not the only means of creating and funding one, and Del Camino is not endorsing their service, but their website gives an excellent explanation and they offer a simple and convenient template.

What about the horses, should something happen to us?  What if board is due in five days?  What if they need veterinary care?  Again, a funded Pet Trust ensures that a willing and qualified Executor will pay their bills, even if that person is out-of-state at the time.  Since the trust is revocable and changeable, we can adjust the method and sources of funding, the individual horses named, the Executor and Alternate Executor over time.

IF YOU CARE ABOUT WHAT HAPPENS TO YOUR ANIMALS SHOULD SOMETHING HAPPEN TO YOU, CONSIDER CREATING A PET TRUST

Most people have some life insurance and a retirement plan.  They have named beneficiaries who are family members, of course.  Most responsible people with minor children at home have made arrangements in their will or trust for those children, including naming a guardian.  Do we assume that the beneficiaries of these instruments that wisely fulfill our duties to people, will share with our pets as we would wish?  You might reasonably predict that the family dog would stay in the family.  But if you are single with pets, are you certain that relatives in Nebraska will fly Fluffy out from Phoenix to join them for the rest of Fluffy’s life?  If Fluffy is a St. Bernard, maybe not.  How will they know which pet adoption agency to use to find him a new home?  What if that no-kill adoption center wants a support fee until he is adopted, which would be fair?  Are they going to be willing to spend $100 per month for however many months it takes to find him a home?  Who pays for those vaccinations and groomings that might come due in the interim?  Oh, ALL of my relatives would take care of Fluffy.  They love Fluffy as much as their own pets.  Good.

Now let’s move on to your two performance horses that are boarded at a nice training facility, or your three backyard horses that you spend 3 hours per day maintaining if not riding.  One of those, by the way, is Sweet Ole Paint, a 24 year old with Cushings who won you the State Championship 15 years ago, and is enjoying a quiet retirement just keeping the younger horses company. What is going to happen to them, if something happens to you?  Don’t laugh, but we have many friends whose lives revolve around their horses who would say, “My spouse is utterly indifferent to the horses.  It is my hobby, not his (hers).  He (she) will sell them all as soon as possible.”

Okay, fine.  Since your spouse (or if no spouse, other relatives not involved in horses) will sell them, how long is that going to take, and what happens on a daily, weekly, monthly basis in the meantime?  He hires someone to care for them?  After all, he has other issues on his mind, and demands on his time, with you hospitalized or deceased, than doing it himself.  Are there written care instructions for that person to follow?  How does he market the horses?  How long will it take to find buyers?  Who is going to take Sweet Ole Paint, the retiree?  If you pay for your horse habit with a job paycheck, with your earned income gone, how long can your spouse or relatives carry the horses in the manner you think appropriate and humane? If you own horses in a business, such as a trail ride concession or breeding or racing program, or are a trainer with “spec” horses, can the family carry on without you?

These questions have to be thought through by any responsible horse owner.  They are not easy, and we get quite an education as we research how to make workable plans.  Such plans had to be made for the closing of our riding academy, and the considerable past experience we have, and extensive research we did to prepare, all turned out to be correct.  Anyone who has ever decided to sell a healthy, well-trained, pretty, well-bred horse in its prime can tell you it can take two weeks or eleven months.  If you have a moral duty to have life insurance and a will, if not a trust, to provide for your human dependents in the event you cannot do so personally, you have the same duty for your helpless domestic animals.  In the event something happens to us, our horses are provided for.  What about yours?

For assistance developing or updating a practical Emergency & Disaster Plan for your horses or your stable, Del Camino offers consulting services. Del Camino can also consult for planning a Pet Trust designed for multiple horses.  Inquire

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