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Equine Legal Forms and Contracts FAQ

Review our horse forms descriptions and view our available equine contracts and liability releases to determine which form is right for you.

Try our Forms Selection Tool to help you select the right form. If you still have questions, fill out our online Forms Support Request form, and we’ll be happy to answer them.

If you don’t see the horse contract you need in our selection of available equine forms or would like a customized form and you live in California, New York, Oregon or Washington, we’d be happy to discuss creating a customized horse contract for you. We start with a phone consultation to discuss your specific needs. You can request a consultation by filling out the appropriate online form on our Contact Us page.

Our forms are PDF files with fillable fields and checkboxes. When you purchase our equine legal forms, we will send you an email link to download the files. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader software to view and enter text in our forms. To make sure you can take advantage of all features, especially the fillable, savable features, update your Adobe Acrobat Reader software before downloading our horse forms. Download the latest free version of Adobe Reader.

No. We don’t post copies of our horse agreements on our website because that would make it easy for website visitors to simply copy them from our website without purchasing them. Instead, we have a detailed What’s In our Forms section that lists the various clauses contained in each equine agreement.

“Tailor” the forms, yes. “Customize the forms, yes. “Edit” the forms, no. When designing our equine legal forms, we try very hard to include options that allow our customers to tailor the forms to their individual needs. Each of our equine legal forms has been drafted to allow for some customization, with checkboxes and fillable fields for customers to enter information using Adobe Acrobat Reader. However, the actual text of forms cannot be altered — see our License Agreement, which you must agree to at the time of purchase. At Equine Legal Solutions, we see firsthand the disastrous results of nonlawyers trying to create or edit their own horse contracts.
We have years of development and updating and, as you can imagine, quite a lot of money invested in our forms. That is why we have copyright protected them and do not allow edits to be made to the body of the text in our forms — see our License Agreement. Each of our forms allows our customers to tailor the forms to their individual needs using Adobe Acrobat Reader. However, the actual text of forms cannot be copied in part or total or altered per federal copyright law. In addition to protecting our investments, at Equine Legal Solutions we have seen firsthand the disastrous results of nonlawyers trying to create or edit their own horse contracts.

If you reside in California, New York, Oregon or Washington and have a transaction or situation that is relatively unique or you would like a contract that is written only for your specific needs, we can offer the option of a customized equine contract. If you have already purchased one of our forms but decide you need something more specific, we will credit your forms purchase price toward the cost of a customized contract. If you are interested in a customized equine contract, we start with a phone consultation to discuss your specific needs. You can request a consultation by filling out the appropriate online form on our Contact Us page.

If you are not located in California, New York, Oregon or Washington, please note that our equine forms are copyrighted, which means you cannot retype them, in part or whole, and make changes to them per our License Agreement, which you must agree to at the time of purchase.

Although Equine Legal Solutions has a large number of attorneys among its customers, our License Agreement prohibits attorneys from using our horse legal forms except for their own personal transactions. For example, it’s not permissible to purchase one of our horse sale contracts and use it as a template to create another document.

No. Because posting our copyrighted equine legal agreements on a website makes it easy for the general public to view and copy them, our License Agreement prohibits customers from posting our agreements, or any portion of them, on any website. For customers who want to allow their own clients easy access to the forms they have purchased, we recommend simply placing a button on your website where the client can email you and request a copy. Sending a copy of the form to a client as an email attachment is permissible.

First, our contracts are copyright protected and cannot be modified. Second, at Equine Legal Solutions we have observed that problems often arise when nonlawyers edit contracts themselves. For example, nonlawyers often delete liability release provisions and clauses providing that the winner of any dispute can collect attorneys’ fees from the loser. By delivering our horse forms in a PDF, we are trying to help ensure you will not delete any provisions designed to protect you.

Our current horse contracts and liability releases are designed to work in all 50 states, which means they are not customized to your particular state. If your state has an equine activity statute, see below. Otherwise, you will be able to specify in our horse contracts and liability releases that your state’s law will apply to any disputes and any disputes must be litigated in your home county and state. You can find detailed information about Equine Activity Statues on our website.

Most states now have statutes designed to limit liability for certain horse-related activities. ELS has created new state-specific forms to make sure our forms customers can take full advantage of the protections offered by these laws. Click here for more information about the new equine activity statute forms. For states where we have not yet created a state-specific form, you would want to attach a sheet to our horse liability release form containing any language your state’s statute might require (in addition to posting any signs your state’s statute requires).

Yes, but we must review and approve the proposed use prior to printing. Please complete our online Forms Support Request form, and we will be happy to discuss this with you.

Yes, but we must review and approve the proposed use prior to printing. Please complete our online Forms Support Request form, and we will be happy to discuss this with you.

Yes. Our equine legal forms have a designated space at the top of each page where you can insert the name of your equine business.

Many of our customers find it easiest to fill in the information that applies to every transaction (such as their name and address) and save the filled-in form. Then, they can print copies of the filled-in form for use as needed or email them to clients who need to fill them in.

Once you have purchased an equine form, you may use it as many times as you like for your own personal and equine business use. Our horse forms are copyrighted, however; therefore, you cannot provide them to others for their use. See our License Agreement for details.

We are continually updating our horse contracts, liability releases and agreements, and your horse forms purchase includes free updates. Download from your account to receive the newest version.

Sure! We are always happy to take telephone orders. Just complete our online Forms Support Request form. We’ll call and take your information over the phone. Our business hours are generally Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific time.

Simply put, you get what you pay for. Review our equine forms to see how comprehensive and thorough our equine contracts and liability releases are.

No, you must purchase each form or forms package to use them.

Yes! Your forms will be available in your account dashboard when you sign into the ELS website.

On the Equine Legal Solutions website, we offer a lot of free horse information, including our downloadable comprehensive Horse Buying Checklist and The Legal Equine, our free email newsletter. So why aren’t our equine legal forms free, too? The simple answer is offering free information is expensive — site design, web hosting, maintaining an email database and developing new content all take time, effort and money. With your equine legal forms purchases, you help ensure the continuing availability of our free equine resources. We also spend a lot of time, effort and money developing each form, and offering the forms for sale helps us recoup our costs.

No, unless your friends are your customers that will be signing the contract or release form. All our horse legal forms are copyrighted, and you cannot sell or otherwise distribute them except for your personal and business use. See our License Agreement for details.

Yes. For example, if you purchase the Simple Equine Sale Agreement, you can use that horse sale contract form for as many horse sales as you like. See our License Agreement for details.

Because we developed these equine legal forms specifically for U.S. residents, the forms might not be enforceable outside the U.S. or comply with other countries’ legal requirements. We recommend consulting knowledgeable legal counsel in your home country.

Please make sure to download the comprehensive, step-by-step Instructions & FAQs file included in your download options. These instructions will help ensure you understand the agreements and fill them out completely and accurately. We also provide support information on our online Forms Information Technical support page. If you need further assistance, please complete our online Forms Support Request form. Our expert staff will answer your questions as promptly as possible at no charge.

Our attorney says, “When a person is sued, they don’t care how many pages their contract was — they want to know whether it contained the language they need to protect them.” Well-drafted, legally enforceable documents are rarely short, particularly when they concern a complicated transaction. Because we strive to make our horse contracts and liability releases as complete and comprehensive as possible, and we offer many options for customers to cover contingencies, our equine agreements are often on the long side. However, to help the average reader use and understand our horse contracts and liability releases, we avoid “legalese” and “boilerplate” clauses and try to write our legal forms in plain English. We also use large type to make sure our horse contracts and liability releases are easy to read.

We have developed our equine legal forms as a result of decades of practice in equine law. We have seen firsthand what can go wrong in horse transactions, and we want to help you avoid those situations. Every clause in our horse contracts and liability releases is included for a good reason.

Please a submit Forms’ Support Request, and our qualified staff will answer your questions as promptly as possible at no charge.