Horse Business Legal Protection: Liability Waivers, Horse Sales & Lawsuits with Equine Attorney Yvonne O’Crant

What happens when someone gets hurt at your barn, even when you weren’t there?

What happens when a horse you helped a client purchase turns out to be the wrong horse?

And is the liability waiver you downloaded, borrowed from another trainer, or have been using for years actually going to protect you when you need it?

In this episode of the Equine Business Edge Podcast, Jamie Birch sits down with equine attorney and lifelong horsewoman Yvonne OCrant for a practical conversation about the legal risks horse professionals face every day, and the relatively simple steps that can help protect the businesses they’ve worked so hard to build.

Yvonne is a partner at Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP and has spent more than two decades working with horse owners, trainers, breeders, veterinarians, farriers, boarding facilities, and other equine businesses. Her practice includes both transactional work and litigation, giving her a unique perspective: she doesn’t just draft contracts, she has seen what happens when those contracts are eventually challenged in a dispute or courtroom.

Jamie opens the episode with a situation from his own facility. While he and his wife were away, an individual came onto the property and attempted to help someone load a horse. The horse moved, the individual fell from the trailer and suffered a serious injury. Despite Jamie not being present or involved, the incident ultimately resulted in a claim against them.

That experience leads to one of the central lessons of this episode:

Being right doesn’t necessarily prevent you from being sued.

Yvonne explains why horse professionals need to think about risk management before an accident happens. Insurance is essential, but so are properly drafted contracts, liability releases, signage, facility procedures, and good judgment about who is allowed around your horses and property.

They also discuss why a person refusing to sign a liability waiver can itself be a warning sign. Yvonne views the waiver process as more than paperwork, it can be an early opportunity to determine whether someone is willing to acknowledge the inherent risks involved with horses.

The conversation then moves into one of the most complicated areas of the horse industry: buying and selling horses.

Yvonne shares examples from actual litigation involving alleged horse-sale misrepresentation, including a horse with a known navicular condition and another case involving a horse sold for a young child.

The discussion highlights the important distinction between an unfortunate outcome and actual misrepresentation.

A buyer may have trial rides, involve a trainer, review videos, obtain a pre-purchase examination, and still discover something about the horse after the purchase. That does not automatically mean someone committed fraud.

But when material information is knowingly withheld, the situation can look very different.

Yvonne explains how text messages, videos, veterinary records, witness testimony, and other written evidence can become critical years after a transaction takes place.

Jamie and Yvonne then explore an overlooked area of liability: the trainer helping a client purchase a horse.

If a trainer is being paid to evaluate horses, attend trial rides, provide an opinion about suitability, or otherwise assist with the purchase, what exactly has that trainer agreed to do?

Yvonne recommends putting the scope of those services in writing.

A trainer who is only reviewing videos should document that limitation. A trainer attending trial rides or a pre-purchase examination should make clear what services they are providing and what they are not guaranteeing.

This leads to an especially important discussion about pre-purchase examinations.

A trainer is not a veterinarian.

When a buyer declines recommended radiographs or other veterinary diagnostics, documenting that decision can protect everyone involved. Yvonne explains why even a simple written confirmation can become enormously valuable if a disagreement surfaces several years later.

The same principle applies inside boarding and training businesses.

Jamie shares another personal experience involving disagreement over medication administered to a horse while it was in training. Without a written agreement establishing authorization and expectations, the dispute became a battle over who remembered the conversation correctly.

Yvonne explains how boarding and training agreements can address medical care, emergency veterinary treatment, medication administration, adverse reactions, and what a facility is authorized to do when an owner cannot be reached.

Then comes one of the biggest questions of the episode:

Does a liability waiver actually protect you?

Yvonne explains why simply having a document titled “Liability Waiver” is not enough.

Equine liability laws vary by state, and many states have specific statutory language that must appear in agreements involving equine activities. A waiver copied from someone in another state may therefore provide far less protection than the business owner assumes.

Yvonne also explains why her liability releases are tailored to the individual facility.

What risks actually exist on your property?

Are you next to a school where bells or alarms regularly sound?

Is there construction nearby?

Wildlife?

Gunfire?

Unusual animals?

Trails with natural obstacles?

The more accurately a waiver reflects the real environment in which participants will be riding and handling horses, the stronger the documentation of the risks they knowingly agreed to assume.

Yvonne even shares a real example involving a facility where a longhorn bull named Bubba wandered around the property—including occasionally entering the arena.

It sounds funny until an unfamiliar horse encounters Bubba.

Finally, Jamie and Yvonne discuss the relationship between waivers, negligence, and maintaining a safe facility.

A waiver isn’t permission to ignore a known hazard.

If you know there is a dangerous hole in an arena, a problem on a trail, or another condition that could injure someone, reasonable steps still need to be taken to correct it, mark it, restrict access, or otherwise reduce the danger.

The goal isn’t to eliminate every possible risk. That’s impossible around horses.

The goal is to develop better business practices, document expectations, obtain appropriate insurance, and give yourself—and your attorney, the strongest possible position if something eventually goes wrong.

Yvonne closes the episode with a special offer for Equine Business Edge listeners: a complimentary 30-minute initial consultation and a flat-fee liability release package for $350.

TIMELINE

00:00 – Welcome and “conversations in tack rooms”

01:13 – The lawsuit story that made Jamie want Yvonne on the podcast

04:02 – Why winning a lawsuit isn’t the first problem—you still have to defend yourself

04:31 – Meet equine attorney Yvonne O’Crant

05:58 – How exposed is a facility owner when someone gets hurt on the property?

08:11 – Signs, waivers, supervision and proactive risk management

10:35 – Why refusing to sign a waiver can be a major red flag

12:13 – What kinds of legal problems bring horse professionals to Yvonne?

14:28 – Why there are often “no winners” when horse cases reach trial

16:58 – Horse-sale disputes and the navicular case

19:43 – The bucking-horse case and the “smoking gun” text messages

21:57 – How social media and digital records can become evidence in horse-sale disputes

22:47 – The potential liability of trainers who help clients purchase horses

25:40 – Why trainers should have written agreements when helping clients buy horses

30:36 – How a PPE can help protect the trainer as well as the buyer

32:58 – Why declining recommended X-rays should be documented

34:35 – One of the biggest mistakes horse professionals make: not putting things in writing

37:44 – The legal world happening behind the scenes after something goes wrong

38:44 – Medication, medical care and authorization at training and boarding facilities

41:51 – Emergency veterinary authorization and boarding agreements

43:48 – Building legal paperwork into your new-client intake process

44:17 – What does a liability waiver actually protect?

45:40 – Why copying another barn’s liability waiver can be dangerous

46:36 – What Yvonne includes in a properly drafted liability release

47:58 – The rider who claimed his signature on the waiver was forged

48:20 – Why people sometimes pursue horse-related lawsuits that seem unbelievable

51:30 – Insurance + enforceable contracts + good business practices

52:00 – Does a waiver protect you from problems with the property itself?

54:02 – Known hazards, negligence and your responsibility to maintain the facility

55:25 – Why waivers should reflect the actual risks unique to your property

56:18 – The longhorn bull named Bubba

58:48 – Final takeaways and how to contact Yvonne

59:29 – Yvonne’s free consultation and special liability-release offer for listeners

CONTACT YVONNE O’CRANT

Yvonne O’Crant
Partner, Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP

Office: 312-704-3080
Text/Cell: 847-420-1613
Website: HinshawLaw.com

Yvonne is offering Equine Business Edge listeners a complimentary 30-minute initial consultation.

She is also offering listeners a liability release drafted for a one-time flat fee of $350, including the consultation and necessary revisions.

If you own a training, boarding, lesson, breeding, sales, or other horse-related business, this episode is worth listening to before you need an equine attorney—not after.