Horse agistment is the term used to describe the agreement made by a majority of horse owners in order to allow them to keep their horses at the residence or land that belongs to another individual. This is a common practice amongst many horse owners but the agreement is also very relevant and used in similar situations involving other agricultural animals.
Agistment agreements are very essential and valuable to both the horse owner and the property owner as anything is bound to happen. Disputes might emerge over issues such as the horse agistment fees charged and it might be difficult to decide who is on the wrong. This is why the Livestock Laws Act of 1994 was made in order to ensure that both parties involved in the agreement are protected by the law. Today it is therefore very easy to clear up any cases involving agistment fees disputes.
The land owner today has a right to keep the horses under lien till the horse owners completely clear the agistment fees that they owe the bailee. The lien on the horses can be created by the bailee as soon as fourteen days have passed and the horse owner has not paid their arrears in agistment fees as agreed upon. After three months the bailee has a right to claim the money owed to them by the horse owners. The two parties have an option of either making the agistment contract verbally or in written form. The lien aspect is however not valid in situations where the agreement has been written down including what happens if a payment is default.
