These Terms of service (“Terms”) govern the use of the Astride mobile app, the website astride.ch and all related services (together, the “Platform”). By creating an account, publishing a listing, or using the feed, the map, requests, chat, the circle or notifications, you agree to these Terms.
The Platform is operated by Astride GmbH in formation (in Gründung), Im Rüeblig 2, 8117 Fällanden, Switzerland, represented by Manon Rudin (“Astride”, “we”, “us”). Until the company is entered in the commercial register, the person named is the contracting party. These Terms apply together with our Privacy policy.
Please read this in full: Astride is a technical platform that helps people who are looking for a horse and people who are selling one find each other. We are not a broker, agent, dealer, auctioneer, escrow service, mediator, insurer or guarantor of any kind. We are not a party to any transaction, contract or in-person interaction that follows from the Platform. Every meeting, trial ride, pre-purchase examination, payment, transport or sale takes place exclusively between the people involved, at their own risk.
1. Definitions
- Platform — the Astride app, astride.ch and related services.
- User — any person who registers, browses, lists, requests, chats or otherwise interacts with the Platform.
- Listing — a horse published by a user: video, photos, text, documents, price and location.
- Request — a first message from one user to another about a horse or a circle request. The other person decides whether to answer; chat is only open once they do.
- Dealing Stable — a professional stable verified by Astride, shown on the map and linked to the profiles of the people working there.
- The circle — a private area where people looking for a horse share their request and people selling can reach out to them.
- Off-Platform Interaction — any contact, meeting, viewing, trial, examination, transport, payment or transaction between users outside the Platform’s chat: phone, e-mail, messaging apps, social media, video calls and in-person meetings. Once interaction moves off the Platform, Astride has no visibility of and no responsibility for what happens.
2. Eligibility
You must be at least 18 years old and legally able to enter into a binding agreement. By registering you confirm that you are 18 or older, that you are not prohibited by law from using the Platform, that the information you give is accurate and complete, and that you will keep it up to date for as long as your account exists.
3. What Astride is — and is not
Astride provides the technical infrastructure for people selling sport horses and people looking for one to find each other and to talk. The Platform offers:
- Tools to publish and manage horse listings (at least one video, optional photos, documents, competition information, price, location).
- A feed that shows horses sorted by how well they fit the preferences you set, with a match percentage and an explanation.
- A map of Dealing Stables and horses.
- Requests and in-app chat, once the other person has answered.
- The circle, for requests that are not public.
- Free and paid plans for people looking (Explore, Connect, Pro) and for people selling (Free, Circle access), described in the app under Plans.
- An assistant (“Scout”) for help with the app and general equestrian questions, push and e-mail notifications.
Astride is expressly not: a broker, dealer, agent or commission-based intermediary; a party to any sale, lease, loan or other transaction; an escrow, payment or financial-services provider; an insurer or guarantor of any horse, user or transaction; a verifier of a user’s identity (other than the Dealing Stable verification described below), qualifications or solvency; a verifier of a horse’s identity, ownership, papers, health, training, temperament or competition record; a provider of veterinary, legal, financial, breeding or training advice; or a mediator in disputes between users.
Dealing Stable verification confirms that a stable exists and that the verified person is entitled to represent it. It is not a statement about the quality of the stable, its horses or its conduct.
The match percentage is a suggestion calculated from the preferences you entered and the listing’s data. It is not an assessment of the horse and it never replaces seeing the horse, a trial and a veterinary examination.
4. Account and security
You need an account to use most features. You are responsible for accurate registration data, for keeping your credentials confidential, for everything that happens under your account, and for telling us at support@astride.ch at once if you suspect unauthorised access. One account per person. You may sign in with Apple or Google; their terms apply to that sign-in. We may suspend or close accounts that breach these Terms or that we reasonably believe are compromised.
5. Listings and your content
You keep ownership of the videos, photos, documents, texts and other material you upload (“User Content”). You are solely responsible for its accuracy and lawfulness. By uploading User Content you grant Astride a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, adapt, display and distribute it in order to operate, maintain and improve the Platform, and for Astride’s own marketing and communications, including social media. You can withdraw the marketing part of this licence at any time by writing to support@astride.ch; content already published by us will be removed within a reasonable time.
You may not publish User Content that misrepresents a horse’s health, age, training, temperament, vices, soundness or competition record; that offers a horse you do not own or are not authorised to sell; that hides a commercial dealer relationship behind a private-sale presentation; that violates animal welfare, transport or breeding law; that shows recognisable people, in particular minors, without their consent; that discloses a precise location in a way that could endanger a person or a horse; that infringes third-party rights; or that is offensive, abusive, discriminatory, deceptive or illegal. Our Community guidelines in the app explain what we expect in more detail.
Listings stay online as long as the horse is for sale. After 30 days without a change we ask you to confirm the listing, remind you once more after 45 days, and pause it after 60 days if we hear nothing — paused listings are not shown to anyone and can be put back online from My Stable at any time. Sold horses are marked as sold.
We may, at our discretion and without prior notice, edit, hide, pause or remove any User Content that we believe breaches these Terms, the law or basic standards of safety and animal welfare, and we may restrict, suspend or close accounts that seriously or repeatedly breach these rules.
6. Requests, chat and off-platform interaction
A request is your first message to another person about a horse or about a circle request. The other person sees your name and decides whether to answer; a conversation only exists once they do. Nobody is obliged to answer, and a “no” is final. You can block a person at any time; they will not be told. Messages are stored only for as long as needed to run the chat and are subject to our Privacy policy.
As soon as you move from the in-app chat to any Off-Platform Interaction — phone, e-mail, messaging apps, social media, video call or an in-person meeting — Astride’s role ends. We have no access to, control over or responsibility for anything that happens off the Platform, including personal injury to riders, handlers, owners or bystanders; injury, illness, lameness, death or other damage to a horse; theft, loss or damage to property, tack, vehicles or trailers; harassment, threats or abusive behaviour; animal welfare violations; non-payment, fraudulent payment or chargebacks; misrepresentation or undisclosed defects; failed pre-purchase examinations; transport, customs or import/export problems; and any contractual dispute between the people involved.
7. Your responsibilities when buying or selling
Horse transactions carry significant legal, financial, health and safety risk. You are solely responsible for verifying the identity and reputation of the other person; for an independent pre-purchase veterinary examination by a vet of your own choosing; for a written sale agreement covering price, payment, transfer of risk, warranties and dispute resolution; for complying with animal welfare, transport, breeding and tax rules; and for adequate liability and accident insurance before any meeting, trial ride or transport. We strongly recommend never transferring significant funds without a written contract and a successful pre-purchase examination.
8. Prohibited conduct
You agree not to post false, misleading or fraudulent listings; use the Platform for any illegal purpose, including the sale of stolen, mistreated or improperly imported animals; harass, abuse, threaten, stalk or discriminate against anyone; take requests, contact details or content out of the circle; scrape, harvest or collect data from the Platform; circumvent security measures, rate limits or access controls; use bots, scripts or automated tools; upload harmful code; impersonate any person or organisation; or reverse-engineer, decompile or attempt to extract the Platform’s source code.
9. Plans, payments and the circle
During the beta, all features are free. Prices are shown in the app so you know what will apply later; nothing is charged. We will tell you by e-mail or in the app at least 30 days before any feature becomes paid, and whatever you activated for free stays free until the end of the period shown.
Later, plans for people looking (Connect, Pro) and circle access for people selling are subscriptions that renew automatically for the term you chose (one or three months) until you cancel; cancelling takes effect at the end of the current term. A circle request is a one-off purchase for a fixed period. Payments are made on astride.ch through a third-party payment provider, not inside the app stores; prices are shown in euros including VAT where applicable before you pay. Refunds are given where the law requires it or at our discretion.
10. Intellectual property
All technology, design, trademarks, the name “Astride”, the logo and all Platform content other than User Content are owned by or licensed to Astride. Nothing in these Terms gives you a right to use the Astride name, marks or brand features without our prior written consent.
11. Privacy
Use of the Platform is subject to our Privacy policy, which is part of these Terms. The data controller is Astride GmbH in formation (in Gründung), Im Rüeblig 2, 8117 Fällanden, Switzerland, represented by Manon Rudin. We process personal data under the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP) and, where it applies, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Your rights and how to exercise them are described in the Privacy policy.
12. Third-party services
The Platform uses third-party services, listed with links in our Privacy policy: database, authentication and storage (Supabase), video and image delivery (Cloudflare), push notifications (Expo, Apple, Google), maps and address search (Apple Maps, Google Maps Platform), sign-in with Apple and Google, AI features (Anthropic), product analytics (PostHog) and error reporting (Sentry). Your use of these services is subject to their terms; Astride is not responsible for their practices.
13. Assistant and AI features
Scout and other AI-supported features (for example reading your free-text description of what you are looking for, or picking the best frame of a video) are offered as a convenience. Their output is generated automatically, may be inaccurate, incomplete or out of date, and is never veterinary, legal, financial, breeding or training advice. Verify independently and consult qualified professionals before any purchase, breeding, training or medical decision.
14. Disclaimers and limitation of liability
The Platform is provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranties of any kind, express or implied. We do not warrant that it will be uninterrupted, error-free or secure, or that any particular result will be achieved.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, Astride and the person operating it are not liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, special or punitive loss or damage arising from or in connection with any Off-Platform Interaction; personal injury or death; injury, illness, lameness, death or other damage to a horse; theft, loss or damage to property; harassment or abusive behaviour by any user; animal welfare violations by any user; non-payment or fraudulent payment; misrepresentation by any user; the accuracy, completeness or reliability of any listing, match percentage or User Content; failed pre-purchase examinations; decisions made on the basis of AI output; or outages, data loss or the acts of third-party providers. Use of the Platform is at your own risk, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damage.
Where liability cannot be excluded by law, our total aggregate liability to you is limited to the amounts you paid to Astride in the three months before the event giving rise to the claim, or CHF 100, whichever is lower. Liability for intent and gross negligence, and for personal injury, remains as provided by mandatory law.
Claims against Astride must be brought within 12 months from the date you became aware, or should reasonably have become aware, of the facts giving rise to them, and in any event within 3 years of the underlying event, to the extent permitted by mandatory law.
15. Indemnification
You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Astride and the person operating it from any third-party claims, damages, losses, costs and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your use of the Platform, your User Content, listings or messages, your breach of these Terms or of the law, any Off-Platform Interaction you engage in, or any dispute between you and another user, vet, transporter or third party.
16. Changes to the Platform and to these Terms
We may change these Terms. For material changes we will notify you in the app or by e-mail at least 14 days before they take effect; using the Platform after that date means you accept the new Terms. We may also change, suspend or discontinue any part of the Platform at any time.
17. Ending your account
You can delete your account at any time from Account settings or by e-mailing support@astride.ch. We may suspend or close your account immediately if you breach these Terms or if we consider it necessary to protect the Platform, other users or animal welfare. Accounts inactive for 24 months may be deleted after notice by e-mail; your personal data is then handled as described in the Privacy policy.
Sections 5 (content licence), 6 (off-platform interaction), 14 (liability), 15 (indemnification) and 18 (governing law) remain in force after your account is closed.
18. Governing law and jurisdiction
If any provision of these Terms is invalid or unenforceable, the rest remains in force and the invalid provision is replaced by a valid one that comes closest to its economic intent.
These Terms are governed by Swiss law, excluding its conflict-of-laws rules and the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. Exclusive jurisdiction for disputes arising from these Terms or the Platform is the competent courts of Zurich, Switzerland; mandatory consumer jurisdictions remain reserved. Before starting legal proceedings, please write to support@astride.ch so we can try to resolve the matter amicably.
19. Contact
Astride GmbH in formation (in Gründung), Im Rüeblig 2, 8117 Fällanden, Switzerland, represented by Manon Rudin.
E-mail: support@astride.ch · Website: astride.ch