Anyone recently insured a horse?

[leflynn]

Horse insurance is due in the next couple of weeks, it seems to be scarce to find it and expensive when you do - apparently a lot of insurers are pulling out because they are not making money...

Horse in question has some exclusions (thats fine) but I would like some cover that i don't have to sell a kidney for (recent quote £1200 with KBIS) or anyone got the catastophe cover or Harry Hall insurance? Just one horse under 5k value (16 in Jan, owned for 10 yrs), currently don't have a enough savings to be certain I could cover a big bill to go down the no insurance option. Thoughts and suggestions welcome..... Thanks (half a tub of quality street for anyone with ideas, although mostly those toffee pennies )

 

[Birker2020]

Yes insured horse bought in mid October with SEIB. Insured for 10K which is 2.5K under what I paid but I wanted to keep my premiums down. He is a 16.3hh WB gelding aged 10 with no issues at the time of insuring. No tack, vet bills up to £5K, £500 rehab. £1200 or £95 per month with an excess of £250.00.

KBIS's quote came out much higher and NFU wouldn't let me insure for less that the purchase price and meant the total premium was over £2K a year. I didn't try Pet Plan as they'd given me a much higher hyperthetical quote in July than any of the others. To be quite honest if my premium goes up by a lot next year which I think it will I might try a lesser known insurance company.

 

[leflynn]

When I looked in Oct there were more options and KBIS were about £400 cheaper than they are now, some insurers are without underwriters atm it seems, Insurance Emporium (E&L) are coming in at half KBIS quote, waiting for SEIB to come back to me, pondering the catasptropge cover with colic cover with KBIS as £500, one of his legs is excluded anyway (and sarcoids)

 

[teddy_]

Yes, I used The Insurance Emporium in the end as the premium was 60% less than KBIS and NFU.

So far, their customer service has been good.

 

[Widgeon]

I re-insured with Scottish Equestrian in the summer, I think I'm paying about £55 a month. My horse is underinsured by as much as is allowed (can't remember what % that is, 25% maybe) so he's got a theroretical value of about £3K ish. They've been very good and have paid out a total of about £1.5K for arthritis claims without any quibbling. Obviously that won't be covered now as it's a year from when we found it, but still, I'll be happy to stick with them unless next summer's quote goes through the roof.

 

[criso]

I got catastrophe/accident cover with Shearwater a couple of months ago but someone told me they've stopped offering this. Also got a quote from Equesure for the same so they may be worth contacting.

It doesn't include colic surgery cover but after a mild colic a year ago that would be excluded. I added tack and death, theft straying. Lowish excess but chose to reduce the vets fees to £3000. It was under £300 for a £2000 horse.

 

[Merry neddy man]

Yes insured horse bought in mid October with SEIB. Insured for 10K which is 2.5K under what I paid but I wanted to keep my premiums down. He is a 16.3hh WB gelding aged 10 with no issues at the time of insuring. No tack, vet bills up to £5K, £500 rehab. £1200 or £95 per month with an excess of £250.00.

KBIS's quote came out much higher and NFU wouldn't let me insure for less that the purchase price and meant the total premium was over £2K a year. I didn't try Pet Plan as they'd given me a much higher hyperthetical quote in July than any of the others. To be quite honest if my premium goes up by a lot next year which I think it will I might try a lesser known insurance company.

How odd 12 x 95 is £1140 monthly makes more sense

 

[poiuytrewq]

I insure my horses for a really minimal value to help keep premiums down. You still get the £5000 per vet claim or whatever the policy offers but if I loose one I don’t get anything, well I think maybe £1000 or something but I’m happy to just be safely covered for vets fees. If, heaven forbid I lost one I’d have to save to buy another.

 

[criso]

I insure my horses for a really minimal value to help keep premiums down. You still get the £5000 per vet claim or whatever the policy offers but if I loose one I don’t get anything, well I think maybe £1000 or something but I’m happy to just be safely covered for vets fees. If, heaven forbid I lost one I’d have to save to buy another.

When I retired one of mine some years ago I contacted nfu, my insurer at the time to see what effect reducing the value from £6000 to whatever their minimum was at the time. It would have saved me about £50 a year!

They gave me a breakdown of what each bit of the policy cost and the main change by reducing the value was in the death, theft or straying bit. However this only made up a small proportion of the overall premium, the vets fees bit was most of it.

 

[Birker2020]

How odd 12 x 95 is £1140 monthly makes more sense

Sorry its £1065 total, not sure where I was getting the £95 from although I always thought it was more for the first instalment.

 

[Birker2020]

I'm sure it was that as the first payment is always more but I'd have to look.

deleted

 

[MissTyc]

My 17 yo is £95 per month on renewal, only insured for £1000 to cover disposal if needed, basically He has many exclusions and is currently at the vet clinic for several weeks because of an eye problem, so I think this will be his last year with Petplan. Am looking into the catastrophe insurance, which makes sense to me while he's still "fit" to be ridden while also aging and suffering the odd age-related problem.

 

[poiuytrewq]

When I retired one of mine some years ago I contacted nfu, my insurer at the time to see what effect reducing the value from £6000 to whatever their minimum was at the time. It would have saved me about £50 a year!

They gave me a breakdown of what each bit of the policy cost and the main change by reducing the value was in the death, theft or straying bit. However this only made up a small proportion of the overall premium, the vets fees bit was most of it.

It saved me a huge amount more than that. Insuring for £4/5000 or £1000 was over half the price every quote I tried and I played around a lot.

 

[criso]

It saved me a huge amount more than that. Insuring for £4/5000 or £1000 was over half the price every quote I tried and I played around a lot.

Interesting, I only tried NFU who I was with at the time. As the horse was retired with multiple exclusions, I decided not to insure so didn't try new quotes with others.

 

[Widgeon]

It saved me a huge amount more than that. Insuring for £4/5000 or £1000 was over half the price every quote I tried and I played around a lot.

I found the same, dropping the "value" made a real difference to the premiums.

 

[poiuytrewq]

Interesting, I only tried NFU who I was with at the time. As the horse was retired with multiple exclusions, I decided not to insure so didn't try new quotes with others.

Ah ok I didn’t actually try NFU as it’s the sort of thing I set and do in the evening online and their office is shut.

 

[outdoor girl]

I've just taken out catastrophe insurance with KBIS for my horse with PPID and EMS (NFU had put my excess up to £200 and the premium up by over £200).This is for accidental, external injuries only but includes colic surgery, joint or tendon flushing as a result of sepsis of surgery for pastern and pedal bone fractures. It's cost me £321 for £7,500 with £140 excess. I had a look at Harry Hall but the cover didn't seem as good to me for a more expensive premium and Shearwater don't do catastrophe insurance any more. Hope this helps.

 

[criso]

I chose to lower the vets fees cover for my catastrophe insurance as if expensive diagnostics are not covered and there is no option for colic surgery, I would be unlikely to get to £7500, the type of injuries that would be covered have been £1000 -. £1500 and one of those included a hospital stay. It's a calculated risk.

When I was looking I found KBIS' online calculator really helpful. If you've got the time you can do a pick and mix of different levels of veterinary cover, add and remove options and change the horse value and see the effect on the premium. Value didn't make much difference here but this is a cheap horse so it was only £500 difference.

 

[leflynn]

His value is only at £3k, tried equesure who gave me a quote via insurance emporium, their other insurer which I think is SEIB wanted a 5 stage vetting as he hunts - by this he goes out about 6/7 days a season and we don't really jump, and does elem dressage (3 test rest have been novice)

Will try Scottish equestrian, waiting for a call back still from SEIB direct

KBIS still do the catastrophy cover so considering this as Ins emporium have a £4k limit I think and I'm not cool with the 17% of the total to be paid along with the excess, seems ot be a minefield atm

Thanks for responses so far!

 

[milliepops]

try a broker, i went through one to get my homebred insured as i wanted cover earlier than the normal 30 days. They put me with British Pet Insurance which i had never heard of but the reviews looked OK and the price is pretty good. I normally use KBIS for my horses. Bloody wish i had put the 3yo on a catastrophe policy, i thought about it but didn't act

 

[DirectorFury]

I insure my horses for a really minimal value to help keep premiums down. You still get the £5000 per vet claim or whatever the policy offers but if I loose one I don’t get anything, well I think maybe £1000 or something but I’m happy to just be safely covered for vets fees. If, heaven forbid I lost one I’d have to save to buy another.

PetPlan won't let you do this anymore, so I'm not sure if this is still an option with other insurers.

 

[leflynn]

After a bit of calling round, I've managed to get the cover I need no vettings needed and no need to remortage the house! Carrige house were the ones, A plan competitive too if anyone else is looking

 

[Bobthecob15]

After a bit of calling round, I've managed to get the cover I need no vettings needed and no need to remortage the house! Carrige house were the ones, A plan competitive too if anyone else is looking

Thank you, good to know x