are your horses insured?

All 3 of mine are insured with Petplan, costs (for 3 of them) £90 a month.
There are ways you can make it cheaper, larger excesses, reducing the insured value and Public Liability, not including tack etc are some of the ways I found.

The £90 isn't spread evenly across the 3 of them, 2 are only insured for hacking/at grass and have larger excesses and no tack included and also are worth less than £1000. I am thinking of reducing the cost of the 3rd by having a larger excess

I wouldn't trust myself to save £90 a month to cover vet bills etc and I don't have a lot of savings so for me I wouldn't feel right without insurance, but it is a personal choice I guess
 
sarahann1 said:
Public liability only, both oldies so no point in anything else, they have a bank account instead.
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This ^^^

We have a CC with a mahoosive limit for any emergencies locked up in the safe.

We only have 1 under the age of 10 now, with the others being 22, 18, 18 and 17, what you can get them insured for gets limiting....
 
:confused:
I note that many of you are covered for 3rd party liability through BHS which is great, but many are saying they have no insurance at all. It was my understanding that 3rd party cover was a legal requirement? The same as for driving a car? My boy is retired now but I wouldn't dream of not having 3rd party cover
 
Sidney Squiggles said:
:confused:
I note that many of you are covered for 3rd party liability through BHS which is great, but many are saying they have no insurance at all. It was my understanding that 3rd party cover was a legal requirement? The same as for driving a car? My boy is retired now but I wouldn't dream of not having 3rd party cover
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No, I don't think it's a legal requirement, can you imagine how hard that would be to enforce? I could be wrong though....

Equine businesses yes, but not for individuals. When I do Trec, they insist on seeing evidence of it at events.
 
Sidney Squiggles said:
:confused:
I note that many of you are covered for 3rd party liability through BHS which is great, but many are saying they have no insurance at all. It was my understanding that 3rd party cover was a legal requirement? The same as for driving a car? My boy is retired now but I wouldn't dream of not having 3rd party cover
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No, you're not legally required to have third party liability insurance, but you'd be mad not to!
 
TomH said:
No never insure. my horses have a job and if the vet bill was greater than what they were worth to me then i would put to sleep.
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This^^^ One of the reasons vets fees in the Uk are so astronomical is BECAUSE of insurance. And also why there is a culture of investigating every little thing to the nth degree. My horses are working animals and are very well cared for in order for them to be able to do their jobs. It is vanishingly rare for them to ever need the vet; when they do the bill is paid as part of their running costs. Anything major is carefully considered, but I would not put them through any proceedure that would be uneconomic or harrowing in terms of recovery (colic surgery for instance).
 
Third party via the BHS but none else.

I recently pondered on insuring my new horse and got a quote from pet plan for £106 pcm!!!! He was purchased for £3500 and a 7yr old with a recent 5 star vetting - I was gobsmacked to say the least....

I am lucky as have a savings account that I can dip into for a large vets bill/emergencies, but would consider very carefully for something major.
 
Not anymore. I had one who was insured (cost me a fortune) but glad I did as he did his tendon last year and I'm just claiming loss of use now having had them pay out on about £2.5k worth of vets fees to now. I only insured him as he was worth a bit. He's not worth re-insuring since they've now taken both back legs off being insured (why both?!) and he's 14 now.

Haven't insured my new horse as he was given to me for free, so its not like he cost much and he's 14 this year too. My 2 veterans wouldn't be insurable as they're both over 20.
 
Mine is insured for public liability and vets fees with Petplan (they are the only company that would do me proper cover for a horse over 16) it is expensive but it's worth it for my piece of mind. I don't have any savings to speak of, and to have to put her to sleep because I didn't have the money to treat her would be devastating. My tack is covered via my home insurance.
 
Cortez said:
This^^^ One of the reasons vets fees in the Uk are so astronomical is BECAUSE of insurance. And also why there is a culture of investigating every little thing to the nth degree. .
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Not true in my experience as a small animal vet nurse. The RCVS will discipline strongly any vet who charges more, or offers more advanced treatments to insured clients only! All clients should be offered all the options, fully explained, irrespective of insurance status!

It is their decision as the owner which route they choose!

Not all insured clients choose the all singing all dancing route. Some, myself included would never put an aged/seriously ill animal through surgery for example, but some do.

Boyo is insured to the hilt fwiw
 
My pony is currently insured on a high excess policy but I am toying with cancelling it. She is 17 and although I never claimed for them,has had choke & laminitis in the past so no doubt they're excluded. I would never put her through colic surgery either so I'm not quite sure what I'm covering now!!
 
My horse is but im upping vet feea cover asap after losing my mare last week! I want to be able to do the very best i can for him if anything goes wrong!
 
Yes but as is high excess is there for real emergency and never claimed in 8 years I've had her. Keeps premiums down but have security I have £5k if she has colic or bad injury. Covers for 3rd party libility as well which is absolute necessity.
 
I have a question wrt the high excess-if your horse should have an injury/slight colic and you don't claim-you still have to declare it? Can they still exclude on that say, if your horse ended up going for colic surgery later on, even if not directly implicated?If you didn't declare it, could they then deny a claim? (ok, so lots of questions).


Insurance does drive up vet fees-it drives them up by vets using more expensive diagnostics (recently heard of new graduates ordering MRIs for a pony with laminitis), by 'forcing' owners to do more invasive treatments because you have to do something within the 12 month claim etc etc. It causes vets to refer over small amounts and it means that vets are often not as pragmatic as they once were. Small animals are a different ballgame IMO.

Petplan wouldn't let me opt out of public liability? I am now a BHS gold member and use AmTrust Equine as they did and it saved me £40 a policy (I have 3 horses). My tack is kept at home.

I just lost a horse (at 11) to melanoma after rehabbing him from stifle issues. It wasn't the operation that sorted his stifles (at £2.5K) but the IRAP at £450-all successfully claimed. I always thought that losing my horse due to a lack of money would be the worst thing but after the last 2 years I can say that it isn't for me.Hence my turnaround from insuring everything to the hilt to cutting it back.
 
peteralfred said:
I have a question wrt the high excess-if your horse should have an injury/slight colic and you don't claim-you still have to declare it? Can they still exclude on that say, if your horse ended up going for colic surgery later on, even if not directly implicated?If you didn't declare it, could they then deny a claim? (ok, so lots of questions).
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Yes, if they find anything in your vets records that you haven't informed them of they could deny a claim. Sometimes, even if it doesn't have any bearing on the condition you are claiming for, they can say that you broke the agreement that requires you to inform them of any vet treatment and not pay out. :(
 
peteralfred said:
I have a question wrt the high excess-if your horse should have an injury/slight colic and you don't claim-you still have to declare it? Can they still exclude on that say, if your horse ended up going for colic surgery later on, even if not directly implicated?If you didn't declare it, could they then deny a claim? (ok, so lots of questions).

.
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Yes - if you don't claim you still have to declare - and if you don't when you come to make a claim the Insurance co will require a full history from your vet so they will find out and refuse your claim (so no point in not telling them!) - especially if you find out after the treatment that you're not covered!

If you declaire, they put an exclusion then you (and your vet) can debate whether the exclusion is valid and know in advance what is covered and what is not - you can argue with them about exclusions but better in advance.
 
When I did insure I tended to lie to vets and tell them I wasn't insured but had cash to spend - I found they gave me a wider range of options then rather than jump in with 'race off for MRI's/ full lameness work ups at vets/ x rays etc.'
 
Only for public liability and theft.
I knocked vets fees on the head when it came to the point that she'd be covered for very little.
 
Wagtail said:
Yes, if they find anything in your vets records that you haven't informed them of they could deny a claim. Sometimes, even if it doesn't have any bearing on the condition you are claiming for, they can say that you broke the agreement that requires you to inform them of any vet treatment and not pay out. :(
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I thought that would be the case. See, to my mind given that you rarely get LOU or death and that they exclude anything at the drop of a hat, it's just not worth it. I have some savings but afraid each horse has a price and a limit as to what I would do now.
 
This is why i no longer insure, to make it affordable i had a £500 excess which would easily cover an emergance vet call out and stitch up/ anti biotics for a silly field moment. They are both over 16 so external injury only covered anyway and I have space to happily retire them if they have a problem.

£60 ish into a savings account by direct debit soon adds up if something were needed.
 
No mine are not.

They used to be till i found all the small print that the insurance companies have, I got it checked out and there are so many exclusions. Now i just have a bank account and the insurance money goes into it for all 3 till i need it.

For example if your horse is being treated by the vet and you continue cleaning it and bathing it and bathing it and an infection sets in your not covered.
laminitis is not covered
strangles was not covered
so i thought that is it
 
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