Do you insure your competition horse?

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dressage_diva

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I'm in the process of purchasing a new horse and have been getting insurance quotes and I'm shocked at how expensive they are considering how little value they offer (I've shopped around too but they're all very similar). In order to insure for £5k vet fees (without loss of use) I'd be looking at £1300 a year! To me that doesn't seem that good value for money - I'd have to make a claim for £5k every four years to make it worth it (and then I'd still only be 'breaking even').

I'm really not sure what to do. I have enough in savings that if the horse needed emergency surgery I could afford it, so I'm inclined to think the insurance isn't worth it (especially given I'd have to pay £2400 to insure the horse full against loss of use and even then the policy says they only do loss of use up to the age of 11!). I'm thinking of instead just getting the BHS Gold Membership to cover Public Liability and personal injury and adding my tack to my home content insurance.

Do the rest of you insure your competition horses, or do you self-insurance instead? Would be really interested in people's views as worrying I'm missing something obvious here!
 
We don't. As you've discovered unless you are very unlucky the numbers simply do not add up. We put the money aside into a separate fund - in effect self insuring. It is a gamble - but so is insurance and if I "loose" i.e. don't make a claim - at least I still have the money!

You've already covered the bases for 3rdP liability and tack.
 
As I found out recently, if your tack is insured on your home content insurance it is not covered whilst on the horse. My dressage saddle got damaged in our accident out hacking in September and the insurance said it is covered whilst in the house and car, but not on a horse. So do becareful.

Mine's £55 per month for a value of £2k, including vet fees, tack and personal injury (wasn't covered before :( ) And because I wanted to do affiliated dressage and eli unaffiliated I had to go up a group.
 
I had my horse insured for 4years with a reputable company - in that time i could have made a couple of claims but each time they wouldn't pay out for one reason or another (long story about a perceived pre existing condition blah blah blah) - cancelled it end of last year and put some money into a specific account already this year alone she wracked up 3/4k in vets fees for 3 different things, two that i could have claimed for! Im waiting on a vetting on a new horse tomorrow and she will be insured!
 
Thanks for heads up about content insurance. Will double check with them but think it's still covered as I'd pay slightly extra on my policy to cover when it's out and about (as the saddles wouldn't be kept at home either). If not I'd just insure the tack separately with NFU or someone.
 
I've gone with insure for the first year. Most of mine aren't insured. I've won and lost doing that. My last mare died from EGS 6 months after I bought her and I had a 1K bill and a dead horse and nothing to show for it. However the previous horse cost me 1k to insure for 2 years and never claimed. New horse is insured as is daughter's pony as I feel I would need to replace them immediately. The rest are outgrown, waiting to be grown into, so I wouldn't need to replace them. I know that sounds cold but it is just reality.

I think loss of use is a con as well. Especially if it's a mare as they will try and claim it can be bred from and they only give you a percentage of the insured value too.
 
Damage to tack on the animal in an accident will be covered by some types of home contents policy - you have to have the tack on "all risks". Always worth checking as I know some friends have discovered their tack is only insured whilst locked away at home - which clearly will not cover it at a show!

A further note of caution - PC Insurance will cover damage to tack, ponies etc when loaned to the PC for training purposes. But bizarrely not if the loaner is a committee member. My pony's saddle was damaged during C test training (my daughter was not there as she is well past C test and I was not the instructor) and PC would not pay out because as a committee member I would be expected to loan my animals / kit. Thankfully my household insurance paid up.
 
In my either very skeptical or unlucky experience I would most definitely be insuring a new competition horse for Vets & LOU for at least the first year.

There are many genuine sellers out there, but you know how when riding your horse you can have gut feelings/suspicions - even if there is nothing obvious going on ... Well many horses in this category get moved on and you would have no comeback on a seller.
 
I'very got one who is a bit of a poster boy for having insurance at the moment. Nothing for 5 years & 364 days then he had atypical myopathy, strangles & an infected calcaneal bursa on the next 12 months & 1 week. Folks this is where you money has been going!
 
I haven't

I had my old mare insured & they paid out a lot

I save some so that I'm covered if anything goes wrong :)
 
I have never insured my homebred's, however recently we have bought two. They are both insured for a minimal value, with £5k Vets fees. I expect we will cancel at the end of the year, we are lucky enough that we could cover a large Vet bill if necessary though.
 
Think it depends if you need the cover for LOU and death....if you are comfortable knowing that you wont get a penny if either of these 2 things happened then insurance isnt worth it, however for a competition rider if you want a horse fit for purpose and something happens that means it isnt, insurance can then be invaluable.

As others have said, I'd definitely insure for the first year at least, you cant trust sellers 100% and it isnt worth the risk even if you have them vetted.
 
ihatework said:
In my either very skeptical or unlucky experience I would most definitely be insuring a new competition horse for Vets & LOU for at least the first year.

There are many genuine sellers out there, but you know how when riding your horse you can have gut feelings/suspicions - even if there is nothing obvious going on ... Well many horses in this category get moved on and you would have no comeback on a seller.
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I agree with this!
 
I pay just under £2k a year to insure 4, each with £5k vets fees and tack but no LOU however they are definitely under insured value wise with one at £2K, one at £3K and two at £4K. It was a lot more expensive went one was insured a lot more and was eventing at 2*. To me the main thing is the vet's fees not the mortality cover and I'd need a large amount put aside to cover major vet incidents for all four of them should I be that unlucky. I think when we have less I'll consider dropping the insurance. My riding school horses aren't insured, the amount it would cost to insure would buy me 1 -2 horses each year, they are, of course, properly insured for liability etc.
 
Thanks everyone! Unfortunately the horse I was hoping to buy failed the vetting today, so I'm in less of a rush to decide this!

Having spoken to lots of people, it seems most people advise insuring for the first year incase something was missed at the vetting and/or horse turns out to be accident prone!

What are the rules on insuring the horse for it's 'value', i.e. if I decided not to insure for LOU, do I need to disclose the full market value of the horse to get insurance? I'm wondering if the horse's value is the reason my premium is so high!
 
It depends on the policy. With NFU the basic policy is for loss of horse then you add on vet fees & loss of use as extras. With some companies you can have just vet cover.
 
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Definitely but only for minimum value of £1000. I have 5k vets fees (7.5k for colic) for 15months. Spent 5k investigating foot problem 2yrs ago with MRI etc. Definitely worth the £31 a month it costs. High excess of £350 and low value keeps premium down.
 
Have both mine insured for vet's fees but not LOU. Pay around £100 a month for both with £250 excess. My TB has earned his insurance costs to date (10 years) about 10 times over; just put in first claim for Irish boy and it covers 2 years out of the 3 I've had him and treatment isn't finished so am quids in on both.

It's a lottery; but TB wouldn't be alive today if I hadn't had insurance.
 
I think you're right. There is a threshold on claims that has to be reached before anything is paid, and a cap, so you can only claim what's above the threshold and below the cap. Then you'll get exclusions for potential future claims, so really, the amount you can claim may not be that great. Then of course you have to set all that off against the annual premium you're paying. You're right to get 3rd party as that's the big one.

But it's a gamble either way, isn't it? You might really need it and be glad you had it! No real "right" answer, but I don't think you have missed anything obvious.
 
I do, but I have a high excess (£500), but am still covered for £5000 vet fees, my premiums are low about £24 a month and have gone up a bit in the last few years, I still have not paid them as much as they paid me when he had to have an operation at 3 years old, he's now 12! When I think I wouldn't put him through another operation, I'll probably drop the insurance.
 
FfionWinnie said:
I've gone with insure for the first year. Most of mine aren't insured. I've won and lost doing that. My last mare died from EGS 6 months after I bought her and I had a 1K bill and a dead horse and nothing to show for it. However the previous horse cost me 1k to insure for 2 years and never claimed. New horse is insured as is daughter's pony as I feel I would need to replace them immediately. The rest are outgrown, waiting to be grown into, so I wouldn't need to replace them. I know that sounds cold but it is just reality.

I think loss of use is a con as well. Especially if it's a mare as they will try and claim it can be bred from and they only give you a percentage of the insured value too.
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I had this with my horse. Decided not to insure because they would not cover front legs because he was lunged at vetting on gravel with no shoes on, went slightly sore on gravel, fine on smooth road surface. It wasn't a fair situation for the horse really, anyway insurance company would not cover front legs but wanted £700 premium still. I said no, I will put £700 each year in building society which I did. Only had to lots of £700 in BS when he was taken seriously ill with E Coli whilst we were away in Italy!!! Upshot was he was in hospital for 4 weeks, was operated on but never came right and we had to have him PTS. He was only just turned 6 years old and I had only had him 17 months. Ended up with 10.5k vets bill and loss of 7k horse. Only horse I have never had insured in 50 years, only ever made very small claims on one of the other horses and ended up copping that lot!!! Its sods law.
 
My TB is insured for 1k, excess is £135, monthly premium is £35, 5k vet bills and I've more than had my money from insurance...

He's the most accident prone horse ever and even something that would be minor on any other horse ends up as a big deal with him.

I never used to insure horses and never had any issues. I bought my first TB in 2007 (and she was also the first I ever had vetted - she passed) and it was non-stop vet bills until her premature death. I didn't vet my second TB but insured him and they didn't pay out saying it was a pre-existing condition (it wasn't - sarcoid) but hey ho. Current TB was vet checked (she ok'd him to me and then, I found out 2yrs later, changed the paperwork to say the opposite...), is insured and has had had 2 surgeries, pretty much monthly vet visits and everything else that you can imagine.

Although I'm beginning to think TBs are the issue (and vets!) not the insurance!!

I bought a QH youngster and I've not insured him. I'm lucky enough that I can afford up to the 5k vet bill that insurance would pay out if anything happened to him.

I don't think there's a part left on the TB that won't be excluded come next renewal so I'd probably be better off with a savings account for him instead.
 
I'm another one that doesn't insure my competition horses, They wanted to exclude my mares legs because of something on the x rays (she had a very small hook on one of her hocks) and then as she had colic before she came on the ferry over (we owned her at this point) they wouldn't cover that either. My gelding they where being difficult about insuring as we didn't have a vetting done when we bought him (bought him from a friend and knew his medical history) so we arranged for a vetting done and when we sent it the insurers they wouldn't accept it. It just seems more hassle than its worth especially as they are difficult about paying out (they wouldn't pay out for vets bills for another horse of mine that is since retired).

Both of my horses also cost more and are worth more than the maximum value you could ensure them for so it just wasn't worth it.

When I got the quotes through for both of them I realized that the amount I would be spending every month on insurance would have been better off going in a bank account along with any other spare cash I may have had from the month to use for vets fees in an emergency hence why I have chosen to do it. A lot of my friends with decent and valuable horses also don't insure them for the same reasons.
 
Wow, insurance seems quite pricey over in the UK. In Ireland, I have insurance on my horse worth valued at 4k, Vet fees up to 5k, Straying/Theft, LOU and Death, Trailer covered for theft, third party, damage etc, and myself insured too for 35 a month. Haven't had a claim yet but it gives me peace of mind. If I cancelled it that'd surely be the moment that something would happen!
 
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