Does anybody NOT insure their horse?

RubysGold

RubysGold

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my renewal came through from NFU, it made my jaw drop! Its gone up an awful lot.
Roo can only hack now, is worth very little in monetary value (though is priceless to me) and after claiming £4000 on her front legs last year, I cant claim on them if anything goes wrong again.

I was looking around online last night, doing online quotes, and found that Roo is now classed as veteran and if I start a new policy, Ill only be able to claim £1000 vet bills.

I was thinking, maybe I could set up a savings account with a direct debit going into it every month from my normal account (same amount as what NFU want each month). I would of course need to get a public liability insurance sorted out.
 
wouldnt even contemplate the idea.
Its your horse, your choice.
I would suggest you shop around - NFU are ridiculously over priced in my opinion.
But you have to do what you think is best.
 
Nope, as soon as you mention team chasing and polo the price rockets and we would have spent FAR more on insurance than we have on vets bills... so its just not worth the money for us!

(we- riders have various insurance through being members of various associations that covers public liability)
 
I have the girls insured and have public liability but the Yob Cob is not insured. He's a tough as old boots, mostly hacks and quite honestly, if he needed expensive treatment, I'd sell the house for him, but in all the years I've had him, he's never been sick or sorry and is a wily lad who looks after himself and keeps out of trouble.
However, if ever he was seriously injured or ill, I would have him shot, he doesn't do poorly and would hate to be out of action.
 
I just have third party liability insurance courtesy of the good old BHS. Both my horses are quite mature and there's a limit to what I would be prepared to put them through anyway. I have a few thousand pounds in my general emergency fund and if they need it they can have it.

Did think about insuring the younger one once upon a time, but insurance company wouldn't set a premium without knowing what he was worth (ie how much I paid for him). Well I bred him, so that didn't work. Then insurance company says 'well get the vet to value him'. Vet says 'no way'. Gave up.
 
We just insure for death, fire and theft

Would not contemplate veterinary fees, as for what I would pay for 6 horses would pay for a colic op every year and I don't let my vets go to town scanning etc - if lame they have time off.
 
I didn't insure mine,when she had an accident the bill was £9,500 and I lost her, so now I will always insure mine.
 
Nope, no insurance with either of mine. If something went badly wrong, they would be shot. If either needed large vet treatment, but prognosis was good, then I guess I may have to scrounge off family, or sell more beef cattle! Simples. insurance companies rake it in, and I am not a sucker for it.
Personally, I can't justify paying £30 per month per horse, when I could save that money anyway.
 
Don't insure - way too expensive and complicated. As an earlier poster said I have a few grand spare it it comes to it and I'm not convinced that expensive vet work is always in the best interests of the horse anyway. Then again I'd be very reluctant to put a horse through all the months of box rest that seems to be recommended these days. Dr Green is sometimes the best way imo
 
My old lady is insured as she is on loan to me, but my boy isn't and everyone else queries me on it he has loss of use for the only thing I'd have to claim on so it's pointless, and he's not ridden. although I have just had to spend just over £1,000 on vets bills for him for something totally different, if he was in work etc then yeah I would :)

x
 
No.

I have at least 10 horses, they don't compete, it isn't worth it. If they are sick/broken they get treated - up to a point, if prognosis is bad they get pts.

Public/personal liability is covered by the Farm and Personal policies.
 
If you have more than one or two horses I think the cost of insurance would be prohibitive, apart from Public Liability and you get that with BHS, etc. You would need to have enough in an emergency fund to cover big things like colic/accident.

I am sure that lots of people insure because they simply couldn't easily find a large sum of money for a vets bill or to have the money to buy a replacement if the worst happened.
 
No insurance on ours either. Daughter has public liability though. I did insure him when we first got him, but renewal was too expensive & I was skint! After talking to the hubby about it he said he would rather just pay vet bills if anything happened. So far in 4yrs we've never had a vet bill (except jabs) so I think we made the right choice.

I know accidents can happen, but I'm willing to risk it.

I did have big vet bills from an old pony that was insured but crap insurance company wouldn't pay out (long story - ended up with me telling them to shove it!) So it didn't make a difference that she was insured. It's a personal choice xx
 
No, we have 3rd party liability through BHS gold membership.
After spending a fortune over the years in premiums for various horses without a claim and then trying to claim unsuccessfully when we lost one aged 11 we decided that we would not waste our money again. We really would be unlikely to put a horse through an operation and protracted box-rest anyway and are in a position to be able to pay most vets' bills.
We do keep multiple horses, so the premiums would be prohibitive in any case.
 
No I have 3 so it's not worth it have3rd party with bhs and I would only treat a horse if I felt that it had a good prognosis... I've ensured over the years and I have never been paid out more than I have spent...
 
I only insured for veteran cover this time. I have gold membership of BHS for third party cover.

If major surgery is needed will be PTS as I think I would even if fully insured.

Jane
 
Decided this year to drop the vets fees from my insureance (with NFU), got PL from my BHS membership. Still insured for death, theft, if get a vets bill will use credit card with 0%!
 
I don't insure either
If one was to become ill or lame where vet treatment was needed
I would pay out straight
If dianoses was bad and nothing could be done then I would also PTS
I have public liability with bhs
 
My mare is insured at present as she has been out on loan and I didn't want her out of my control and not insured but this is the first time I've insured any of mine.

I lost my boy earlier this year - star fracture just below the elbow that ruptured so it was comparatively a quick route from accident to pts. After getting the bill for him I realised what a pile of tosh my mares insurance is - if Roo had been insured on the same kind of policy as my mare I would have been able to claim about £2 after the excess!!

My mares insurance is due up soon and tbh I'm torn as to whether to renew
 
No because both of mine are retired and there is no way that they will be put through ops or anything other than palliative (bute etc) treatment at this point in their lives.

However, before they retired both were insured. Welsh Cob never had a claim in his life, in fact except for vaccination and gelding he only saw a vet twice - once for IM anti biotics after he ran into a branch and put a hole in his shoulder and the other time when the vet made a brave attempt to try and find evidence of a brain when his behaviour became really unpredictable...no claim on either of those visits.

Other pony claimed the full 5k after he did his DDFT at 18 yo - God Bless PetPlan, I'd only insured him on their new policy that fully covered horses aged 16 - 25 6 weeks before and they paid up without a quibble. The funny thing is that that policy with 5k vet cover was £30pa cheaper than the previous NFU veteran policy that wouldn't have covered this injury.

I'm on the side of insure. Vets are so bloody expensive now that even small injuries/treatments are more than the excess so the chances are that you'll claim. I also have an (uninsured!:eek:) dog who has cost £8k and counting to date in vet bills. When he was a pup I resisted insuring him because PetPlan wanted £32pm - now I know why they did!
 
Good question. I have a 13 yr old mare with 3 legs exempt from insurance now and was wondering whether to stop with the £35 (minus death or loss of use) its costing me monthly .....
 
I ride a horse belonging to someone who loans out a couple (doesn't ride herself) which are kept on her yard and are never insured. I've got BHS Gold membership for public liability and have made other loaners aware that they could be in deep do-do if there is a road accident, for example, as they would have no cover.
I am about to buy my own horse, but given my experience with my dogs, probably won't insure - in the 16 years I've had my oldest dog I have paid out approx £500 in non-routine vet fees which works out at £31.25 per year - a bit cheaper than the £20-odd a month it would cost to insure her. So I'll probably go down the Gold membership and savings account/credit card route too. I may have been lucky with the dogs but if I can put a bit away, rather than spending it each month, I'll risk it.
 
Mine isn't except for liability. I just pay the vet bills, had one big one since I have had him but for the price of insurance over here it's not worth it IMO. He's only a hacker atm anyway.
 
I have two insured and two not (the oldies not) and have joined BHS to cover for public liability which has helped bring the other two down. One of my oldies has Cushing's and is on meds for it but worked it out the insurance was more expensive! Have often thought it would be better just to save as they are such buggers for getting out of paying or slapping exclusions on.
 
I do insure my pony, there is no way that I could afford to suddenly pay out for a big vets bill - eg colic surgery. I'm with NFU and have been for the last 4 years - I pay £20 a month. If I put that £20 a month into a savings account rather than insurance it would take ages to get the amount of money needed to pay for something major like colic surgery.

I do agree that you shouldn't advertise the fact that your horse is insured to vets if something does/has gone wrong as I do think sometimes they take it as a way to get more money rather than doing whats right by the horse. But I feel that insurance for my mare offers peace of mind knowing she could have treatment if she needed it.
 
RubysGold said:
my renewal came through from NFU, it made my jaw drop! Its gone up an awful lot.
Roo can only hack now, is worth very little in monetary value (though is priceless to me) and after claiming £4000 on her front legs last year, I cant claim on them if anything goes wrong again.

I was looking around online last night, doing online quotes, and found that Roo is now classed as veteran and if I start a new policy, Ill only be able to claim £1000 vet bills.

I was thinking, maybe I could set up a savings account with a direct debit going into it every month from my normal account (same amount as what NFU want each month). I would of course need to get a public liability insurance sorted out.
Click to expand...

this is what i have done just last week. The amount i have paid insurance companies and not claimed in the last 3 years is over 5000 now i have opened a bank account and called it insurance

all the monies normally going to the SEIB is now in an account building up. My vet does this too. wish i did this before .


they make me pay excess 200 pounds they will only pay 700 of the bill.. They have received from me 2000 last year go figure.
Only insuring the car and box now
 
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My current horse is the first horse I haven't insured beyond BHS gold membership, and she is also the first horse I would have ever potentially made a claim on!
It was a logical decision though and one I don't regret even now.
 
I decided this year to cancel the insurance on my veteran as he rarely has anything wrong with him, and being a veteran, was only insured for accident. I also thought "At his time of life I won't be putting him through ops etc".

Sure enough within 2 months he got kicked in the face which ended up costing me £1,000. He now has a tendon injury & I gags the vet coming out Friday to look at it.

Luckily I am well-off enough to be able to pay. So unless you already have up to £2k of savings, I wouldn't recommend not being insured.
 
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