Does anybody not insure their horses and what do you do instead

ann-jen

ann-jen

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I've just had a quote of nearly a thousand pounds a year to insure my new horse with pet plan. Seems extortionate!
I'm wondering whether to just invest the equivalent money into a high interest account instead to use for emergencies.
Does anyone else do this and what are the pros and cons.
I will still have 3rd party insurance from bs and bd membership but wonder if there are any other implications of going uninsured!
Or just to man up and pay it!
 
That is a lot, I assume it is an expensive horse?
I do insure mine, I couldn't raise £5000 straight away if I need it and they are only £70 a month for the two of them. I don't have LOU which saves a lot of money and they are both only valued at £1000.
 
None of my horses are insured and haven't been for 10 years. I have about 20 of the beggars though. All of them are covered for liability on my farms insurance and this comes with a very limited form of mortality. If any of mine are injured then I just pay the vet bills, which are always significantly lower than they would be were there an insurance company involved.
 
I wouldn't dream of not insuring for one horse. There's a very good chance that in any year you might have a vet bill of £1000 or more. But if you can afford a big bill then it may make more sense not to insure in the very long term, IF your horse is averagely ill/lame, based on the principle that insurance companies make money overall.

My old boy for example has probably cost me about £3500 in insurance in the 7 years I have had him. In that time he has had a fair number of examinations, been denerved in both fronts (under full anaesthetic), had his hocks and coffin joints injected, had shockwave treatment... I haven't worked it all out but it must be £10000 or more.

I know only one person with no insurance, and she has about 20 horses so it does make sense for her to save the money for all of them, and pay out as and when needed. Think it's still a shock though when big bills arrive.
 
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PS - have you had a number of quotes? This seems high. If you Google you can find horse insurance comparison websites. KBIS came out really well for me and was less than half of NFU or Petplan.
 
I have mine insured with the dreaded E&L and pay £42 a month, he's unsured for vets bills and LOU/death and he's covered for £9,000 (did have to have a 5* vetting)

He wasn't insured for a year though as I moved and cancelled it, then never got round to re doing it :D

I know a lot of people that do what you suggested, the only problem would be is that (touch wood) if you lost her, would you be able to gather the funds again to buy a horse of a similar standard? Thats my only reason for insurance otherwise I would be doing the same thing.
 
Nope this is my first quote as my other horse is insured through them. I'm considering changing the old horse onto the veteran plan as She has so many exclusions on her policy anyway that it would make sense as is a fraction of the price and see if it then makes insuring the two if them more acceptable financially!
Will try a quote from kbis too then :-)
 
Rcp that's a good point. And defo something for me to consider. Plus I should get discount from pet plan for my profession so may not be as bad as I first thought :-/ will need to ring and speak to them
 
Depends on your financial situation, and your attitude to your horse. Try the following thought experiment...

Dobbin develops funny problem X, which is not major, but you don't know what it is. If you immediately call the vet, you should probably buy insurance. If you google it and ask around keep reading.

Dobbin develops serious problem / injury Y, and he's now in distress. You call vet (obviously) and give him £'00s. He does some tests and tells you Dobbin can be cured if you give him £'000s. If you can afford to pay it without selling your house, you don't need insurance - it probably won't happen anyway.
Alternatively, if you would PTS (another £200), then you can self-insure, hope it won't happen, and start saving a little as a 'Dobbin fund' just in case.

You can fine tune the above using my 'how likely is he to cost money-ometer'
Hairy native with no rug in paddock full of rusty wire and broken glass - low risk *
Riding horse - risk increases with the number bandages / boots he owns **
Thoroughbred - risk proportional to value and increases with any precautionary measure taken by owner ***
 
Mine aren't insured, one is too old for vet fees to be covered and the other would have colic excluded due to previous occurance. They are both field ornaments and I'm afraid if they would be pts if serious injury or illness happened (such as colic) But to clarify it would be the same if they were insured.
 
I still insure mine but for far less in terms of vet fees, purchase price and no LOU since IME they won't pay out for LOU or death anyway. One is on a veteran external injury only plan and the other for £2.5K vets fees. Try AmTrust Equine, they are generally more realistic (Petplan pay out but slap ridiculous exclusions on). I have savings to top up if necessary but no colic surgery etc for mine. I can turn them away though if I think a couple of years at grass might do the trick.
 
pennyturner said:
You can fine tune the above using my 'how likely is he to cost money-ometer'
Hairy native with no rug in paddock full of rusty wire and broken glass - low risk *
Riding horse - risk increases with the number bandages / boots he owns **
Thoroughbred - risk proportional to value and increases with any precautionary measure taken by owner ***
Click to expand...

:D:D Excellent, and eerily true :rolleyes:
 
I dont insure mine (love the post by Penny T :D )
Since I had a row with ins co about 25yrs ago about treatment v's PTS 'now or possibly in 30-60 days' & had to fight damned hard to have horse PTS now (in his best interests at the time as backed up by vet) as ins co wanted to do further investigations etc, prolonging the inevitable.

I put aside ££'s each month.
In emergency Mr C/Card will come into play.
In extreme emergency, then PTS when quality of life is measured against ££'s.

Sorry, am prob too practical for most on here...........

I just like to be able to take control for the horse/pony if the situation arises :)
 
Gluttonforpunishment said:
Mine aren't insured, one is too old for vet fees to be covered and the other would have colic excluded due to previous occurance. They are both field ornaments and I'm afraid if they would be pts if serious injury or illness happened (such as colic) But to clarify it would be the same if they were insured.
Click to expand...

This is the same for me really- One is still in light work but I was given him on the agreement he will be pts at the request of his old owner in the event of serious lameness/accident. Much of his body is excluded from insurance anyway as he's been subject to a huge amount of claims.
Our pony is also not insured but we would find the money for him.
 
I only have a small pony now and can cover any unexpected vets bills should the need arise.

I did have my larger horses insured though a few years back and one of them was always lame so the insurance was very handy.

I would only not insure if you can cover vets bills or your equine was so elderly you wouldn't put them through a surgery or invasive procedure.
 
I have had mine insured with Scottish Equestrian for 7 years now, and they have paid out promptly for a couple of claims. However, he's now managing to get himself excluded on quite a few things, and all my recent vet bills have been just under the excess, so I am seriously considering just building up a fund.

When they increased prices a couple of years ago, I went to Julie Andrews (no, not THAT Julie Andrews ;), google Julie Andrews Insurance...) and they discussed with me what I needed and what the other options were - and on their comparisions, Scottish Equestrian still came out cheapest, so I stayed with them. Might be worth speaking to a broker to see if you can get a better deal.

Love the cost-o-meter, btw - mine doesn't own any boots or protective gear, but I work it on the basis of %TB and size (he's 17hh and large horses seem to damage themselves more - OH, who's an engineer, says they're badly designed).
 
ann-jen said:
Nope this is my first quote as my other horse is insured through them. I'm considering changing the old horse onto the veteran plan as She has so many exclusions on her policy anyway that it would make sense as is a fraction of the price and see if it then makes insuring the two if them more acceptable financially!
Will try a quote from kbis too then :-)
Click to expand...

Veteran only covers injury, not illness, and your exclusions would transfer to the veteran policy.

There are some ways you can try to reduce the premium. Some are:
1. Take out a high excess policy
2. Only insure for the activity you are currently doing (i.e. don't insure for competing if you are only happy hacking, but intend to compete in the future)
3. Insure the value at a realistic price. Lower the sum insured if you are happy to.
4. Don't insure LOU, tack etc... unless you really think you need it
 
I don't insure I have four horses and am lucky I can afford to pay any bill I choose to run up and can always find some money to buy a horse if I needed to .
But what I like most is I take all the desisions they are treated how I want with want I want when I want and PTS when I want.
If say one got navicular type symptoms I could send straight to Rockley no messing , would not matter if the vets where for or against it .
But I think it also does not cost me much more if any more over the lifetime of the horse.
 
The Fuzzy Furry said:
Sorry, am prob too practical for most on here...........

I just like to be able to take control for the horse/pony if the situation arises :)
Click to expand...

you know I used to insure to the hilt until I lost my horse this year. it completely changed how I looked at insurance-they would have willingly paid out for more useless treatment for an incurable condition (melanomas causing problems while defaecating and potential colic/bleed out) but not for euthanasia on humane grounds. Control is important when it comes to your horses welfare.
 
I have four horses which work as part of my business; I don't insure them - if they need vet treatment I pay the bill. If it's too expensive/doesn't make economic or practical sense I put them down. I used to have a largish stud farm/competition set up, I didn't insure then either. Insurance companies are profit making businesses; where do they get their profits? From YOU. Why are your vet bills so high? Why are there so many esoteric treatments? Because of insurance. Vicious circle.
 
Our five aren't insured - I put money aside each month instead. We stopped because our premiums kept going up and I have a habit of acquiring extra ponies! I also agree that it enables you to have complete control of how your horse is treated, which is very important to me. They have a fairly low-risk lifestyle and although I couldn't afford a massive bill, e.g. several thousand for a colic operation, I would be unlikely to want to put a horse through something like that anyway. I know that there are some things that cost £££ and are pretty much essential and/or guaranteed to work and in that case I would borrow the money required.
 
My 4yr old is insured as he is an idioe and its costs me £40 a month, My 15 yrd old that ive had 12years has never been insured and only had one vets bill for £1000 which I figured if id been paying insurance fo the 10years previous would have been alot more than the vets bill I had and the vets where very good and let me pay £100 a month off
 
I do wonder sometimes why I insure. I pay out £100 a month for various pets including the two ponies. So far this year I have settled vets bills to the tune of over £1K and not a penny of it was claim-able

I have to say and I know lots will disagree but I do think some pets are more prone to things than others, my old vet always used to say if they get through the first year with no problems they are unlikely to cause you problems in the future and I have to say my pets (and I have LOADS) that incur bills are always the same ones!
 
I didn't. Young hardy cob, never a sick or lame day in his life, I'll put money aside in a savings account should anything crop up.

Unfortunately I didn't manage to pull upwards of £5000 together in 18mths. I was stung badly when he needed colic surgery, completely out of the blue. Sod's law, but it's just not worth the risk.

New boy was insured as soon as he arrived.
 
We have 3 rd party for the ridden horses, the retired folk have none. I could see it would make sense to have a very valuable horse insured but mine are all fairly cheap so it wouldn't be impossible to gather enough together to buy a new horse should the worst happen. As for vets fees you need to inform your vet when they come out to see your horses illness/ injury that you are not insured so that they are more conservative in their approach to treating it. I have had a £1200 vets bill for an uninsured horse when he was attacked by some horses who broke into his field on a livery yard, luckily my parents were able to pay that out of their savings. But I have since moved onto my own field where I have total say on what happens so I do feel I can minimise the risks they face now.
I keep my horses in as natural a lifestyle as possible, no shoes so kicks are less damaging, no stables so that minimises respiratory problems as well as many other things, constant supply of hay or grass, no rugs where possible. I feed them well with supplements all year.
 
pennyturner said:
Depends on your financial situation, and your attitude to your horse. Try the following thought experiment...
Click to expand...

I love Pennyturner's thought experiment.

Mine are not insured so I have a neddy-vetfee savings fund instead. I'm fairly pragmatic, of the ilk field rest/time rather than MRI scans, and would not put a horse through a colic op though I probably would risk a general anaesthetic to patch-up a muchloved horse after an injury if the prognosis was good, mentally and physically, for the horse.

Third party for the horses, me and anyone handling/riding the neds with my permission is a MUST and is via BHS gold.
 
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