Following on from Magic Melon's post - INSURANCE FOR OLDIES

[chickeninabun]

Which are the best insurance companies for oldies??

Needing it for a 22 year old mare. Not bothered about Loss of Use, or a pay out if the pony dies, just need to cover vets bills and, obviously, public liability.

When they ask for a value of the pony, can you put nil and still get vets fees covered? It's just the pony isn't costing me anything to buy just need vets fees covered for anything serious.
Plus how much does everyone have oldies covered for in vets fees? £1000/£2000/£3000, etc, etc??

Sorry for all the questions.

 

[showjump2003]

Unfortunatly I think you will only be able to get cover for external injuries such as field accidents, not colic ect.

 

[JACQSZOO]

The best cover I ever found for oldies was through Scottish Equestrian - but they only cover vet fees up to 20 years of age, after that its accident and injury only.

 

[Darkly_Dreaming_Dex]

Pet Plan have a new scheme for horses up to 25 and AIMS have a good veterans policy too.

 

[scrat]

I have my oldie insured with Pet Plan but it is for injury only up to £1000 I think. I only insured him for £350 as thats all I paid and that was really for his tack and things he came with. The cover has £200 towards disposal and theres public liability. I have claimed once already for a nasty cut which cost about £350 in vets fees. It doesn't cover illness but to be realistic if he became seriously ill with colic I would not want to put him through surgery at his age (27 ish) The premium is only about £9 a month so seems worth it.

 

[chickeninabun]

I was a little concerned about no insurance companies covering oldies for illness, but like you said, Blagdon, if they become ill with something serious at their age, then it is better to not let them suffer with surgery, etc.
I just did an online quote for PetPlan and it is very reasonable. We pay never £20/month for our dog through PetPlan but the horse only came out at about £7!!

The dog did cost a lot more though!

 

[fionic]

I ended up going with Petplan for my 17 year old mare. She's covered for all vets fees. I chose the standard option for vets fees, so I pay the first £100 or so, then they'll pay up to £5000. They have an option for high excess, where you pay £500 and they'll go up to £3500 I think. Part of my decision to do this was based on her being out on loan till I finish uni, so hopefully it's less likely for any problems to occur (touch wood!).

A lot of the companies I was recommended by friends didn't want to know her because of her age. I think most of them would have been happy to insure her full vets fees until she was 20 if I had started a policy with them before she was 15/16.

Many of the companies I spoke to wouldn't pay out what I paid for her if she died. The NFU will only offer a certain amount depending on the height of the horse, I could only get £400 or something like that if she died and the premium wasn't particulary cheap either.

 

[I_A_P]

well we cant really get hardly any cover for our 24 year old so we have just cancelled his insurance-the maximum amount we can insure him for is £500 and excludes so many things.......and we were paying nearly £200 a year-so its really not worth it

 

[scrat]

I know what you me about the dog insurance! I used to pay £17 for my dog and the same again for two cats! Just to add, I expected my premium to go up quite a bit this year as I had claimed but it only went up about 30p a month.