Has Anyone Cancelled Their Equine Insurance This Year?

I cancelled mine this year, dispite never making a claiming they put it up by £15 a month (NFU) so I decided that was taking the P Im not paying to cover other peoples claims. Ive since taken out BHS Gold membership for basic insurance and will cover any vet bills myself if needed.
 
I dare not be without insurance and also have only good things to say about petplan.

Re rising premiums. My old horse trashed his tendon and we were offered stem cell therapy which isn't cheap (I think the treatment alone is about £2500 and then there's the follow-up scans, etc). My insurers said they would pay so we went ahead. Sadly, his cells wouldn't grow so we couldn't do the treatment but it made me think - if everyone whose horse does a tendon is offered SCT, that would cost insurance companies a fortune! No wonder premiums are going up.

These fancy new treatments are great but I do think the vets should be more responsible about what they recommend (given that the insurance companies trust their judgement). in hindsight, SCT for a 21 year old pony was a little crazy (the exercise regime we were to follow after treatment went up to including 30 mins galloping a day or something ridiculous). When SCT failed, we also tried platelet rich plasma which didn't do much (about £500 I think) and after that were recommended physiotherapy at which point I said enough was enough and turned him out for Dr Green to work his magic!

So IMO the vets share some of the responsibility for rising insurance premiums.
 
AshTay said:
These fancy new treatments are great but I do think the vets should be more responsible about what they recommend (given that the insurance companies trust their judgement). in hindsight, SCT for a 21 year old pony was a little crazy (the exercise regime we were to follow after treatment went up to including 30 mins galloping a day or something ridiculous). When SCT failed, we also tried platelet rich plasma which didn't do much (about £500 I think) and after that were recommended physiotherapy at which point I said enough was enough and turned him out for Dr Green to work his magic!

So IMO the vets share some of the responsibility for rising insurance premiums.
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I agree. I don't think I'd even want to subject my 14 year old showjumper to stem cell treatment. I think it would be retirement and turn out to grass, with a vague hope that he might come sound in the future if I was very lucky. Other than in very valuable racehorses and some other top competition horses, what is the point in embarking on these treatments? Whatever happened to common sense!
 
Mithras said:
I agree. I don't think I'd even want to subject my 14 year old showjumper to stem cell treatment. I think it would be retirement and turn out to grass, with a vague hope that he might come sound in the future if I was very lucky. Other than in very valuable racehorses and some other top competition horses, what is the point in embarking on these treatments? Whatever happened to common sense!
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In my defence, SCT isn't a horrible procedure. Harvesting the stem cells is done under standing sedation and other than the risk of infection isn't too bad. My boy is quite a tough chap and he was totally fine afterwards. Transplanting the cells into the tendon is also done under standing sedation and is low-risk. The biggest stress on the horse is travelling to the vets for the treatment and scan but my horse coped well (he'd spent his younger years being ferried to shows every weekend so was well used to travel and I think it relieved the tedium of boxrest for him). When I was considering it, the possibility of a full recovery far outweighed the small amount of stress on him. I was gutted it didn't work as his injury was so bad I really didn't think he'd ever recover from it. But he did.

I would do the same again!
 
AshTay said:
In my defence, SCT isn't a horrible procedure. Harvesting the stem cells is done under standing sedation and other than the risk of infection isn't too bad. My boy is quite a tough chap and he was totally fine afterwards. Transplanting the cells into the tendon is also done under standing sedation and is low-risk. The biggest stress on the horse is travelling to the vets for the treatment and scan but my horse coped well (he'd spent his younger years being ferried to shows every weekend so was well used to travel and I think it relieved the tedium of boxrest for him). When I was considering it, the possibility of a full recovery far outweighed the small amount of stress on him. I was gutted it didn't work as his injury was so bad I really didn't think he'd ever recover from it. But he did.

I would do the same again!
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No, I was aiming my comment more at the vets than at you, AshTray! They are professionals after all and I would hope they would use common sense to advise their clients, rather than just promote any treatment possible at any cost. As lawyers, there sometimes comes a stage when pressing expensive action upon clients becomes unetheical, or even continuing with an action when there is no reasonably high chance of success (and I know there are money grabbers out there but the quality law firms won't take on crap work). The same fiduciary rules apply to vets.
 
I suppose one other thing to consider is the cover for death/theft or straying. Yes we may all be able to scramble the money for vets fees but if your horse god forbid were to suddenly die, would you have the money to go and buy a new horse as and when you wanted to?
 
Mithras said:
No, I was aiming my comment more at the vets than at you, AshTray! They are professionals after all and I would hope they would use common sense to advise their clients, rather than just promote any treatment possible at any cost. As lawyers, there sometimes comes a stage when pressing expensive action upon clients becomes unetheical, or even continuing with an action when there is no reasonably high chance of success (and I know there are money grabbers out there but the quality law firms won't take on crap work). The same fiduciary rules apply to vets.
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I know you were! You were agreeing with me. I'm looking back at the me that was desperate to do anything to fix her broken pony.

In hindsight, it seems crazy but really the only reason I wouldn't go for SCT with an older pony is because the cells have a high tendency to fail in the lab. If my 6 year old did a tendon I'd try it again!

And please don't call me AshTray! It's AshTay!! lol!:p
 
Babybear said:
I suppose one other thing to consider is the cover for death/theft or straying. Yes we may all be able to scramble the money for vets fees but if your horse god forbid were to suddenly die, would you have the money to go and buy a new horse as and when you wanted to?
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Fair point but if your horse needs the vet you HAVE to find the cash but buying a replacement neddy isn't essential in quite the same way.
 
AshTay said:
Fair point but if your horse needs the vet you HAVE to find the cash but buying a replacement neddy isn't essential in quite the same way.
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Totally agree it's not the same and isn't an immediate cost but just something for those of us who are considering cancelling our insurance to consider.
 
I cancelled my insurance with NFU last year. Had four horses with them but decided that as 4 x premiums and 1 x excess was over £1K per annum, it was better to put that money away just in case. Have third party through BHS Gold so covered that way.
 
Petplan have been absolutely brilliant with us recently. They have paid the vets direct, so we didn't have to find the money up front. They have paid £2k so far and are covering meds for the rest of this first year, treatment probably will be ongoing too.

Not bad for £300 premium for the year, I have to give them the thumbs up!
 
I was only thinking about cancelling mine last monday. On the Tuesday I went down and my baby horse has run through a fence, severed the whole of her foreleg, cut down to the bone on her opposite cannon and a few other serious scrapes and many minor ones.

The vet was there 4 hours stitching her up and has been out 4 more times since and is coming out more times this week.

That will teach me for even thinking about cancelling it!!
 
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