High cost of Horse Insurance

sidesaddlegirl

sidesaddlegirl

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www.sidesaddlegirl.co.uk
My new neddy comes tomorrow but I have been shocked at how high horse insurance has become now with quotes being £31- £50 a month for my ned. When I shopped around several years ago for my old neddy which had similar spec at the time as my new one, I remember £20 being the most expensive and then when she was a veteran, it was £11. The cheapest I could find was Petplan with a £500 XS. I'm just wondering if it's worth doing it or just putting the money aside myself as I ended up paying all the vet bills for my last ned myself as I wasn't able to claim back for them. I'm already a gold member with the BHS for 3rd party and have my trailer insured with SEIB.
 
Yeah, my girls are insured for £72 and £52 each, bought them both in the past 10 months, friends have been shocked at the price of my insurance compared to theirs which has been purchased in previous years. Personally I just pay it and prefer having that safety net there.
 
This is why I ended up paying £1000 of vets bills myself on my last ned due to all the exclusions. It's taken me three months to pay it off. I work in car insurance so well used to all the exclusions, etc but I'm just shocked how high it's gone in the space of a few years.
 
I stopped vets fee insurance about 3yrs ago for my mare. I was paying nearly £700 premium each year since I bought her and only ever claimed £200. She was exempt from colic, limb injury and epistaxis causes. I have just paid out an £800 lameness bill, 3 yrs after stopping vets fees insurance. So basically I've saved £1300 by not insuring. However it's not advisable if you don't have the means to do it in one go obviously
 
I think this year will be my last time of insuring. My insurance is £55 a month for £4K of vet cover, haven't even taken 3rd party as most insurers cover to about £2m but I have to be able to prove that I have cover for £5m so I have BHS gold membership too.

I've got many exclusions and the ones that I'd hoped to be able to have removed at next renewal won't happen now as donkey has managed to impressively damage two legs at the same time:frown3:

Fortunately I've got a good pot of savings so think for me self insure is the way to go in the future.
 
I've recently stopped my insurance, it was up to £90 a month with a lot of exclusions. To be fair I've got my money's worth from Petplan over the last 10 years with two large claims for SI injury and annular ligament surgery and they paid up with no problems. Just after I stopped (literally the day after) he developed cellulitis from a small cut on heel bulb 🙁 Which resulted in a bill of £530 however I may not have been insured for that anyway due to previous mud fever bouts.
 
I stopped vet fees insurance 4 years ago for ours. (Still have third party liability through the BHS!) Insurance - at its heart - is a gamble. You gamble that you will need to claim. The insurer gambles that you won't. Like any casino the odds are set in favour of the house...

If you self insure by putting aside an equivalent sum in a savings account you will have a period of time when the sum saved won't cover what you might need. But in a shockingly short space of time it will!
 
I've never insured a horse. I just pay the vet bills, and weigh up cost VS practicality. There are very many proceedures that are done purely to use up the insurance. Just try telling the vet that you are not insured AFTER he/she has reeled off all the things they want to do - suddenly there is a much cheaper and less invasive way of dealing with the problem. Odd, that.
 
Cortez said:
I've never insured a horse. I just pay the vet bills, and weigh up cost VS practicality. There are very many proceedures that are done purely to use up the insurance. Just try telling the vet that you are not insured AFTER he/she has reeled off all the things they want to do - suddenly there is a much cheaper and less invasive way of dealing with the problem. Odd, that.
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Equine vets never used to be that bad. Small animal vets used to be really bad at saying have you got insurance? Right you need multiple x rays and bloods, scans etc. However it seems equine vets are starting to jump on this too.
 
Tiarella said:
If you aren't insuring for LOU just put your horse as a cheaper value.
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I wouldn't advise that....Death of horse will still be market value and some policies will put an average clause on any claims if horse is found to be under insured.
 
Its a difficult one, I have some that are insured and some that aren't.

The ones that are insured, I have claimed for, with no problems and in excess of my premiums.

I am considering stopping insurance at the next renewal if the premiums rise significantly.
 
I only insure for third party liability through BHS gold. I would rather tap up a credit card or delve into savings if something happened. Anything extreme like colic surgery or something that required hospitalisation or prolonged box rest and he would just be PTS. He's basically a field ornament though so I guess the risk of anything happening is drastically reduced.
 
Just got my insurance renewal through.

Page 1, no pleasantries, just straight in with "we would like to explain to you the reasons for your increased insurance premium". :( The insurers (KBIS) are blaming it on increased vet fees due to the increase in the use of expensive diagnostic tools such as MRI/CAT scans, etc.

Darling Horse has excellent timing and a taste for the absurd, so I'm quietly confident that should I cancel the policy, he'll go and get the one knee that is still covered by the insurance policy stuck in his eye (also still covered) and require major surgery.
 
I have just cancelled mine after a major leap in price and a ridiculous exclusion list. I've taken up BHS gold membership for 3rd party.
 
we changed insurers this year after we were quoted at £900 for the year for a 15 year old horse who in about 4 years had never once had a single claim made on the insurance. They didn't even explain why it had gone up, and if they considered 15 to be a veteran or not.
 
Cortez said:
I've never insured a horse. I just pay the vet bills, and weigh up cost VS practicality. There are very many proceedures that are done purely to use up the insurance. Just try telling the vet that you are not insured AFTER he/she has reeled off all the things they want to do - suddenly there is a much cheaper and less invasive way of dealing with the problem. Odd, that.
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Totally agree; I have BHS gold membership for third party liability and fund everything else myself. My horse is never subjected to unnecessary profiteering treatment and is perfectly sound, healthy and happy. She sees the vet once a year for her jabs.
 
C1airey said:
Just got my insurance renewal through.

Page 1, no pleasantries, just straight in with "we would like to explain to you the reasons for your increased insurance premium". :( The insurers (KBIS) are blaming it on increased vet fees due to the increase in the use of expensive diagnostic tools such as MRI/CAT scans, etc.

Darling Horse has excellent timing and a taste for the absurd, so I'm quietly confident that should I cancel the policy, he'll go and get the one knee that is still covered by the insurance policy stuck in his eye (also still covered) and require major surgery.
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I had the same letter from KBIS despite being with them a number of years for 2 horses. They put the premium up by 30%!!! I rung to query and try and haggle and got a woman who couldn't sound less interested (perhaps because it was 15 mins before closing!). I wrote on their FB wall too and got a return call and was told they were at the mercy of the underwriters and had no flexibility whatsoever. I shopped around and changed to Petplan who were cheaper and with a lower excess for the same cover. However, if it goes up again next year then will be seriously considering cancelling and just paying vets fee's as and when. There has to be a limit somewhere with them increasing premiums :(
 
FabioandFreddy said:
I There has to be a limit somewhere with them increasing premiums :(
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^^ not necessarily, it is true that the diagnostics and treatments available are increasing in range, availability and cost, and consequently so will the cost of claims.
I've just racked up £3.5k on a simple keyhole surgery which I couldn't possibly have paid for if the horse hadn't been insured .... KBIS have made a loss on me over the past 5 years I've been a customer, therefore it's only to be expected that premiums will increase across the board to cover their costs. It's a business after all, they have to make money or they will go bust.

I just cough up until it's no longer worth it. I've stopped insuring the horse that has loads of exclusions (also justified, as those legs are more likely to get re-injured now, so why would any sane person provide cover on them?) and insured the other one!

OP, I think they quotes you are getting are pretty representative, mine is £50pm for a cheap section D though class of use does play a part too.
 
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