Horse insurance - thicky newby questions.

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EJJ999

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Had horse 3 years and hasn't been insured (as I easily had the means to pay). Circumstances are now a little changed so thinking about insuring (vets fees etc).

There's nothing in his history to exclude (he is a bit accident prone so all vet visits have been related to something stupid he has done).

Had a quick look this morning so would like to check with you all this is my understanding. Looked at Petplan and £5k cover with £145 excess. So, if an issue arose that required long term care this would be excluded in the following year's cover?

I had always insured the dogs with a life time cover. Is this something you get with horses?

Pros and cons please. Bit off put from a friend on the yard who seems to be pushed about a bit in order to meet insurance demands and not convinced it's been in the best interests of the horse.

Thank you
 
You don’t get life cover for Vets bills unfortunately so are pushed to throw everything at them within the 12 (or some are now 15 months) cover. I think it’s daft personally, I’d much rather have the breathing space to treat conservatively to start with - for niggly lameness it might even save the insurance company money!

I don’t have anything insured at the moment, but might in the future.
 
I don't have an overview of the whole insurance market but my experiences are that:

1) You have cover for assessments/diagnostics and treatment (sometimes also including complementaty therapies and farriery) for up to 5k for 12 months from the date the problem first presented.
2) After 12 months the clock runs out and no further treatment is covered.
3) The area/problem in question is likely to be excluded from any future claim.

I have insured with several companies and the above seems pretty standard but how different companies apply/interpret the standard varies hugely.

In my experience Petplan have been the absolute worst company for rigidly sticking to the letter and not the spirit of the policy to exclude everything possible and to avoid paying whenever they can. For example I have my dog on a health plan which includes an annual health check as well as fleas/wormer/vaccs. At one of those appointments I was asked if I had any questions and I asked for some advice on how best to clean her ears as she gets waxy build up. 14 months later she needed surgery for a horrid ear infection - and they excluded it on the basis of 'pre-existing condition' because of that casual query 14 months before.

On the other side of the coin - NFU insure my horses and my pony Ginny has already racked up £3k+ for a lameness work up and treatment. I saw a vet in July who felt she was lame but there were months of not-quite-rightness before that and I had asked for vets opinions on her napping/poor performance before including scoping her. But NFU started the 12 month clock from July not from those earlier consultations. And some companies will defer the start of the clock to when you start treatment so allowing you a 'wait and see' option eg if you want to turn away, or just keep an eye on inactive sarcoids or whatever. I am not sure they write that kind of flexibility in stone but again NFU have been really flexible and reasonable in other cases I know of.

The obvious danger of the Pet Plan approach to insurance (at least in my experience) is a) you are reluctant to raise queries with a vet at an eary stage and b) you feel forced down a treatment route potentially prematurely.
 
different insurers provide different time periods for treatment. i'm with KBIS and mine have 18 months from the start of the claim :)

the younger horse is covered up to £3.5k per incident, the welsh for £5k. Best thing you can do is have a chat with some insurers to see what would suit you best, OP.

I haven't ever found that my treatment options have been steered by the insurers, on the contrary being insured has opened up opportunities to choose from that I would have struggled to fund by myself. But everyone feels differently.

If he's already had some veterinary treatment for things then you will need to declare that at the start of the policy so you might find you have some exclsions already for prexisting issues, OP - some insurers are more sensible than others when it comes to whacking on exclusions but if you feel that something is not justified then your vets might be able to help overturn it.
 
This is where my problem lies. He has been stiff a couple of times (over a three year period) in the same place (pastern). Which has made me start to think about insurance. It isn't enough to call the vet (or I would). Have given him a week off and it's all good. To be clear he isn't lame at all but I am super picky.

I guess it's a bit of a gamble either way. But I do feel that if insured and I get a vet to look there's some pressure to resolve an issue within a time frame.
 
EJJ999 said:
This is where my problem lies. He has been stiff a couple of times (over a three year period) in the same place (pastern). Which has made me start to think about insurance. It isn't enough to call the vet (or I would). Have given him a week off and it's all good. To be clear he isn't lame at all but I am super picky.

I guess it's a bit of a gamble either way. But I do feel that if insured and I get a vet to look there's some pressure to resolve an issue within a time frame.
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To be honest, most insurers will ask for a new 5 stage to be done because they will be suspicious of someone who has owned a horse for 3 years suddenly insuring. It’s usually because owner is anticipating a big Vet bill!
 
Yes it does raise suspicions if someone has owned a horse for a while and decides to insure. They always ask how long you have owned the horse so they will know.
 
I have asked Petplan and KBIS and neither require a vetting. To be honest he will pass a vetting but it just makes it more expensive and something else to factor in.

The stiffness just started me thinking. But basically it's a £5k limit per year and one condition, once raised, is not covered the following year. Just wanted to check my understanding.
 
EJJ999 said:
The stiffness just started me thinking. But basically it's a £5k limit per year and one condition, once raised, is not covered the following year. Just wanted to check my understanding.
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depends on your policy, mine is £5k or £3.5k per *claim* not per year. As mentioned above my policies with KBIS allow 18 months for each claim. Some policies have a higher limit per claim, and many give a higher level of cover for colic, specifically.

I didn't need to vet my welsh either when I swapped my policy from my old horse over to her :) none of mine are particularly high value animals, I expect that has an impact. but new customers taking out a policy with a prexisting issue in mind would def be what that is trying to avoid.
 
EJJ999 said:
This is where my problem lies. He has been stiff a couple of times (over a three year period) in the same place (pastern). Which has made me start to think about insurance. It isn't enough to call the vet (or I would). Have given him a week off and it's all good. To be clear he isn't lame at all but I am super picky.

I guess it's a bit of a gamble either way. But I do feel that if insured and I get a vet to look there's some pressure to resolve an issue within a time frame.
Click to expand...

If your horse has already got an issue, that is a preexisting condition and won’t be covered by a new insurance policy.
 
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