Horses' value for insurance purposes, anyone able to advise?

BethanT

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So my boy is FINALLY getting out and doing BE as well as competing BD. His work is constantly improving and he gets better and better.

But, this has made me think that I need to up his insurance value. He was only insured for £2,000. I upped it a few months ago to £4,000. But since he has won 2 out of 2 BE80 comps, and came 15th at his first BE90 over a tough XC track, sadly two poles down in SJ were expensive otherwise he would have come 3rd). He is consistently pulling sub 30 dressage tests., and in BD always scores over 65% and is off to AF finals.

The rider who is competing him BE for me is doing another 90 before the end of the season, and will start him on 90's next season and move on up to BE100.

I know all other aspect such as conformation, temperament height age etc all come into play so here are the rest of the details;

16hh
Bay
Gelding
9 years old
7/8ths TB 1/8ths ID
Easy and polite to do in all ways
Hacks alone and company easily
Easy to ride on the flat and over a fence though not for a novice rider as is nicely sensitive
Only down side is his veterinary history - had a spell of lameness as a 3 y/o never officially diagnosed (vet advised turn away to mature), and had an SI ligament injury in 2016. Now recovered shows no sign of interfering with his work.


Someone on my yard said that after he won his two BE80's hes worth £10k! But I find that hard to believe, so can anyone offer a realistic value for him? I have always been stingy when it comes to the value of horses.
 

ihatework

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If you wanted to go out and replace him with a popular height & age nice RC allrounder with a proven record around aff 80/90 I would probably be advising a budget of around 7-8k. You could pay more or less but for insurance purposes £7500 would be about right on the proviso he passes a 5 stage Vet

The question is more, what do you hope to achieve by increasing his value & premiums?
 

BethanT

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I don't really have anything in mind, just that if something were to happen to him, then I would be appropriately covered to be able to replace him if I wanted.

I am just aware that as he goes and does more, then there is obviously a higher risk of injury or worse. As far as increasing the premium though, I was surprised that upping it to the £4,000 didn't make much of a difference. About £4 per month.

Thank you both, I was thinking around £6,000 but I will leave it until next year I think when he is doing even more, having only upped it a few months ago. Would I need to submit anything to the insurers to back up the in
 

Flyermc

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you might be best talking to your insurance company, quite afew have very tight guidelines when paying out for death, it might not be worth paying the extra.
 

chaps89

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Echo the above that you may find your insurers have requirements for increasing values by more than certain amounts in 1 go or over certain thresholds.
If it's replacement money, LOU payouts are far more likely, the criteria for a mortality claim are quite stringent. That said premiums for LOU are quite high but might be worth considering if replacement value is of importance to you.
 

Louby

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you might be best talking to your insurance company, quite afew have very tight guidelines when paying out for death, it might not be worth paying the extra.

Agree with this. After having to claim for mortality or try to claim :( , I now insure for £1000, purely on the basis that they dont pay out unless its under BEVA guidelines, which is pts on humane grounds, ie broken leg or something similar. My vet advised pts to prevent further stress and suffering but they wouldnt pay out despite a letter backing this up. They wanted me to treat the horse regardless, which is madness IMO as the outcome would have been the same 3 mths down the line, costing them ££££, and causing my poor boy to suffer. Never again, I purely insure now for the benefit of vets fees and 3rd party liability. Incidently I had my boy pts and changed insurance companies!!
 

Shay

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Your insured value only affects your premiums. It won't impact the sum paid out on death. LOU is even harder. There is a point if that if you only insure a 100K horse for 1K you will only get the fraction of value on death. But 2 BE80 wins does little or nothing to his value in insurance terms. What would it actually cost to replace in insurance terms - certainly not more than 4K. Don't forget you are insuring against his purchase price - not his value.
 

Goldenstar

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You can certainly insure a horse for his value not his purchase price but you must be able to support your claim for the higher value with evidence if disaster struck.
 

ycbm

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Your insured value only affects your premiums. It won't impact the sum paid out on death.

Sorry, but this isn't true. An insurance company will, of course, only pay out the to the maximum of the sum insured. So if the horse breaks a leg, for example, the payout will be lower than the horse is worth if you insure it for less than it's worth. But if the horse is worth a lot more and you insure it for a lot more then the payout will be a lot more.
 

w1bbler

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If insuring for Lou, then get the value right. If only mortality I would leave it low. It's very hard to meet beva guidelines for pts.
When I was in the position of having to make a decision in the middle of the night at horspital it was easy to refuse waiting until the morning to discuss with the insurance for my £1500 value. At £6-7k+ I'd like to think it would be horse first, but could make it harder.
 

eggs

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If you want to increase the value then others have made valid points. Depending on your insurance company and the new value you place on your horse you may be required to get a new 5 stage vetting. My horses are insured for a nominal value (£1000) despite the fact that if I were to sell them they would be worth considerably more.

Some years ago I had a homebred who I insured for stud fee and costs to get him to the ground. When it came to weaning him I bought another foal - by the same stallion and out of a very similar mare - for £5,000. I then increased the insurance value of my homebred foal and explained to the insurers why which they were happy to accept. Unfortunately my homebred had to be pts as a three year old following a freak accident. This met BEVA guidelines but I still had to justify his increased value with an assessor who agreed that he was worth the increased amount. I had another horse which I had insured for what I paid for him (£10,000) but when he was pts some years later - again under BEVA guildelines - the assessor did not accept this value and we negotiated £7,500.

The point I am trying to make is that mortality is paid out 'for sum insured or market value, whichever is less' so overvaluing is pointless and it will be up to you to prove your increased valuation is the market value. Also in any case you will not get a payout if the horse is pts and it does not meet BEVA guidelines - unfortunately more do not meet BEVA guidelines than do.
 

BethanT

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Thanks all. Horse is insured for vets fees, death and disappearances (so if he was stolen or went missing etc). He is with NFU. They were fine when I upped it last time.

I might give them a call and find out what extra it would be for LOU, and what would be required. But for now I think I have his value about right.

Thanks again, some good points. Don't know much about BEVA so will do some reading on that.
 
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