How much do you insure for?

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not_with_it

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A post below got me thinking, how many of you actually insure your horse for what it is worth?
I bought my mare very cheap and I have her insured for the amount I bought her for even though she has gone up in value. I personally dont see the point in insuring horses for a lot, there is no rule to say the more you insure for the more money you will get for vet fees. The only reason I could see someone doing this for is loss of use. It just means you have to pay out more each year.

A friend of mine bought a horse for over 10k and couldnt afford to insure it. Instead she put a certain amount of money aside incase anything happened. So when her horse seriously injured its leg she had to find funds to pay the bills. Now if it were me I would have just insured the horse for less just to cover vet fees.

What are other peoples views on this?
 
Archie is insured for what i brought him for. Depending on my financial situation by the end of the year i will increase his insurance to what he is worth at that time, as he is covered for loss of use.

Bloss is insured for less that shes worth, and isnt insured for loss of use.
 
IMO what it comes down to is whether you can stand to lose the full value of the horse should something happen to it.

If you have a £30k horse and it has to be PTS tomorrow, can you afford to buy a horse of the same value without receiving anything back from the insurers?

Insuring for less than value, as you said, lowers the premiums and this is ok if you have a horse valued at the lower end of the market. Unfortunatly, for those with horses at the other end, it becomes harder to be able to afford the loss (or the replacement) should a problem occur.
 
The insurance company will expect you to prove the value you have placed on your horse if the worst happens. My mare has increased in value since I bought her but since I don't compete I have very little to prove it. Therefore she is insured for her purchase price and vets fees - I think vets fees are the most important part. My mare ran up £3k vet bill last summer from a hock injury, I only paid £1200 for her 8 years ago!!
 
What we paid for her. If we were to sell her she'd be worth more as she's now broken to ride but we haven't upped the value, have thought about it though... (she was insured for all the riding activities I'd do with her eventually when I started the policy as it wasn't long before I broke her)
 
I can understand that but the premiums must be huge for a horse of that amount!
I would rather have an expensive horse insured for less than not have it insured at all!
 
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If you have a £30k horse and it has to be PTS tomorrow, can you afford to buy a horse of the same value without receiving anything back from the insurers?


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This is the case with a lot of competition horses though. Little eventer that my friend has is valued at around the 25k mark. However, she's not insured for anything like that - and again the main reason for the insurance is to cover veterinary costs because of accident or illness.
 
I have Hannah insured for £4,500 although I suspect she is worth a bit more than that, but have never changed it. Grace is insured for the price she is for sale at, £2,500 but again, if I buy her I will probably increase that.
 
I think the bottom line is you insure your horse for what you cannot afford to lose in the case of LOU or death
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Some people do insure for a nominal amount to cover vets fees, and that's fair enough. The premiums on any horse over £10k, if you include LOU, vets and all the associated gubbins, means that you only need to insure it for about 7 years before the premiums outweigh what you paid for the horse
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ETS: How could anyone afford to insure a horse like Arko or Locarno for what it is 'worth' anyway....and who would arbitrate in the case that the insurance company disagreed
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I have thought of raising my insurance now that my filly has been backed.

My insurers tell me that I will need her vetted again, if I want to raise the value above £5000.
 
I have insured my mare for a little less than what I bought her for, however looking at this market she is worth alot more than what I paid for her
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Another thing is, I know a lot of people who insure their horse for more than it is worth. The only way they would benefit from that is if the horse was LOU. But even then like Rambo has said it doesnt take long before you have paid more on premiums than the horse is worth. I would rather have the money in my pocket than the insurers.
 
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I insure mine for the minimum amount as a comp horse which is 2.5k, I paid more than this for him, but just want verts cover.

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This is exactly the same as me, you could insure a horse for £500 and still get the same cover for vet fees as a horse insured for 50k would! I can understand people insuring more for LOU but cant understand why people want to pay more just to be covered for vets fees.
 
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I insure mine for the minimum amount as a comp horse which is 2.5k, I paid more than this for him, but just want verts cover.

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This is exactly the same as me, you could insure a horse for £500 and still get the same cover for vet fees as a horse insured for 50k would! I can understand people insuring more for LOU but cant understand why people want to pay more just to be covered for vets fees.

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Well, apart from the fact you get Death cover included in the basic policy, but not LOU as this costs extra
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I have always insured for LOU and have benefited from doing so as I had a filly break her leg, the amount she was insured for helped pay for another. I know a few people that try to abuse the loss of use thing (without success) e.g. that they were bought for a certain discipline but now can't do it for whatever reason when really they can do it just with less success!

As for very expensive horses and LOU it might be better to put some away yourself if you had the discipline (which I probably wouldn't!).
 
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Well, apart from the fact you get Death cover included in the basic policy, but not LOU as this costs extra


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I give up. Do some people just like throwing money away?
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or is it a case of they think their horse is worth more than it actually is?
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I insure for what it would cost me to find a decent replacement. My horse is currently insured for what I bought him and I will increase this if he moves up another grade eventing as I will find it harder to find a replacement at the same money. I always insure LOU but its a persoanl preference.
 
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Well, apart from the fact you get Death cover included in the basic policy, but not LOU as this costs extra


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I give up. Do some people just like throwing money away?
crazy.gif
or is it a case of they think their horse is worth more than it actually is?
confused.gif


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Oh, I agree completely....was just making the point that Death and LOU are different things
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In the case of the poster above who said that LOU paid out for her when her filly broke it's leg, i would argue that the basic Death cover would have done the same...as no doubt the filly had to be destroyed
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I no longer insure mine btw as the premiums just got bigger....as did the list of exclusions
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Mine was a cheapy but has plenty of form under her now so I increased her value but it still wouldn't buy me the same standard of horse if I lost her. It would probably allow me to afford a well-bred youngster (unbroken) so I would have to start all over again.
It was enough hassle for me to increase her value the first time so I don't think I'll bother doing it again.
 
Yes of course you get the same cover on vets fees. But if you lose a horse worth 50k one would ASSUME that you'd be likely to want to replace with something of a similar ability.

If you can afford to stand that loss and just go out and buy a replacement animal, then thats great. If you can't then you need to consider insuring yourself for the actual value of the horse in question.

As rambo said, it all comes down to how much you can afford to lose. A £50k horse dropping dead tomorrow can be a much harder knock financially than a £4k horse.
 
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Well, apart from the fact you get Death cover included in the basic policy, but not LOU as this costs extra


[/ QUOTE ]

I give up. Do some people just like throwing money away?
crazy.gif
or is it a case of they think their horse is worth more than it actually is?
confused.gif


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So if you spent a large sum of money on a horse (im talking £30k up here) you wouldnt be kicking yourself if you insured for £2.5k and the horse went out and broke its leg tomorrow resulting in it being PTS? :P
 
The yes, i can see where you're coming from 100%
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I have a couple of friends who dont bother insuring at all. One puts money side every month (as someone else said), which goes directly into her horse's account. The other pays a small amount a month to her vets to use as "credit" should something happen.

And of course... when you do insure, you can bet your life they wont do anything to themselves anyway :P
 
Chex value has dropped as he's got older but I've not actually changed his policy. I think if anything happens I get market value, which will be next to nothing (would prefer nothing, money isn't going to replace him!)
 
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