injuries in uninsured horses

Mine is uninsured and has been since I bought him, back in the days when he was actually useful...

Within 8 weeks of purchase he'd fractured his hock, but box-rest and many subsequent months of restricted turnout/"controlled exercise" (ha bloody ha!) healed that. Not cheap to fix with the emergency call-out and numerous sets of x-rays but not horrendous; I was also offered a reduced rate for surgery had I chosen that option.

He is now retired (not from the fracture, little sod developed unrelated bone spavin) and although prone to accidents and suffering from equine-Munchausen's he is still not insured as every part of him would probably be excluded from now, and I would've kept him uninsured even if he was still in work. A lot of things can be solved with time, I wouldn't chose to have any horse operated on for colic and quite frankly I would do all in my power to avoid him having a GA where possible, so there are few instances where I'd need insurance.
 
Our vets run a credit union, so we pay what we would have paid in insurance into that. It means that everything is budgeted for, even the routine stuff, with no excesses to pay and no exclusions to worry about.

The vast majority of our horses are too old to insure now anyway.

I remember when H fractured his splint bone and did a ligament the first time, we did the whole vet hospital thing and he had an operation etc, and then 6 months of rest and rehab. Then he did the same thing on the other leg, and he just had the rest and rehab. Both injuries healed the same. So these days I always have a discussion with the vet about the 'do nothing' option. Time is not a problem for me - they can have as much time as they want, and if rest and rehab is likely to have the same result, I'll go with the non-invasive treatment any time.

I'd echo the above comments about problematic wounds being the ones that rack up vet bills, though, as there isn't a lot of option but to keep going in that situation as proper healing is always on the horizon.
 
none of ours are insured-shetland and mums horse are worth bugger all and mums horse would be excluded for the things most likely to reoccur-sarcoids and susp ligs anyway.

maybe when star gets to PSG ill investigate how much it would cost to insure him, but for now-i have a credit card for emergencies and would absolutely treat as if he were insured.im also fortunate that family is well off and i know that if the cost somehow exceeded what i personally could pay, dad would lend me the money interest free.

my family business is insurance and i agree that pet insurance is often a total waste of £££ (we dont do pet insurance BTW!)
 
I think horse insurance is a bit of a scam personally. I had a 5k vets bill last year and insurance didn't want to know, tried to put the problem down to behavioural issues. They paid me back £200. BUT they still put an exclusion on the policy afterwards! Talk about when it suits them. I've cancelled it now. If there's a problem I've got savings, parents and credit card.

Besides, if he was off work due to an injury I wouldn't be paying for schooling livery so would have extra cash anyway.
 
I'm going to speak up in favour of insurance. Maybe I've been lucky, but I've had very good experiences with my insurer, and without them I honestly don't think my horse would be ridden today. Over two years he racked up nearly 7k in vets bills (two separate injuries both requiring surgery). There is simply no way I'd be able to pay this myself, credit card, family help, or not. Ok, perhaps I would have just turned him away but both injuries were such that for a return to a useful life, surgery was the best option. My insurance company (SEIB, for those who want to know) was exemplary. They paid every invoice immediately, paid for full stabling and nursing costs both times. They were supportive when I decided to go for IRAP six months after surgery. And the exclusions they've put on my policy are only for the exact piece of anatomy that was effected and nothing else. And my premium didn't go up. Impressed and happy customer here.
 
We had this exact problem a year ago, vets fees were excess of 8k and the horse gad to go away to full livery as he was being treated by a specialist vet, (livery was at family friends so we did not pay the full amount!). The horse at the time had cost a 5 figure sum and was only 5, as he was not insured we were given the option to put him down but we were in the position to pay the bill. It also was not the full wack all at once we paid it as we went along so the bil did not get on top of us.
 
yes i have to say that the one time i have had a claim my insurance company were brilliant...but obviously there is an exclusion on the policy now... i think what i am going to do is this:
a) get the TB sold- he's for sale and so hopefully won't be a dilemma much longer
b) reduce V's value down (if he dies then i can just save up for a new horse using the money i won't be spending keeping a horse?! morbid i know!) but keep 5k vets fees.
c) take my tack off my insurance. if it gets nicked it'll probs be at a show or something when its not locked properly anyway?

hopefully that should give me savings but mean that V is still insured should he decide to damage himself....? :)
thanks for your help peoples! :D
 
Kelpie said:
if you just want third party liability cover, you could consider becoming a BHS gold member, as you get the insurance as part of the membership - that's what I do.... and I figure with 3 neds actually if I saved up the insurance each month an put it in a separate account, chances are that would cover most emergencies and what that didn't cover my credit card would be bashed for! (that's what credit cards were invented for, as far as I'm concerned!!)
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Thats what I ended up doing - added bonus of BHS is that there is no excess to pay :)
 
None of my horses is insured, because in my country you can only insure horses for death or loss of use - no vet fees.

Life would be so good if I could insure for vet fees!!

So in the case of extremely expensive treatment I would have to borrow money from family etc.
 
FrodoBeutlin said:
None of my horses is insured, because in my country you can only insure horses for death or loss of use - no vet fees.

Life would be so good if I could insure for vet fees!!

So in the case of extremely expensive treatment I would have to borrow money from family etc.
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wow i can't believe that...amazing...i wouldn't even bother if i couldn't get vets fees covered...i guess would then have to put the equivalent away into a savings account...:eek:
 
diggerbez said:
c) take my tack off my insurance. if it gets nicked it'll probs be at a show or something when its not locked properly anyway?
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Check to see if it's covered on your household policy or if it isn't get a price for it to be added. We have a fairly fancy household policy because of problems insuring the house when we first moved here (long story) and when I read it through the other year I realised that I'd thought my tack had been uninsured all this time (I don't have it covered on the horse policies) whereas in fact it is insured on a new for old basis anywhere in the world!
 
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