Instructor Insurance

[Andrew657]

Have just been reading the thread on instructor qualifications and was surprised by the emphasis on their insurance.

For competent adults, on their own horses - wondered what scenario's you would expect instructor's insurance to cover - rather than it being your own responsibility,

 

[Roxylola]

I teach children on their own ponies too.
Its not really a question of expecting to need it, but if a client has a life changing injury during a lesson and freak accidents can and do happen, I want to know that I've got something in place to help them. They might need to have a house converted to deal with a wheelchair, a special car etc. For me, it's to cover the unthinkable

 

[View]

For me, it's to cover the unthinkable

This - the complete and utter freak accident.

In my full time job, I have to deal with so many personal injury claims, and while the vast majority are really nothing and part of the prevalent claim culture, there is just the odd one that our insurance has paid out on.

I've never had to use my instructor or CC&C insurance, but for me it is peace of mind. I cannot describe the stress of dealing with a PI claim that caused life changing injuries to a young woman - it would have been so much worse had there not been an insurance policy in place. Even though the court decided that the young woman in question was 90% the author of her own misfortune, the amount that our insurance paid out would have seen me lose everything had I been personally liable.

 

[Red-1]

What Roxyola said, as in to help the injured rider, but also, as a trainer, if the worst did happen, I would prefer not to lose my house!

I am well aware that, however careful you are, when you involve a horse, the unexpected can happen. Especially when you may only have seen the horse a couple of times. They can have medical conditions, not obvious even to a vet, that can cause sudden discomfort leading to unexpected behaviour.

Even if the horse behaves perfectly, the rider can make an error. Any rider. Remember the top rider at one of the top events, one of the top riders (I won't name her to spare blushes) who was distracted by the quad carrying the camera, missed the stride and started to kick like billy stink? Caused a fall? At the immediate time she blamed the camera, later on she withdrew that and said it was her own distraction. If someone is injured, they often wouldn't go on to admit it was their error. They would take action.

The trouble is, a court, who decides if you lose your house or not (as in, you owe the injured person money, that you have to sell your house to pay), is generally not horse aware. A clever solicitor could make the case that it is proven that such a distraction near a working horse is inherently dangerous. Once there is an accident, that would be very hard to disprovre. There will be other cases where horses have been distracted by stuff at the side of a schooling arena. If you were a trainer in charge of a schooling session and someone working in the yard dropped something, there was an accident, you would be liable.

I personally know a trainer who lost a case where an experienced rider was riding an experienced horse in an arena, with (generally quiet) horses turned out in the field nearby. The field horses spooked, the rider's horse spooked, the rider fell and was injured, the rider took legal action and the trainer lost their case. Fortunately the trainer had insurance, for their own benefit as well as for the benefit of the injured party.

I won't teach without insurance.

I believe that I am careful, but things happen. I could make a mis-judgement, however careful I am. The horse could do something unexpected, the rider could do something unexpected, something unexpected could happen in the locality.

 

[Wishfilly]

I believe the legal position is that if you are riding under someone's instruction, and an accident happens due to you following their instructions, the instructor would bear some liability.

Yes, you could say a responsible adult would say no to anything they do not feel comfortable with. However, the point of employing an instructor is that they have more expertise than you. Adult riders can still be beginners and not know when to say no, or not feel able to.

Many instructors will also ride clients' horses at times, and they need insurance to cover both the horse, and public liability whilst doing this.