Insurance, do you bother? are the insured for full value? what cover??

Z

zoeshiloh

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www.stowmarketanddistrictridingclub.com
When I first had horses, I religously made sure they were insured up to the hilt! The premiums went up more and more every year, and as I increased the number of horses I had, I realised I couldn't afford to keep insuring them. Instead I paid £100 per month into a bank account as an 'emergency fund' in case something happened to them. (I still have public liability cover though) I have sponsors who have insured my show horses with NFU, but obviously they don't insure my 'fun' horses.

Now, since we've had a poorly horse at our yard, I have suddenly started to rethink things. I looked at some quotes for my boys, and they varied from £155 to £600 per year depending on the horses value and what cover I wanted.

It got me thinking - my 15yo lad - why insure him for more than £500 - if something happened to him I wouldn't want to spend the insurance payout. If I insure him for £500 I can still claim vet fees etc, and the premium is only £155 compared to the £471 if I insure him for full value.

Then what cover do you go for - vet fees up to £3500 with £500 excess or up to £5000 with £135 excess? The latter adds another £200 on the yearly premium, but £3000 can be spent in minutes with vets these days!

And do you then insure your tack on top of that? Is it worth £30 a year to insure £1000 worth of tack, or do you just take the risk, or even try and claim it off your household insurance? As I keep my tack at home, it is listed on my household cover, so is there any point insuring it with the horse?

Just a few ideas please what other people do, what companies they use etc. I used to be with Equestrian Direct, but they have changed hands, and a post on here the other day said they aren't overly reliable now. I have been looking into petplan - they seem to have the best reputation, although are also the most expensive.
 
I've always used Petplan - they're not cheap but PAY!!

I've heard about several other of the big ins companies that they wriggle out of claims and you never get paid on the basis of small print.

Petplan have always paid up - even for really complicated and expensive claims
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I very nearly did the same as you and stopped paying insurance and put the money away, as I'd been paying out for years and never had to claim. But before I did that one of mine decided to destroy her tendon and needed loads of treatment including stem cell which resulted in a bill of just over £5k, so really pleased I didn't stop the insurance.

I'm with NFU (who have been brilliant) and insure mine for the minimum amount - I think it's £1k - and have £5k vets fees, I don't cover tack or anything else and I've got public liability through the BHS which knocks a bit off the premiums too.
 
I use Scottish Equestrian who have always been brilliant and were taken over by Petplan in February. NFU is also good, and South Essex is not too bad but we had problems with them and moved to SEIS.

Ihave insurance because SEIS will insure George til he is 25 for illness, vets etc. I have him insured for his purchase price of 1600, and probably would keep it at that because if he died I'd want another horse equivalent to him really. Lanky was bought for 3000 and is insured for 3500. I will probably revise that this year because 1) he is now probably nothing more than a light hack due to the problems he's had the last 3 months, and 2) I'd never spend more than 1500 on a horse again, so so long as the insurer paid that out I'd be happy.

I have considered getting BHS Gold membership for public liability, getting the highest farmkey protection (have bog standard now) and getting them microchipped and putting about £100 a month into an account to cover vets fees. However, to be honest, with us, when things are a bit tight financially, the first thing to be cut back on for a while is the savings, and if that happened and a horse needed expensive colic treatment or something, I'd not have the money there.

Saying all of that, despite SEIS insuring George til 25 for illness etc, I've heard of people insured with their owner Petplan, being refused payouts for the likes of colic because it relates to old age. Say what?! Why insure them to 25 then?! Also, in some cases, Petplan haven't paid out to friends of mine (in one, they were taken to court) and I think if you pay 750 a year in premiums (as I do for 2 horses) and then they don't pay out, that's 750 a year you could have put in an account and used straight away instead of faffing with claims. Some vets WILL charge more if they know you are insured as well. I also think that if you are not insured for illness and injury, it can take away some of the complex decisions; for example, with Lanky, if I wanted to have him PTS with the OCD, he has to meet BEVA guidelines for humane destruction - it doesn't matter that he could have been in low level pain (he isn't at the moment), for the insurer to pay out on his death. If I didn't have him insured, it makes the decision more about the horse and less about the insurer. I am luckily the kind of person who would have a horse PTS regardless if the insurer agreed with the ethics of it, if I felt the horse was suffering. If I didn't have insurance, I'd probably also have a far easier time deciding whether to put the horse through surgery that may not work and giving it expensive treatments that have seldom been tested (not that I do, but I think this is an issue for everyone).

I think it's a really personal choice and depends on your financial situation. I am having a baby in July so will probably keep my insurance until it runs out in September and then reassess after the little episode I have just had. I will probably be back working by October sort of time.
 
We have had up to 5 horses at once here and like you religiously used to insure them all, until they bec ame too old to get cover. We had a mare and foal (bought as BOGOF) who were ill, although the mare was insured neither of them were covered under the policy and cost £1000 in vets bill (17yrs ago). Then more recently when Pearl had to be pts in an emergency we had trouble getting any money from the ins co. We took the decision then not to renew the insurance on the others. Over the years we have paid out far more than any of the horses were worth in premiums and apart from the 2 instances above have hardly ever needed a vet for anything other than vaccs (touch wood) . We have had occasional simple colic, which need just a couple of jabs to cure and which cost just less than the excess but then led to exclusions on the policy.
We decided that we would not want to put any of the horses through prolonged periods of box-rest so would be unlikely to need to pay for very expensive operations. We felt that we would be able to pay for any treatment that we might need. (Touch wood again!)
 
I do insure but my primary reason is for vet's fees and public liability.

I have never insured for LOU as this hikes the premium up and there are a lot of get out clauses on LOU anyway.
I don't insure for full value either.

Currently I have a smart young horse with BE and BD form. He is only insured for 3K despite him being worth more. I figure if I loose him then I could buy a fairly nice 3yo if I looked hard enough for 3K.

So I get 5K vets fees, PL, and 3K for death/theft. This is for the sum of £28 a month which for a reputable company like NFU I think is very good.

My old retired boy has very basic cover - he is insured for £100 and has £3.5K of external injury only vets fee cover, that costs £12 a month with KBIS
 
I pay insurance, but not for what he is worth. I pay insurance in case I need to pay vets fees, so I insured him for what I bought him for (about 3 times cheaper than what he is worth) and I'm not going to alter that. I also pay for hospitalisation cover, which pays for transport to and from vets surgery and also the cost of the care whilst he is there, should he need it.
I also have personal accident cover, but that is for my mums peace of mind more than anything (she contributed towards the insurance!)
I don't have tack cover, no.
I use AmTrust Equine. They have a very good reputation for paying out, are knowledgeable and helpful, and worked out the cheapest, by far, for the cover I wanted.
 
Mine is insured just for vets fees. She is insured for 2.5k which is well under what she is worth, but this means I get 5k worth of vets fees. I get my liability insurance through my BE membership. It costs me about £27 a mnth
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I always insure mine now, but I have the sum insured at the minumum to keep premiums low as my main concern is vet fees and third party, I am with Petplan and always have been.

I just wanted to say though that Scottish Equestrian are underwritten by allianz who also underwrite KBIS and Petplan, but is a different company and Scottish equestrain does NOT insure till the age of 25yrs only 20yrs then your horse will move to a Mature horse Plan.
 
I pay it, including LOU. Unfortunately in the last 5 years I've been glad of it with both my horses, Petplan have been absolutely superb with both, for several claims (I still think they are in profit from me at the mo tho!) and are being wonderful about all the probs my youngster has at the mo. I would always recommend them.
With the experiences i've had, with my two being eventers I would say it is always worth having at least vets fees cover. If you are lucky your horse will not be ill for several years until you have put enough away. I don't think it's worth the risk something major happens in the first year and you don't have the money to treat them for somrthing which might be easily fixable.
 
Guess it depends on your individual circumstances. We have never insured for vets fees in the past and (touch wood) have never had to have any major vets treatment. However, since I worked in insurance I see just how many problems can occur and how expensive tretamnet can be so when we got our new horse (well my sisters) I have insured him for his full market value and included vets fees BUT then I have got discount allowance on my policy (there are some perks to the job!).

I think ALL people should have PL cover at the very minimum. Worringly people seem to think of Vet Fees cover more than liability but, believe me a £5000 vets bill is going to be easier to pay (and to save up beforehand if you put some aside a month) than hundreds of thousands of pounds to millions in a liability claim and they DO happen. Most commonly is where a horse gets loose on a road and causes an accident/leaves a driver(s) permanently disabled.

As for Tack - I would try and insure it on your household policy if possible if I'm honest. A lot of insurance companies have a fair few terms on Tack cover/loss so if you can cover it on your household it makes it cheaper in the long run and you may also get cover for when it is being used out and about as opposed to restricted to theft from a tack room/building.
 
I don't insure,

a) because I have horses coming and going all the time, and
b) because most companies only offer mortality pay outs.

Tack is covered under the farm insurance.
 
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Scottish equestrain does NOT insure till the age of 25yrs only 20yrs then your horse will move to a Mature horse Plan.

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My horse is insured until 25 because we insured with them before 16 which at the time was what you needed to do to ensure they would keep paying out until 25.
 
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Scottish equestrain does NOT insure till the age of 25yrs only 20yrs then your horse will move to a Mature horse Plan.

[/ QUOTE ]

My horse is insured until 25 because we insured with them before 16 which at the time was what you needed to do to ensure they would keep paying out until 25.

[/ QUOTE ]

Please check your poliy as I know 100% this is wrong. I work for Allianz, Petplan insure till 25yrs if insured before 20yrs

Scottish Equestrain only till 20yrs when your horse will move onto a mature horse plan. please do call and this would be confirmed.

Petplan covers till 25yrs this does include full illness cover Ie colic

Always reads terms and conditions and if you are unsure of anything then call your insurance company.
 
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