Insurance for Retired/LOU horses

[Aragon56]

Sorry this is a boring post!

I claimed for LOU recently and once we received our settlement cheque the policy was cancelled. Having spoken to the insurers (Petplan) today about insuring her, they said that the underwriters wouldn't insure her for anything other than group 1 (retired horses, horses at grass) due to the nature of the injury. However my mare is still ok to hack on an occasional basis, but wouldn't be covered for this. Also I was told that once you claim LOU you can't insure the horse with another company, you have to stay with the insurer which you claimed LOU from. So I can't go to another company and see if they'll insure her for light hacking anyway.

TBH I'm not sure its even worth having insurance seeing as the vets fees are only up to £500, but I guess its worth it for the 3rd party & personal accident aspect.

I know plenty of horses aren't insured but I'm a bit concerned about hacking out with no insurance-what if we were hit by a car or something like that? I would have my rider insurance, but the horse wouldn't be covered.

On a different note, I also enquired about insurance for a potential new horse. I never realised that hunting was in the group 5 category, and therefore really expensive.

Do most people who hunt have their horse insured for hunting, or just don't declare it? Its not like I would be going every week even if I did get the new horse, just once or twice. It would be great if you could add on one days worth of cover for hunting as and when you needed it, I don't know if any other company offers this though?

Thanks

 

[_daisy_]

i had the same problem when i claimed LOU, however im insured witht eh NFU. they cancelled my policy but when i rang up to see if they would re-insure her they said no problem.
im presuming the reason that they have the lowest choice of cover is because they are expecting you not to ride the horse, as that is normally the reason why they have paid out - because the horse cant do the job it was initially insured for.

However my horse is insured and has vets fees up to £5000 per claim still and is only excluded for what i claimed LOU on and what was found on her mortality vetting vertificate. They have insured her for value of £800 and is also covered for loss of animal

As far as im aware theres got to be an insurance company that will insure a horse who has LOU as what happens to all the people that buy LOU horses, but werent the ones that claimed?

it will be hard and maybe youll have to take the basic cover with petplan.

when ive gone hunting, i call and change the use on the policy - always best to be safe than sorry

 

[Ziggy_]

I have a LOU mare and have asked various insurance companies about covering her - KBIS offered me the best deal, third party, personal accident, saddlery and tack, accidental injury and colic surgery for £189 a year.

They wouldn't offer mortality or theft as they valued her at £1 and wouldn't offer any more than the above terms. I don't know who the original company that paid out was and I told them this.

I didn't use the cover in the end, instead I got BHS gold membership for the third party liability and thats all I have. Might be worth contacting them though.

 

[Aragon56]

Thanks, I might try KBIS, or just get third party cover through the BHS. Maybe the girl I was speaking to wasn't quite clear on the facts regarding LOU insurance with other companies?

I know my horse isn't worth anything any more, but I would like to be insured for the odd hack, and for my saddle etc.

 

[ladyt25]

I underwrite insurance and wouldn't worry about providing cover for a LOU animal - obviously the condition claimed for for the LOU would be excluded and the market value of the horse is going to be less but, as far as vets fees etc are concerned we would cover on normal vets fees levels for any un-related conditions.