insurance hmmm...

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madabouthehorse

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hello :) was looking for a bit of advice really....I've been quoted £460 a year and although i know unexpected bills can be :eek: but surely it would be better if i just saved that money per year so not to waste my money? Do you bother with insurance? Whats on your cover?
I would only be hacking, schooling jumping etc at home on my family's farm and maybe go to the occasional local show, would you suggest i bother? I have the free included rider insurance through the pony club and have done for many years now, although have never claimed (does anyone know what this covers?)

Many thanks in advance :)
 
Currently our lot are insured but I'm hoping to have enough saved in a couple of years so that I can stop the insurance but still have enough money to pay for any emergencies. Sometimes I wonder why I don't just stop it now - our three are all very healthy *touch wood* and have an easy, stress-free life - but I like to know that if something did go wrong, I can afford to have them treated properly. If you decide not to insure you have to accept that if you ever need e.g. colic surgery or maybe expensive diagnostics and/or treatment for lameness then you will probably need to pts or retire (depending on the circumstances). That's not a chance that I personally want to take, so for the moment we'll keep paying the extortionate rates! Ho hum.
 
I keep wondering if it's worth paying a fortune for insurance for vets bills as lots of insurers cap the amount you can claim at say £5000 a claim, which is probably not enough if your horse needed an emergency operation for something like colic. I do wonder whether just to put the money every year in a savings account - like my friend who owns an 'oldie' who can't be insured anyway.
 
I insure for vets bills and third party liability. Didn't bother with anything else. £5000 cap is fine for me, if I got a bill higher than that that insurance wouldn't cover, depending on what it was for it'd be time to PTS.
 
I keep my insurance down by using bhs for public liability and personal accident and my home insurance for my tack.
 
Mine are both insured for public liability and vets fees up to £5000.

I am currently up to £872 for Nitty and she hasn't even had the op she needs yet. Almost certainly it'll touch £4k by the end. Tiny little wound that has become a big problem. Without insurance I'd have had her shot.

Unless I had £10k in the bank to cover them both at once (unlikely but possible) I wouldn't be happy to go without!
 
I nearly cancelled mine last year, had the mare 13 years and she'd only seen the vet for vaccinations. She is just about to bottom out the 5k cover at the vets as we speak! I don't insure my tb as she has so many exclusions it'd probably only cover her ears :p they are all covered third party and for death as a result of an accident through the farm policy for peanuts ;)
 
OP I would insure. I moved 2 of mine to Petplan with limited cover - up to £3,500 vet bills and a £500 excess to keep the costs down. I have another insured with NFU. The only one uninsured is my 10hh falabella x who is 20 years old.

I had owned my mare but 3 months when she suffered an eye laceration and that bill (including 2 operations at Newmarket) totalled £5,800. My vet fees cap was £5k thankfully at that time. My new gelding - I have owned since Sept. He has already had £1,500 on gastroscoping and ulcer treatment, £1,000 on an eye ulcer/uveitis and he will bottom out £5,000 on lameness/pelvic dysfunction.

Without insurance my mare would have lost her eye (vet's told me cheapest course was to remove it!!! :() and my gelding would have been pts :( So my advice is always to insure. You cannot save enough to cover these sorts of bills imo!

I can vouch for other pet insurance too! I had a £2,000 bill for my lab x bitch who needed emergency vet treatment from the extortionate out of hours chain practice. I also have a cat that got kicked by a horse and needed leg pinning - that bill was £1,600.
 
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I have always insured but I did think extra hard about it this year questions I asked myself

1 could you find upto £2k for injury answer yes if I sold lorry

2 could you go to £5 if needed answer NO WAY

3 can you make the decision to PTS if you couldn't afford the bill answer NO

4 could you live with yourself if number 3 happened answer NO

So I insured again :D

my friend answers differently to questions 3 and 4 so doesn't insure. personal choice
 
I insured with E&L at around £35 per month - I was led to beleive that I had vets cover upto £5k. When my boy went lame, i realised that they had put me on the lower cover of £1600! not what i asked for, but my fault for not checking. The vets bill came in, at £1000. Of that, £100 was for stabling, and £175 was the xcess, so overall they are only going to pay £725. They are now questioning the payment because I got the date wrong by 1 day. It looks like he just twisted himself in the last snow/ice we had, but I`ve just had a letter from E&L excluding his front foot because apparently the results are inconclusive! What do we insure for. They dont want to accept any risk for their money. Im seriously thinking about just getting BHS membership for public liability. and self insuring for accident and illness
 
Having just entered the mine field which is the UK equine insurance market I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised.

Having originally spoken to NFU said they would send a quote but it never arrived, then KBIS who said cover would only kick in 24 hours after he arrived in the UK in case he had a colic???? I ended up going to Lycetts for a transportation quote and ended up putting the whole thing with them, I have the following cover;

Vet cover up to his insured value of 3.5K
Emergency Life Saving Vet cover of up to 5K
Death, theft, straying
Transportation cover from Holland to UK
Third party liability

whole lot was £419.00 for the year, no vetting required just a Health form to fill in, they have excluded the Side Bones in the front feet BUT if my vet is happy to say any problems arising are not to do with the side bones they will be covered.

Customer service was wonderful, I sent them my x-rays and they were back within an hour with the relevant exclusion.

Would recommend to the extent that when I get another horse in Holland as they are happy to insure over here then I will use them rather than a Dutch insurer. I will then also get a two horse discount.
 
I would never be without insurance, until my boys hit the age when they wont be covered. I have just renewed my insurance for the 3rd year on my 20yr TB, over the 3 years insurance has cost around £1,600 and so far Petplan have paid out approx £8,500, although insurance is expensive I would never have been able to find that sort of money if I wasn't covered
 
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