Insurance - level of cover

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Lacuna

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OK so I currently have the 2 ponies insured through Petplan for approx £100 per month for vets fees up to 5k and public liability. They are both cobs one 13hh, 6yo mare and one 14hh, 18yo gelding. Activitywise they don't do much apart from a hack a couple of times a month if that, the mare isn't even properly backed yet.
I'm having to think about pennies at the moment and could do with reducing their bill. Is it worth looking at just external injury cover? Are there cheaper options to cover just vet fees?

I don't want to not have insurance as I couldn't afford thousands in vet fees if something happened to either of them. My biggest fear is that I reduce cover and then something happens that would have been covered by what I have now. Any advice welcome.
 
Membership of World Horse Welfare is another one to consider for accidental injury cover - up to £1,500 per year. I believe it also includes public liability (I also have that under my British Dressage membership).
 
I have the harry hall insurance for my 3 with all the added extras (up to £3000 vet fees, colic cover and tack) and their PL insurance too. I think the PL cover is about £10 a quarter and the vet fees is about £100 a quarter. I then have a credit card with a large limit on it for anything the insurance cover wouldn't pay out on.

It really depends what you are prepared to put your horses through treatment and surgery wise. And I get that every horse is different, for instance I wouldn't put my nervous one through anything that meant spending time away from home in an unfamiliar environment where I couldn't be is 'stable person' or long lengths of box rest as it would create other issues with stress, anxiety and ulcers. But my other two I wouldn't worry about them being away from home. So really it's quite a personal thing IMHO.
 
To me it would be a false economy if money is short.

Although I have just changed my mare from £5k to £3k as she’s almost retired.
 
Lacuna said:
I don't want to not have insurance as I couldn't afford thousands in vet fees if something happened to either of them. My biggest fear is that I reduce cover and then something happens that would have been covered by what I have now. Any advice welcome.
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Vets fees can rack up very quickly. It’s a big risk if you don’t have access to savings or credit you can afford to pay back to cover a large vet bill. Given what you’ve said I think you would worry about your horses requiring treatment for anything other than external injury if you reduce your cover.
 
If you don't have £thousands in savings you are happy to burn or space on credit cards you're happy to spend years paying off then AND you're not prepared to retire early / PTS if something expensive happens = then saving a few £ a month on insurance is false economy probably.

I would check what the 18 y/o is really insured for - careful read of small print to make sure he's not automatically moved to a veteran / external only policy anyway because of his age.
I would see if you can get premiums down by agreeing a higher excess - the difference between £100 excess and £250 excess can be marked.
I would check to see if you can get premiums down by reducing their value - even if you paid £5k for each, you don't have to insure them for that (it's really vets fees that's the biggest cost covered - the criteria to get a death payout are sooooo hard to meet that almost never happens.

So insuring them for £1k value but with £5k of vets fees covered for example can be well worth it.
 
I’m finding The Insurance Emporium to be not only competitive price wise but also very reliable in paying out.

For example, a 9yo eventing at international level, with a fairly significant claim on the policy is £60pcm. Now the horse is only insured for £500 value (when you could probably justify the best part of two extra zeros on that), but he has the full 5k vets cover.
 
Pet Plan are good but one of the more expensive insurance companies for dogs and cats as well as horses. I am with Agria for my horse and for Injury and Illness it's 52.00 a month.
 
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