Insurance - Loss Of Use?

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fathorse

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I have always insured my horse for 100% loss of use. I thought this meant that your horse was covered for loss of use in any one of the activities it is insured for but a friend has recently learnt the hard way that your horse has to lose use in ALL the activities you insure for horse for, for example, my horse is down for hacking, RC, & showing etc. but if she just cannot show anymore you can't claim loss of use if you can still hack, horse at grass etc. .... so is loss of use really worth the paper it's written on and are all insurer's different when it comes to loss of use??
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Insurance companies vary and you have to read the small print but you can't blame them sometimes because I have seen posts on here that horses suddenly can do the activity again!
I think basic insurance for vets fees and life is probably what is needed.Ask your company what your cover is exactly
 
If you get loss of us for your horse ,the horse will be retired in a field and not allowed to do any activities,and if you got to claim you only get 80% of what the horse is worth on that day,i.e if you paid and insured your horse for £10000 you will only get £8000 IF the insurance company think that the horse is worth it,if it has been in a field doing nothing they will take that into consideration when they value the horse,I went through all of this last year when i lost my horse !
 
LOU for a mare could also only mean 50% of the value as she could be used for breeding. I also found out last year that LOU on a horse 13/14 yrs old could be reduced due to the age of the horse.
 
Read the small print carefully because different insurance companies will insure for different causes for loss of use. For example, some companies will insure for external injury only which limits severely the kinds of things you can claim on.

As a rule of thumb if a loss of use policy is worth its money the premium per year should cost about 10% of the value of the horse (that is on its own and without other kinds of insurance like vets fees, etc). Anything that costs less than that is likely to have quite a lot of 'ifs' and 'buts' in the small print.
 
But LOU is not always clearly explained in the small print unfortunately. I had no idea mine would be decreased at 13 yrs until it was explained last year when i had a poss LOU claim pending. However it was always made clear to me that I would possibly only get 50% LOU on a mare. Deduct another 20% due to her age...
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LOU has been exploited in the past so i am not surprised really. Just think that insurance companies should be a bit more honest when selling it.
 
I got 80% lou on a mare I had that had Navicular and was claiming LOU on a mare a few years later that had bad ringbone. I was told I was to expect 100%, that was with NFU. Sadly I found this mare with surgical colic one morning whilst claiming LOU and had her PTS and they paid everything. NFU have been fantastic over the years.
 
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Read the small print carefully because different insurance companies will insure for different causes for loss of use. For example, some companies will insure for external injury only which limits severely the kinds of things you can claim on.

As a rule of thumb if a loss of use policy is worth its money the premium per year should cost about 10% of the value of the horse (that is on its own and without other kinds of insurance like vets fees, etc). Anything that costs less than that is likely to have quite a lot of 'ifs' and 'buts' in the small print.

[/ QUOTE ] Yes, that is what I found. I had it for a short time with one horse, but then decided it smply isn't cost effective for me!
 
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If you get loss of us for your horse ,the horse will be retired in a field and not allowed to do any activities,and if you got to claim you only get 80% of what the horse is worth on that day,i.e if you paid and insured your horse for £10000 you will only get £8000 IF the insurance company think that the horse is worth it,if it has been in a field doing nothing they will take that into consideration when they value the horse,I went through all of this last year when i lost my horse !

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This is not at all my experience. My mare was covered for loss of use and I claimed last year. She was covered for everything. She has been freezemarked so I cannot sell her if she comes sound (not that I would want to), but if she becomes sound enough to hack or to show then I will certainly be allowed to do that, I am just not allowed to make any profit from it.
 
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