insurance value

[SO1]

Do you insure your horse for its true value or do you underinsure to save money?

I got my insurance renewal through and I am thinking I need to reduce the value of my pony due to the current market conditions as if something terrible happened I would only get market value. I have him insured for more or less what I paid for him which is £3,000. However things have changed over the last 5 years and he is now injured with a broken splint bone and while the prognosis is good I expect this will reduce his value. He is also quirky.

Despite having a major quirk that I was unaware of when I bought him, I doubt I would be able to replace him with £3,000 although he is not worth as much as that now mainly because there are not many ponies like him with the same problem.

He is a 10 year old NF who is meant to be 14.1 but could be smaller - never been measured. He is very nice natured, good to catch, box, shoe, clip, with vet, does not kick or bite humans, good with dogs and kids. He hacks out alone and in company and is good in most traffic, and has been ridden on London roads, though does not like noisey sports cars though if they reve their engines a lot and speed past. I am what most would call a nervous numpty rider and yet I have won an open prelim on him, he is ace on sponsored rides forward going but can go round on a loose rein and does not mind being at the back or in front. He also jumps even though I am nervous he will take me round clear round and beginners jumping though has the ability to do much more he will easily jump 2.9ft or much higher and is bold. I have had him since he was just turned 5 so schooled him myself despite being nervous and not a talented rider. I have also done Le Trec and Gymkhana games on him too. He has been shown at county level with a 3rd at Herts county with me and 2nd & 3rd at breed show as a youngster with his breeder. He is a lovely example of his breed but showing is not really my thing. He is basically a quality pony who is very tolerant of me and has done a bit of most things slightly limited by me not having horse transport so I hack to most RC events and then hire a lorry for bigger outings.

However there are very few perfect ponies around and he has a big BUT and that is that he will jump out of his stable unless he has a grid up and can get very worked up in certain environments if he is in his stable so he lives out. He is on box rest at the moment but at a professional rehab yard who have the facilities to deal with him having others in at the same time and being very calm and yet firm with him and very set routine.

I am thinking whilst he would be very difficult to replace like for like as there are not many exactly like him around with the same quirk around because he does not like stabling it is very limiting so his market value would really be reduced to around £1,500 or maybe even less in this current climate as most people want to be able to easily stable their horses for overnight shows etc. I am presuming it is easy to reduce the amount he is insured for and I could save money as the insurance company would never pay out the £3,000 if the worst happened to him and he needed to be PTS.

 

[criso]

You may not save as much as you hope.

I looked at doing that when my insurance premiums went up. However when I got the breakdown of what each part of my insurance cost it turned out that "loss of horse" was a small proportion of the whole and it was vet cover that made up most of the premium.

For the tiny amount I would have saved, I left it at the original value even though that may have changed. If the worst happened I would rather start from a higher value and negotiate from there.

You can ask NFU to give you a breakdown of what each part of your insurance costs.

 

[SO1]

The loss of horse insurance costs me £126 a year so if I halfed his value then I could potentially save £60 a year which is not an unreasonable amount especially if spread over many years.

 

[Miss L Toe]

You might save more money looking around, and making sure you only insure for what you want, tbh you need not worry too much, as other have said vet fes are the most worrying aspect of horse ownership. In the long term, you still need to save up for a replacement.
Don't go for E&L as they have a bad reputation, and there are other companies associated with them to avoid.

 

[Shay]

I'm very surprised that reducing market value has such an impact on your loss insurance - you might want to shop around a bit. And check your small print! Our insurance will only pay market value regardless of the sum insured - that value to be independantly assessed at time of death. The only purpose of the sum insured (on our policy anyway) is to determine the level of vetting required and as a double check for the types of activities incured for. (You are not likely to have a £20,000 happy hacker!)

If your small print contains a similar clause then I think you might be being fleeced by your insurance company.

 

[criso]

The loss of horse insurance costs me £126 a year so if I halfed his value then I could potentially save £60 a year which is not an unreasonable amount especially if spread over many years.

When I asked reducing the value by half didn't halve the amount insured or not in our case anyway so I left it. This was few years ago though, I may look at it again when it comes to renewal.

 

[SO1]

I am really happy with NFU so far so not interested in changing to another company just thinking might save some money from reducing the loss of horse part.

I presumed most people might do this over time as their horse ages or if they have an injury?