Insurance, What would you do?

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Maclinda

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My horse insurance is just about up for renewal and have just received the new cost which has risen from £684 to £1018! Now i was expecting an increase as I had made a claim this year which was rather large, and payment for the claim runs out in October (navicular and tears to deep flexor tendons), so do I keep paying insurance or just cancel it all together as her feet are going to be excluded anyway. As the title says - what would you do?
 
insurance is always a hard one I think. There are pros and cons for both I guess. The guess if you horses legs are cancelled iif may seem very bad. But if they would have been insured for something like colic and you cancelled the insurance and your horse coliced very badly. you would have to pay. or on the flip side you carry on with the insurance and you horse never has another problem with anything yet there feet and your still paying out money each month .. for piece of mind? I sometimes wonder about not having insurance but I worry too much about the money side of things ( Having a very accident prone tb doesn't help!) sorry no real decent advice .
 
Maybe have a think about what you need the insurance for. Do you need vet cover, do you need third party, do you need loss of use? L.O.U adds significantly to the cost of a policy, and I don't bother with it. I'm currently thinking of scrapping a lot of the extra's on mine like death, disposal costs etc, as when you read the small print, I find myself wondering if they would even pay out.

If you just need vet and third party cover, amend your policy to include only that. One of mine turns 25 next year and as he's with PP, his policy will going forward only cover him for accidental injury. I'll be investigating the cost of just 3rd party cover for him at that point/BHS gold membership, and doing away with vets cover/anything else. I then have another who is field sound, but lame in work. I'm sorely tempted to do away with vets cover for her - if anything awful were to happen like colic, I'd have her PTS. She has a home for life, and at 12, and not useable, I need to balance up the possibility of something happening to her warranting PTS or paying hundreds each year on insuring her.

If you didn't have vet insurance, could you bring yourself to PTS if the worst happened? For two of mine, as above, I've decided that at this point going forward in their lives, yes I would, as sad as it would make me. Paying huge vets fees if you don't have the funds is not to be recommended - I've been there, done that (through no fault of my own, rather the insurance company being barstewards, and having to get the intervention of the ombudsman).
 
You can also reduce the sum assured and that knocks down the cost as many of the add on sections are based on the horses underlying value. In my case I don't have loss of use as I would prefer him to be a field ornament than not have him around and also I don't care about his replacement value as he is priceless to me so he is insured for the bare minimum which on my own insurers basis the min I am allowed is half of what I paid for him. If he was stolen I reckon they'd give him back pretty quickly anyway as he's a bit quirky bless him!
 
Well we don't insure, and I've just been through a laminitis issue which so far has been £770 for vet and £410 for farrier. I've owned the horse for over five years and this is the first non-standard vet issue he's had, so I figure I'm in credit against what I would have paid for insurance. I think you have to weigh it up, I've always considered I would use my credit card for emergencies.
 
I thought very seriously about whether to cancel the ibsurance for my 16yo when it came up for renewal. In 6 years we had 1 significant claim (atypical myopathy last year). He had mild colic a couple of years ago so excluded & I reckoned if he had a tendon/ligament issue I would just turn away for 6-12 months & see how it went. In the end I didn't. Thank god I didn't. Day 1 of the new policy year he got a small abcess near his hock - no idea why. It didn't respond to treatment & a bursa got infected. Bill is up to £7k now. Without the insurance I would have had to pts.
 
Maclinda so you mind me asking about your horse's injury. My mare suffered with tears in her DDFT and synovial masses in the navicular bursar last September. She came sound very quickly and all was well until 3 weeks ago when she went lame and it's the same issue. Would be interested to hear your experience and the treatment. I'm nearly at the limit for vets fees so having to decide on a way forward.
Thanks
 
Thanks everyone for all your thoughts, think I'll definitely look I to my policy further and see what I can change in it x
 
mrsbt said:
Maclinda so you mind me asking about your horse's injury. My mare suffered with tears in her DDFT and synovial masses in the navicular bursar last September. She came sound very quickly and all was well until 3 weeks ago when she went lame and it's the same issue. Would be interested to hear your experience and the treatment. I'm nearly at the limit for vets fees so having to decide on a way forward.
Thanks
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MRSBT, happy to answer any questions! My mare came in lame last September too after some mad galloping around the field. In all honestly I thought she had just tweaked herself as she'd never been lame before. Gave her a few days rest but was still lame on circle so got vet out. Again he was same as me and thought she had just knocked herself so another two weeks rest but finally after three weeks did some investigations. Got x-rays which were inconclusive and then took her to vets college for MRI scan on both front feet. Results came back were pretty devastating, with tears in DDFT on both feet (significant hole in off fore), and deterioration of the navicular bone.

In all honesty the consultant said it was highly unlike I would ever be able to ride her again and still that point I was going to retire her.

Consultant gave recommendations to my vet and farrier of three months complete box rest, with elevated (wedge) Heartbars, and then basically see what happened.

Luckily it was winter, and luckily my horse is an angel, and didn't bat an eyelid about being cooped up for three months!

Finally in February I was told to very slowly bring her back into work. She was sound on the straight but ever so slightly lame on circle right. Vet came back and she got a steroid injection into the navicular bursal (injected into the cornary band), on again her off fore and since then she's completely sound ��

I know it might not last forever, and there's a strong chance she can go lames gain, but at the moment I am back riding her full-time and even taking her to a few competitions.

Don't get me wrong it's been a long haul, and I am now very cautious of everything I do - she has taped overreach boots on all the time, I don't ever jump unless at a competition (height is much lower than she previously jumped), I don't ride her on grass unless the conditions are perfect, and I've really got to manage her weight (which is a nightmare at this time of year), but cross fingers that's her now been sound for nearly five months ��

As for way forward? At present sticking with what I've done, but my farrier and I have always agreed if she goes lame again and the steroid/Heartbars no longer work, I would definitely go down the barefoot route, put her off for a year, and see what happens. I'm hoping it won't come to that but I am happy to try anything.

Hope this helps a bit, and all the best with your mare, it's good there's lots of people out there who have had similar experience (I was never off here when she went lame)!!!!!

Cross fingers for you x
 
You might want to check how much your insurance company charges you for public liability insurance and then compare this to the cost of BHS Gold membership where this is included. If you are already a BHS member them you may find you have been doubling up on this, so can make an easy saving.
You can also increase your excess which should decrease your premium.
Hope this helps
 
Maclinda said:
MRSBT, happy to answer any questions! My mare came in lame last September too after some mad galloping around the field. In all honestly I thought she had just tweaked herself as she'd never been lame before. Gave her a few days rest but was still lame on circle so got vet out. Again he was same as me and thought she had just knocked herself so another two weeks rest but finally after three weeks did some investigations. Got x-rays which were inconclusive and then took her to vets college for MRI scan on both front feet. Results came back were pretty devastating, with tears in DDFT on both feet (significant hole in off fore), and deterioration of the navicular bone.

In all honesty the consultant said it was highly unlike I would ever be able to ride her again and still that point I was going to retire her.

Consultant gave recommendations to my vet and farrier of three months complete box rest, with elevated (wedge) Heartbars, and then basically see what happened.

Luckily it was winter, and luckily my horse is an angel, and didn't bat an eyelid about being cooped up for three months!

Finally in February I was told to very slowly bring her back into work. She was sound on the straight but ever so slightly lame on circle right. Vet came back and she got a steroid injection into the navicular bursal (injected into the cornary band), on again her off fore and since then she's completely sound ��

I know it might not last forever, and there's a strong chance she can go lames gain, but at the moment I am back riding her full-time and even taking her to a few competitions.

Don't get me wrong it's been a long haul, and I am now very cautious of everything I do - she has taped overreach boots on all the time, I don't ever jump unless at a competition (height is much lower than she previously jumped), I don't ride her on grass unless the conditions are perfect, and I've really got to manage her weight (which is a nightmare at this time of year), but cross fingers that's her now been sound for nearly five months ��

As for way forward? At present sticking with what I've done, but my farrier and I have always agreed if she goes lame again and the steroid/Heartbars no longer work, I would definitely go down the barefoot route, put her off for a year, and see what happens. I'm hoping it won't come to that but I am happy to try anything.

Hope this helps a bit, and all the best with your mare, it's good there's lots of people out there who have had similar experience (I was never off here when she went lame)!!!!!

Cross fingers for you x
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Thanks, parts of this are just like reading about my own horse.
 
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