Insurance WWYD - dilemma, opinions needed

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SpanishNeddy

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I have an insurance dilemma and wondered what other people do or if they have any help on the matter as insurance isn't my forte :rolleyes:

I currently have my horse insured at a value of £4,000 (which costs me about £55 per month to insure) which is what I paid for him 3 years ago. Just to set the scene he is a PRE Andalusian, 8 years old this year (5 when I imported him). He has VERY good bloodlines (competing calificado at GP level sire) and lots of other very good influential horses in his lines. He has excellent conformation. His movement is nice and no dishing as bred by dressage stud in spain.

He is now worth a lot more than I paid for him, probably double at least as he is now riding (unbacked when I bought him) and has competed breed showing and at county level past 2 years always placed in top 3 every outing and qualifying for various other shows. He started dressage comps about 4 months ago and always gets high 60's scores and again placed everytime.

However (always a however isnt there!) in 2011 he did his hind suspensories and had an operation. All went well and he has been fully sound and back in full work for over a year now. Also on top of this he is a VERY tricky horse to ride, so much so that he is not what I would call a sellable horse :( well not of the open market anyway. He has panic issues when ridden (due to bad treatment in spain) and very much needs a certain type of rider. Saying this, all his success at riding shows and dressage has been with his current rider (she has been riding him for 1 year now) so with the right person he is perfect.

Now my scenario is that I will be buying a second horse and I am thinking about how I can lower costs as insurance is so expensive and my next one is not cheap :( and I will have two to insure.

I was thinking of reducing the value of my current one, to therefore reduce his premiums. As my thinking is that although he is worth so much more, he is only worth that to a small market because of riding hang ups. So would he not be worth that much do you think? so maybe insure him for 1-2k? ahhh dont know what to do.

Am I right in thinking the only thing that the value effects is the mortality pay out? so horrid to think of these things, but I am just trying to be practicle :( also have heard it is hard to claim for this anyway?

Just to make it clear he wont ever be for sale. He has had a horrid life and has a home for life with me. I love him to bits he is such a sweet boy and it is so nice to see him so happy and starting to actually enjoy life :):):)
 
I guess the other thing the value affects is 'loss of use'

I think if you can afford to buy a replacement if anything goes wrong then I would reduce the value right down.
 
Oh yes I didnt think of LOS.

I do not have that cover anyway, so I suppose that would irrelevant. I think the LOS rules are crazy and again they try hard not to want to pay out! also it double the premiums which is crazy.
 
The only thing that reduces with the reduction in the valuation of the horse is payout on death of the animal. If you insure for a value of £2000 you will get £2000 on his death. All other cover for veterinary care will be just the same as before. Many people insure their horses at a low value just for vet cover. This works out fine until the horse dies & then if you want to replace the animal you will have to dig into savings to pay for the new horse as your payout will be too low.
 
amymay said:
I'd insure him for vet costs only, and put his value at rock bottom to bring your costs down.
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This; the insurance company will only pay out "market value" and for him I would say it was pretty low, due to the past injury and quirks.

Make sure you have top vet fees cover though, reducing that is just a flase economy.
 
Another option would be to increase your excess e.g. changing from a £150 excess to a £500 excess can reduce insurance costs. Great it you can afford the higher excess should you need to.
 
I'd just insure for the minimum amount the insurance co will allow. Even death only pays out if it meets their guidelines, its not always the case. Even when my mare was worth quite a fair sum, I only ever insured for the minimum the insurance company would let me, & never had loss of use either. If the worst had happened, I wanted the right to choose to pts, not be beholden to getting permission so I got a pay out.
 
I only have Rio insured for £1500... he has no LOU so that isnt affected and mortality cover well we'll hope that doesnt happen and i would rather if he needed to be pts that the insurance company wouldnt argue about whether he needed to be put to sleep as they didnt want to pay out... lower the value of the horse and make your excess more.
 
Unless you have Loss of Use there is really very little point to higher value insurance for death as it only pays on BEVA guidlines. So many people don't seem to realise this. So insure for as little as possible to get full vets fees. I wasn't allowed to go lower than £1000 with my insurer. I also have a high excess at £515. This means my premiums for £5000 of vet cover is well under £25 a month.

I have no idea what my horse is worth but he is a fab hack, jumps well and is competing at affiliated Medium so I'm suspecting somewhat more than his sum assured!
 
wench said:
Is he really worth £8k with having had problems with suspensories and being a tricky ride?
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Well it is the breed, they are not cheap horses. You can expect to pay about 7k average for a good quality young PRE which has not done much (often much more!). So for the fact my boy has won so much and has the record he has, should increase his value. But of course he is quirky as I said which makes him harder to value :rolleyes: however with the 'right rider' he is fine. But I guess that does limit the market.

Maybe his value is irrelevant as I would not sell him anyway I suppose.

Oh and he is totally sound now and been back in work for 18 months fine. Vets have said as long op was successful would not affect his price.
 
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burtie said:
Unless you have Loss of Use there is really very little point to higher value insurance for death as it only pays on BEVA guidlines. So many people don't seem to realise this. So insure for as little as possible to get full vets fees. I wasn't allowed to go lower than £1000 with my insurer. I also have a high excess at £515. This means my premiums for £5000 of vet cover is well under £25 a month.

I have no idea what my horse is worth but he is a fab hack, jumps well and is competing at affiliated Medium so I'm suspecting somewhat more than his sum assured!
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Ok thanks, yes I have heard BEVA guidlines are strict so often people dont get pay out anyway.

I would say you are defo under insuring!! especially if you are competing affiliated advanced :)
 
I have to admit that I actually gave up insuring my horses a few years ago, I have 7 ranging from my 38 year old first pony to my little girls pony to event horses I compete at grassroots level. Back then my total premiums were around £3,500 per year.

I decided that the most important elements of the insurance were third party as potentially could bankrupt you if you needed it, and vets fees for the horses welfare. I looked at the value of the horses as irrelevant because the price paid was money spent long ago and they all have homes for life with me. The former risk is covered via society memberships. The latter is unlikely to be covered for most of my horses due to their age, and numerous exclusions often seem to throw claims out anyway. "Touch wood" since I decided to do away with my insurance my vets fees have been far lower than premiums would have been, and I never hold back on any treatment suggested because I don't want to personally meet the cost.

Over the years I have made claims for stolen tack and vet fees, almost all of which were not settled, so I ended up paying premiums and the cost I had been trying to insure against.

Personally I would reduce the cover to what you feel comfortable with in terms of covering the risks you most worry about.
 
I was once told only insure what you can't afford to lose. If I were you I'd drop the sum insured but keep veterinary cover (and public liability, check your household policy, society memberships to see if you are already covered). I bought my new mare last July and have decided not to insure her. I am covered for public liability. Our other younger horse is insured. Think if my newest mare needed colic surgery etc I'd PTS whether I was insured or not. Anything else I'd cover myself, when you take into account £140 excess and monthly premuims there's a fair bit of money in the pot for any vet bills that crop up.
 
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