Insurance: yes or no?

[HelenBack]

I'm having a horse vetted next week and just looking online at some insurance quotes - the prices are eye watering for what you get in return! My current horse is no longer insured due to him basically being broken and nothing left to insure but when he was insured it did at least represent good value for money and I did get my money's worth out of it too.

With the current quotes though I'm tempted to do without and either put money into an insurance account or get a 0% interest credit card just in case. I always found putting in claims and waiting for them to pay to be stressful and generally like to make my own treatment choices rather than have to do what the insurance company specify, although to be fair NFU were always pretty good like that anyway.

So I think I've made my mind up and I do have savings if there was a dire emergency but just wondering what others do and why?

Oh and he's only worth 5k and will be a general pleasure horse. God knows what the prices would be for an expensive eventer or something like that!

 

[Parrotperson]

its up to you. I used to insure. wouldn't now though unless I owned a very expensive nag! But just bare in mind how much things cost. If the horse has to be hospitalised and operated on for colic the bills easily get to £10k+. I'd be putting quite a lot aside just in case. Things are only going to get more expensive not less. Start now. It can't hurt.

 

[AmyMay]

If you can immediately put your hands on £7k then I can’t see a problem with not insuring.

 

[Fieldlife]

I think it’s good value with a fairly expensive horse that has no exclusions to insure for first year of ownership. Then potentially stop.

 

[Leandy]

I generally don't insure any more. Not worth it. Having said that, my most recent purchase (for 3 times what you are spending) I did decide to insure for the first year on the basis of a clean vetting and x-rays just in case something nasty emerged in that time. Nothing did emerge, so I need not have bothered. So I lost that first £1000. Incidentally, the renewal quote was 40% higher than for the first year for no apparent reason I can fathom and I have not renewed. I can afford an emergency and have saved thousands over the last few decades in not insuring. I'm also prepared to make that decision and PTS or just not investigate to the "nth" degree and go for the cheaper treatment options, rather than spend my last pennies on vets bills.

 

[smolmaus]

I don't have a very comprehensive policy tbh so whether or not I would ever get the real benefit of the insurance is debatable but for the sake of £40-odd a month the peace of mind is worth it for me. My mare was essentially an unknown quantity with very limited history and had never been in work before so the "what-if's" would have driven me to distraction.

Same with the cats, they are both indoor only so the chances of a traumatic injury or picking up a disease are vastly reduced, I'll almost certainly never claim back what I put in. The insurance is there for my peace of mind. As a chronic worrier that is v nearly priceless.

 

[EmmaC78]

I don't insure. My horse had a large vet bill for £2000 last year and I just paid it myself as I have access to savings. I have had him for 8 years so overall I think it has worked out more cost effective just to pay vets bills as they arise.

 

[Midlifecrisis]

I do insure..even though I have access to additional funds…my thinking is that I can use my cash topping up if vets bills don’t cover everything I need it to. (haven’t had that scenario as yet )

 

[throwawayaccount]

it depends if you have the funds readily available for a (potential) large vet bill. i think its handy to have insurance as a safety net .. at the very least you should have public liability.

 

[Cob Life]

I would, having had very expensive unexpected bills with my dog I dread to think what a horse could rack up!

I’d rather pay £80 a month (my older dogs insurance currently) and know I have access to £5,000 should we need it

 

[Ambers Echo]

I don’t insure. I stopped when herd reached 5 with 2 on maxed out insurance and lots of exclusions. But the biggest benefit was freedom to act or not in liaison with my vet without having to take insurance requirements into account. Also I think vets are more pragmatic and clinically led when insurance isn’t a factor. When a horse is insured, the thinking seems to be a bit more ‘well might as well just …’

When Lottie was injured a friend was using the same vet at the same time for a similar presentation. Her bill was about 2k. Mine was under 1. Some people like belt and braces. But I am quite pragmatic too and would choose to manage most things conservatively regardless of cost.

I can pay if I need too though. If I couldn’t, I’d insure. I’m probably about even on costs up to now. If anything I’ve saved by not insuring.

 

[PSD]

I wouldn’t not insure now. After my last horse racking up over 10k of vet bills with me only having to pay a 250 excess I think it’s fully worth it. I have access to savings but these aren’t for vet bills they’re for household emergencies. I’m hoping I never have to use my insurance but it’s there for peace of mind for me and my insurance company are very good at paying out immediately. Of course if there was anything they wouldn’t cover I would use my savings but I haven’t got any exclusions as yet so I’m happy to pay £50 a month knowing I’ve got a 10k pot with the insurance company

 

[Petalpoos]

I have never insured my animals, but I am fortunate (prudent?) enough to have always had enough savings to cover any vet bills. Over the 40 years that I have owned dogs and horses I am sure that I am very much the winner v the amount I would have spent on insurance.

 

[ycbm]

Also I think vets are more pragmatic and clinically led when insurance isn’t a factor. When a horse is insured, the thinking seems to be a bit more ‘well might as well just …’

I completely agree with this. The same is true if you use a vet who doesn't have a hospital and doesn't own any big machines. So I do that, and I haven't insured for 20 years. I do have access to horse hospitals and would use one of those for "we don't know where this persistent lameness is coming from" type investigations which might rack up call out fees and for the big machines when really necessary.
.

 

[Goldenstar]

I never insure I simply could not tolerate the way it restricts your choices when managing your horses .
I think it can led to over treatment , it can control you in severe situations and I think it’s made some vets poor at using judgement in the horses interest when things go wrong .
I also think it leads to people having a false sense of security because my experience is that you end up managing horses with issues for years and most of that is going to be your own cost .
That’s not to say I can’t see the advantages but it’s not for me .
My horse health care fund started when I was very short of spare money I sold a saddle and some bits and pieces but that into a BS account and paid in every month the insurance cost and I had a credit card .
I am someone who has to control of decisions I don’t want any extra party involved .

 

[Jellymoon]

I never insure I simply could not tolerate the way it restricts your choices when managing your horses .
I think it can led to over treatment , it can control you in severe situations and I think it’s made some vets poor at using judgement in the horses interest when things go wrong .
I also think it leads to people having a false sense of security because my experience is that you end up managing horses with issues for years and most of that is going to be your own cost .
That’s not to say I can’t see the advantages but it’s not for me .
My horse health care fund started when I was very short of spare money I sold a saddle and some bits and pieces but that into a BS account and paid in every month the insurance cost and I had a credit card .
I am someone who has to control of decisions I don’t want any extra party involved .

this, completely. I don’t insure any more for all above reasons. You do need to make sure you can access funds for emergencies though as it’s all very well saying, ‘if they needed x doing, I wouldn’t spend that money, I would just have them pts’. When it actually happens, as it did to me, and you and all the family have fallen in love with the damn things, you do find yourself in a predicament. Just had to spend several hundred pounds on one of the semi-feral farm cats who developed an abscess, it was my bloody husband who had developed a weird bond with him and cried when I said he might have to be pts
?

 

[AntiPuck]

I would only ever not insure if I could maintain both a significant horse-type and a normal 6 months worth of expenses-type emergency fund simultaneously - bad things tend to happen in multiples, so it'd be the concern of being hit with a big vet bill plus the car going wrong, plus losing a job, etc. all in quick succession. I'd want to make sure that a situation like that wouldn't wipe me out before stopping the insurance. I'm a worrier, though, so probably won't stop insuring regardless!

 

[Shilasdair]

I 'self-insure' by putting a set amount of money into a dedicated savings account every month.

I used to insure - but it just wasn't worth it for a number of reasons;
1. Vets seemed to maximise treatment and therefore fees.
2. I felt a certain loss of control in deciding treatment options - now I choose what I want to happen.
3. Your horse is only ever insured for a condition for the year in which it happens - after that it will be excluded.

Having said that - I have other savings so wouldn't run into any trouble paying vet bills.

 

[Nasicus]

I generally don't insure any more. Not worth it. Having said that, my most recent purchase (for 3 times what you are spending) I did decide to insure for the first year on the basis of a clean vetting and x-rays just in case something nasty emerged in that time. Nothing did emerge, so I need not have bothered. So I lost that first £1000.

I insure fully for the first year and feel it out from there. Two remained fully insured as they proved to be sicknotes/accident prone in the first year, and it worked out in my favour over the years. One was dropped down to accident & external injury cover provided by Harry Hall, and another was put straight onto the same cover as she was a wonky companion only.
Currently have one in the first year of full insurance, and I have a sneaking suspicion keeping her insured for longer might be a good idea.

 

[Widgeon]

I would only ever not insure if I could maintain both a significant horse-type and a normal 6 months worth of expenses-type emergency fund simultaneously - bad things tend to happen in multiples, so it'd be the concern of being hit with a big vet bill plus the car going wrong, plus losing a job, etc. all in quick succession. I'd want to make sure that a situation like that wouldn't wipe me out before stopping the insurance. I'm a worrier, though, so probably won't stop insuring regardless!

I insure for this reason - I pay about £55 per month and I know that if anything happened, my horse's expenses wouldn't impact on the rest of the household budget. I'd need to have a LOT of money in the bank before I'd stop insuring, or to get to the point where the insurance covered so little I felt it wasn't worth paying for. So far his only exclusion is arthritis, so everything else is covered. FWIW I've never felt that my vet has "pushed" me into anything because he had insurance. We always have a discussion about the pros and cons of the available treatment options. I think as he gets older and the insurers start to class him as a "veteran" I may have to rethink how much cover I'm paying for.

 

[Petalpoos]

One thing I forgot to mention - I do belong to the BHS so I have third party liability insurance. A different issue I know, but one that I believe everyone should have covered one way or another and not something that many of us could fund from our own money.

 

[HelenBack]

Thanks for all the comments - everything everybody has said is everything I think which is why I can't really decide what to do! I can afford to pay for something if needs be and am very well aware that I'm a sentimental fool who would probably dig deeper into my pocket than other people might. However, just because I can afford a big bill doesn't mean I necessarily want to and I have had some big pay outs and my money's worth out of the insurance companies in the past.

On the other hand, I've also had experience of vets trying to flog you things just because you're insured and I don't agree with that either. And the online quotes I'm getting at the moment are ridiculous - £1200 for a year in return for £5k of vets bills. It's just a lottery really isn't it?

I will be getting public liability whatever I do and in fact I already have that through Harry Hall so can check to see if that just covers my existing horse or is for me on any horse. Other than that I think I'll either consider KBIS's catastrophe option or take the suggestion above of selling some unwanted stuff and using the proceeds to start an account that I regularly pay into it. I need a good reason to sort through all my cr*p and get rid of it anyway!

 

[SEL]

I've got Harry Hall cover for the retirees and it also gives public liability insurance. The microcob was insured but I completely agree that vets gets carried away as soon as you tick the box on their forms. I explicitly said just a basic lameness work up (I don't have the facilities at home) and when I phoned through to see what was going on the X ray machine had been working overtime.

I've just insured the new baby cob and agree premiums are eye watering.

Colic is my one query for people not insuring. I've seen a horse run up a huge bill for peritonitis and that didn't even need surgery. My two retirees both have enough other issues that we wouldn't run up a big bill but the other two are younger, in work and so I may take a different approach

 

[Fieldlife]

I've got Harry Hall cover for the retirees and it also gives public liability insurance. The microcob was insured but I completely agree that vets gets carried away as soon as you tick the box on their forms. I explicitly said just a basic lameness work up (I don't have the facilities at home) and when I phoned through to see what was going on the X ray machine had been working overtime.
h

I do not leave a horse unaccompanied for a lameness work up at any location!

 

[SEL]

I do not leave a horse unaccompanied for a lameness work up at any location!

Covid rules

 

[White Horse2]

Read the small print about colic cover, kbis covers surgery only on catastrophe cover

 

[rara007]

My new horse is fully insured. That first year is the biggest risk ime. The other down to catastrophe cover. I still make all the choices but unfortunately I don’t have big savings enough I can be totally relaxed about it.

 

[lme]

We don’t insure (6 horses) and use a local GP vet practice, a practice with a clinic and specialist vets or RVC Equine depending on the issue. Not being insured is less hassle and means we don’t have to take the restrictions imposed by an insurance company into account. We do however try to have £ put aside for large vets bills.

 

[Reacher]

Unfortunately it is a gamble. The insurance companies calculate that they will pay out less on average than they get paid to insure. Even the horses that I have insured I have never made a claim - everything was either excluded or under the excess.
I’ve not insured my 2 for several years. The biggest bill I paid was £1K for eye surgery (which would have been excluded even if horse was insured). But some people will have the opposite experience and will have claimed more than they paid in fees. Insuring for the first year is probably a pragmatic approach to see if the horse is accident prone.

 

[Peglo]

I also pay over £1000 for a horse that’s insured for £4000. Although she cost me £6200 by the time I got her home. (Think she would be worth that too) I want to cancel my insurance now it’s been over a year and put that money into an account instead. I’ve just not been brave enough yet ?