Insuring an older horse with an unknown medical history?

[little_mistress13]

I'm thinking about a horse from horses4homes which you just have to give a donation. There is one horse on there that is 15 and says no medical problems and no insurance exclusions. That got me a little suspicious.

If I did take on this horse and insure it... and he had a fall and I was to get a vet out. What if they found something like leg injury or something. How could I prove to the insurance this is a new injury? as surly at the age of 15 they would expect some exclusions? As I couldn't go through the horses medical history as the person who owns him as only had him 6 months and before her a woman had him for a year??


How does that work?

 

[smellsofhorse]

If the horse is worth usually under £5k then the insurance company usually go by what you tell them.
So if you or previous owner don't know of any issues then they will accept that's.
Might be worth getting a standard vetting/ Heath check done.

Also you are best off calling insurance companies and asking them.
But I can't see them putting exclusions on unless there is anything obvious. Like scars etc.

Also you need to consider age .
Some companies only offer veteran insurance for over 15s.

 

[Elbie]

If the history is unknown they have to go on the facts that they do. Really, if the insurance co are aware you don't have a medical history and choose to accept the risk without requiring a vet history or anything then that's their decision. Policies tend to cover accidental injury only for the first 14 days anyway so if the horse became lame a week after you got it and diagnostics showed signs of arthritis then they wouldn't cover it. And to be fair, if the horse was found to have an advanced problem a month/two months after the policy started they may not cover it as it would be possible the horse had an issue before being insured.

Would be worth getting the vet to carry out a basic check for lameness, make sure has clean legs, no scars at all etc so you then have that noted on your vet history.

Would also be worth checking the policy wording as some policies will cover injuries/illnesses that first showed signs during the policy period, but some other policies will only cover illnesses/injuries that began during the policy period, even though there might not have been any physical signs of an issues

 

[The Fuzzy Furry]

Would you not be more sensible in taking lessons first so you can learn to canter, and also to trot first?
Going from this post, i take it that you dont have a horse after all? (You forgot to pop back to your last threads asking about PTS, shoeing, trying a nice horse (did you go?) and riding bareback with the wind in your hair while cantering in the fields )

OP, do think.....

 

[Elbie]

Would you not be more sensible in taking lessons first so you can learn to canter, and also to trot first?
Going from this post, i take it that you dont have a horse after all? (You forgot to pop back to your last threads asking about PTS, shoeing, trying a nice horse (did you go?) and riding bareback with the wind in your hair while cantering in the fields )

OP, do think.....

Ah yes, I remember the cantering thread (and think I may have replied on that too?). Hmmm...

 

[Honey08]

The insurance cover you'd get for a horse of that age is not likely to cover much anyway, so really you'd need to have a good bit of savings to cover vet issues. Which would mean that this cheap horse that only requires a donation may not actually be cheap...