Insuring Competition Horses

Tempi

Tempi

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I was having a discussion with my mum the other day about how riders can afford to pay to insure their top horses. I know most are owned by people and then ridden by someone else, so i guess in these cases the owner pays the insurance.

Anyway, my point being that it must cost some riders a fortune to insure their horses - especially the really valuable ones. So do people insure for the purchase price? Or do they insure for the value of the horse at the time?

I guess im looking at people like Bbmat and FREESTYLER to answer this one, and Worried1 as i know you guys all have pretty expensive horses!!
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Archie's insurance is due for renewal soon, and ive been told i should be increasing his premium by my trainers......
 
I have Sarnita insured for what I paid for her which is probably about a 1/10 of her value. At the end of the day it is the vet fees I see as the main thing and if the worse does come to the worst I only lost what I paid. I am also lucky in that she has a alternative career as mummy if she has a competition ending injury.

I have to say I don't see how owners can insure horses for stupid money as it breaks the bank.
 
I couldn't begin begin to afford to insure O for even close to his value. He's insured for as much as I can afford in premiums and for vets fees (THANK GOD - just had over 1k worth of surgery). Most people I know who have expensive horses do the same.

The person I bought O from didn't have any insurance at all and she had to sell him to pay the vets fees for her GP horse.
 
See Bloss is insured for the minimum as she would always have had the opportunity to be a 'mummy' - which obviously she is now.

With Archie it comes down to the fact that if anything goes wrong i would probably never be able to afford to replace him....
 
I think insuring for as much as you can afford is a good idea - thats generally what i did with Archie when i first had him....Now im earning a bit more at work, it means i can afford to pay a bit more for his insurance.
 
Most of the people I know with expensive horses don't insure. It would just be impossible to be able to afford to do anything with the horse if it had to be insured! I think it'd be better to have the horse un-insured and out doing things, than to have it insured and stuck at home doing nothing because owner has no money left. I think as long as you know you can afford vet's fees if anything happens (even if that means insuring for the lower, 'bought' value), that is the main thing.
 
Gin is insured for what I payed for her which isnt a lot. Its probably 1/4 of what shes worth. I only want the insurnce for vets fees and they pay the same no matter how much your horse is insured for.
I know someone who bought a horse for over 10k, she couldnt afford the insurance so didnt have any. A couple of months down the line he injured his stifle and she had to pay out a fortune for vets fees. I think its better to insure for less than to not insure at all.
 
i only insured my mare for vet fees really. over 5k they wanted xrays etc. she is in foal now so i have knocked her value right down. i can insure the foal a month before it is born at a cost of £10 a month until it is 6 months old.
 
I would always want some insurance for my horses even if it is just 3rd party and vet fees, however we had ours insured for LOU as otherwise we would not be able to afford to buy a replacement if something was to happen to them.

However I would never spend over 10k on a horse as for what I do there is no need and there are too many things that can go wrong for me to justify spending that much. I will also never be competing at the top level. Sorry that probably made no sense.

Honey only has 3rd party as when we claimed LOU they would only insure her for that, we keeping meaning to look into getting some sort of vet insurance for if she got colic or something like that.
 
I have to agree with Silmarillion, I don't insure mine. From my experience it would only be worth doing it for vets fees, as anything else (loss of use etc) they always wriggle out of paying out for anyway. But i would rather save the money on premiums and just pay the vets bills myself if it came down to it.
 
My top horses are not insured. BUT i do have sponsorship from my vet!! This helps and is in my mind a different kind of insurance.
I simply could not afford to pay the premium for the value of one of my horses let alone 3!!
The Spanish horses are covered for a nominal value so that the owner is covered for vets fees.
When i did insure i used a bloodstock specialist as i covered his breeding value as well.I also have 3rd party and public liability insurance for my horses as this is vital these days.
 
Usually you pay more in anyway so why not put it in a seperate account, it'll pile up very quickly if the worst ever happened. As for insuring against death of horse I was told the money is unlucky, previous experiences have proved that myth/theory correct!
 
I like your idea about putting it in a separate account - i think i might do that rather than increase the value hes insured for, then i have it incase of an emergancy
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I have mine insured for the price I could buy another one at not the ttrue value as I could not afford it. Just got my renewal in and it was nt cheep
 
The lack of photos has a lot to do with me being Totally unable to up load them!!! Totally useless on the computer but also because i like it that way!!!!
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I will post one of my gorgeous Ferro stallion one day soon especially if he goes to stand at stud at Sally Andrews' stud , where Jumbo and Pro Set stand. It all depends on how he comes back from his awful injury that has laid him off for two years!!!
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My friends comp horses are insured for just under the 5K mark - for one in particular this is around a quarter of her market value.

She is covered really only for the vets fees should something go horribly wrong, rather than re-purchase value.
 

Don't forget death is based on humane ground only so unless you can afford for lose of use for dressage it is really only worth insuring for vets fees, all mine are insured for £1k but with full £5k vets fees.

I would personally insure for a nominal amount and put the rest away on a savings account as has been suggested.
 
Mine is insured for what i paid for him. The main thing being vets fees and if something awful did happen to him i would get something back. Trainers top showjumpers aren't insured, the owners just won't pay the high premiums on top of everything else.
 
Rocks is insured for what i bought him - which is about half what hes worth now but I just can't afford to increase his insurance value - it's already breaking the end of the bank (though god knows we've needed it this year). As you said P_G the fact with geldings is they don't have an alternative career.
 
I only insure my competition horse for vets fees.

Obviously I have to have loss of animal to get the vets fees cover so he is insured for the minimum.

I think the main risk is vets fees (as my previous horses have prooved!). With loss of animal, there is such a few types of injury that would result in a valid claim that it doesn't seem worth it. To have loss of use the premium is ridiculous! My insurance only costs me a couple of hundred pounds a year for vets fees and the minimum loss of animal premium, so all of the money that I save on loss of animal and loss of use premiums is put into a savings account to buy future horse(s).
 
None of mine are insured.
The cost is enormous
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Take 3 ADV event horses to insure for vet bills and death only and you will looking at 12k+ per year
Loss of use you can double it!!!
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all of mine are insured for 3k roughly even though some of them i bought for a lot more money !! they all have 5k vet bills and 3rd party liability !!

I was a bit miffed the other day when the insurance people asked for a vetting on my foal who is only 7 weeks old - i actually told them to stuff it !!!

with the amount of horses i have i could insure to the true value and you dont ever get that money back totally !! always best to insure them for enough that if something happens you could go buy a youngster to retrain to that level !!
 
Well, my situation may be different from others as I have had bad experience with my last two horses! First one had to retire, normal usual insurance. My last horse I bought I did not have loss of use, just normal insurance, paid what I bought for etc... premium about £600 a year, fortunately I had him insured as I used £20,000 of the insurance companies money and about £5,000 of my own!! Unfortunately I had to after 2 1/2 years of various illnesses and treatment have him put to sleep. Needless to say I was left with no friend and no money to buy another. Luckily, 6 months later I asked my hubby if he wanted a baby or I could take a bit of money from the mortgage... (knowing full well we do not want children and knowing his answer!!!) So I bought beasty boy and with x-rays etc had him insured and loss of use etc for the full value for a year. This year, I had to drop the value of him for the insurance although kept the loss of use, but even so it is a crippler each month to pay...it is a very very difficult decision, a little like a gamble. I do know many people with expensive horses who do not insure at all for the full price, ie. if you want to insure for over £20,000 you will be stung badly... about £2,200 a year will cover you!
 
I'm considering insuring Moon as now she has stepped up a level, I'd be hard pushed to replace her should anything happen.
I just cant afford the premiums though- I'm going on the lines of adding to the reserve pot for a 'just in case' situation, should she need surgery or something.
 
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