Lions and tigers and insurance faff

[Caol Ila]

Decided to not hijack ihatework's thread!

Here's my dilemma. My insurance renews on March 1st (the day I bought Hermosa). NFU want over £1300 for my two horses. Ouch. Plus, they could not have been less helpful with my BOGOF foal. They would only insure him once he was 30 days old, and they refused to cover my mare for any foaling complications because I had not insured her as a broodmare when I took out the policy (duh!!). Luckily for my credit card debt situation, there weren't any. Other BOGOF owners on this forum have said that this was not the case with their insurance companies -- they were far more amenable.

PetPlan want more, so screw them.

E&L are quoting circa £900 for the two horses. That's all vet fees, mortality, and hospital stays.

Harry Hall are quoting circa £400 for the two horses. That includes colic and external/accidental injury, but does not include any medical problem that isn't in those two categories.

One horse is an 11-year old Highland who was feral for the first 8-ish years of his life, so he's as low mileage as they get. He's an excellent trail pony and is just starting to learn some basic schooling.

The other is an unbroke 3-year old PRE, who isn't doing a whole lot at the moment, but the plan is for her to be a dressage horse.

The Harry Hall one is so tempting but it could bite me in the ass. Does anyone have experience with them?

 

[I'm Dun]

Be careful with harry hall. The colic only covers colic if you need surgery and I'm not certain but pretty sure there has to be evidence of an injury rather than just your horse goes lame with a pulled tendon kind of thing. Its more of a back up ifor an accident in my mind. I have it for my oldie as he would be PTS if he got serious colic and/or injury. The other two are with the insurance emporium. So I guess it depends how much you could cover yourself.

 

[SBJT]

I’d honestly be more tempted with E&L as it covers mortality too but it depends on what your insuring your horses for and if you can take the hit. Having problems with insurance now too so I feel your pain.

 

[HorseMaid]

Hi, I've got the Harry Hall cover for my mare, as stated above it isn't for such things as lameness investigations, it is for external injuries only (I haven't got the colic cover because I would not put my horse through colic surgery). My horse is mainly a happy hacker, and I am happy with this insurance for us currently.

She did get an injury to her hock while out in the field last year which initially just looked like a cut, but on examination by vet was discovered to go down to the joint. Cue a few days in horsepital having xrays, joint lavage and IV antibiotics. Harry Hall did pay out for this with no issues whatsoever and I was very happy I had the insurance!

 

[milliepops]

I looked at the Harry Hall cover recently and decided against it because all my megabucks claims incl the surgical ones have not involved a wound so would not have been covered. I guess it depends how much you're prepared to top up with your own funds.

Re foals, most insurers seem to go from 30 days so I think that's normal. I had to go thru a broker to get coverage from 2 weeks of age.

 

[Caol Ila]

Yeah, a friend of mine has spent £7k treating her horse for ulcers. Most of which her insurance has covered. There are a lot of things which aren't "colic," but they're not "external injuries" either.

I hate the gambling aspect. If nothing goes wrong, then I've sunk an extra £400 into a black hole. If everything goes wrong, then I will be so happy that I did it.

 

[milliepops]

Yep in the last few years I've maxed out claims on soft tissue injuries and ulcers, I've definitely had my moneys worth ?

 

[Slightlyconfused]

Have a look at scottish equestrian.

Had amazing customer service with them, they even wrote to us when we put a claim through for my horses fronts legs but was noted he had a hind end injury at the same time to ask the vet to write them a letter go confirm his last hind end injury which was a different part of the leg had not bothered hom for 12 months.
Got that and they paid for his hind end lameness as well.

 

[Caol Ila]

How on earth is "Scottish Equestrian Insurance" registered in Surrey? Nevermind. They don't seem to do online quotes, so I'll ring them tomorrow.

 

[palo1]

Yeah, a friend of mine has spent £7k treating her horse for ulcers. Most of which her insurance has covered. There are a lot of things which aren't "colic," but they're not "external injuries" either.

I hate the gambling aspect. If nothing goes wrong, then I've sunk an extra £400 into a black hole. If everything goes wrong, then I will be so happy that I did it.

Not having mine insured came back to haunt me this year for the first time in over 25 years. On and off I have had my horses insured; usually when they are young. Once I work out whether they are accident prone or not I usually remove the cover. I have had at times full cover and the catastrophe cover by KBIS and insured with NFU, Petplan, KBIS and E&L. I haven't had much luck with insurance - never needing it when I have full cover or problems when I have needed to claim.

I could have done with it this year; every horse here has had a separate veterinary problem! I 'think' I am still quids in over the years but it has made me think about insurance again and now I don't have enough money for competing whilst I am recovering my funds Sorry that is not helpful but if I could I would probably go with E&L as that seems most likely to cover most things even though they haven't got quite such a good rep as NFU (never had much luck with them myself actually but they are supposed to be good!). There are too many 'other' things to go wrong to make the Harry Hall/KBIS Catastrophe cover worth the £400 to my mind! Hope you find a good deal somehow.

 

[j1ffy]

I was recently looking - I haven't insured for a few years as it's so costly for multiple horses (and dogs) but have been debating whether to get Chilli insured. I compared the Harry Hall and KBIS Catastrophe Cover and the latter seemed better value for money as more things are covered.

I'm still procrastinating though

 

[maya2008]

I put aside £50 per month for those I haven’t insured. If you took the Harry Hall policy, would you still set aside money for illnesses?

 

[EventingMum]

How on earth is "Scottish Equestrian Insurance" registered in Surrey? Nevermind. They don't seem to do online quotes, so I'll ring them tomorrow.

They used to be based in Glasgow until they were bought over by PetPlan.

 

[Flyermc]

you'll get pro's and con's but i fully insured my horse for 17.5 years and the only claim ive ever made was just before he was PTS from an injury. He racked up a bill of about £600 so petplan made alot of money from me over the years.

 

[Inda]

All my guys are insured with petplan. They were great with carmins melanomas and oncept, as well as no issues with the colitis/thrombophlebitis/endocarditis

you might want to see who the local vets and referral units will deal with direct, a few you mentioned are generally very bad payers so the hospitals want paid and then try and claim it back for you

 

[Deltofe2493]

I was insured with Harry Hall and lucky I was cause mare had a pastern laceration in December which would have cost just under £1k. Luckily excess was only £165 and they paid out no problems whatsoever.

HOWEVER I have also recently had discussions re ulcers & other potential problems, so I have fully insured mare with Insurance Emporium via equeshure for about £75 a month just in case!

 

[SBJT]

Funnily enough I’ve just finalized my insurance and it’s gone up 20%. $1000!!! Apparently he’s too much risk now due to his age. ?

 

[Mule]

£900! I'd go for the cheapest you can get and let the horses take their chance. I don't have any of them insured. If I afford treatment I can, if I can't, I can't. Mind you that's the norm in my country, it may be different in the UK ?‍

 

[Caol Ila]

PetPlan wanted £900 for just Hermosa.

 

[Lady Tinseltime]

I don't insure my horse any more since premiums went up to about 75 a month. I buy him premium bonds instead. He has had a few lucky small wins and fund current stands at about 9500.

 

[blodwyn1]

I use carriage house insurance.