Loss Of Use - Is it worth it??

chickeninabun

chickeninabun

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I've got an insurance quote for NFU but they won't give me Loss of Use on my 14yo cob. I currently have her with 100% LOU. She only cost me £1800 and is only used as a hack, light schooling and possibly riding club activities.
Do I really need LOU and would my insurance payout if anything happened because itd have to be something quite extreme to mean she would no longer be suitable as a hack??
I'm confused
confused.gif
. I'd like to go with NFU as they sound very reliable but don't want less cover.
 
What is your current LOU premium?

You need to look at what the premium is in comparison to the value of the horse and see what kind of risk you are willing to take. For example, if the premium is 300 a year, by the 6th year LOU won't be worth anything as you will have paid for her value in premiums. If you claim the first year though, it will have been money well spent. The problem is that you never know when you are going to need to claim so you need to decide how much of a risk you wish to take.
 
IMO no, it's not worth it.

If she was to suffer an injury so major that she had to be pts, you'd get a payout on Loss of Animal which is standard for all NFU policies.

If say she had a bad back but it could not be pin-pointed and categorically diagnosed but she could no longer be ridden, LOU would not pay out.
Your vet alone cannot recommend LOU, she'd have to go to vet hospital for a second opinion.

I had LOU for my last horse, when it came down to it, it wasn't worth the paper it was written on.
 
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Imo its a total waste of money. By the time the poor horse has satisfied the criteria for LOU he's probably lame enough to warrant pts.
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That was my general train of thought too.

I will compare side by side my current policy and my NFU quote and see if there is a vast difference elsewhere, If it's all about the same I think I might change over. NFU was coming up about £82pa cheaper.
 
I've never had loss of use, instead I have upped my horse value to as much as I was able (in line with current prices) and paid out for a revetting (most you can insure is £5K without a vetting). I felt my horse had come on quite a lot so upped his value another £2K but had to get a second vetting which cost me approx £160 and the cost of a half hours lesson from an instructor to confirm that the horse was worth the value I wanted to insure him for. This new premium cost me an additional £81 over the year but for an extra £2K of cover, I felt it was worth it. I have been unlucky with horses and lost 4 within seven years, all through no fault of my own, broken leg, heart attack, wobblers syndrome, etc and got paid out for all of them under the terms of 'humane destruction'. Had I been really unlucky and not been able to ride a horse due to it being injured then I would not have got a pay out as I was covered for LOU. Its a gamble and for lower priced horses it is obviously cheaper, but for something valued at £5K + it is a prohibitive cost.
 
Be careful about over valueing your horse for insurance purposes, unless you can justify your value ( ie compitition winnings history etc ) does not matter if the premiums you have paid are for the increased value, market value is all they will pay.
 
I was told at an open evening at my vets by the local manager of NFU that LOU isn't worth it as there are so many hoops you have to jump through to get it. I no longer bother with it.
 
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