Those who don't insure their horses ....

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Herpesas

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.... how do you manage your vet bills?

I currently have 3rd party liability and personal accident cover through BHS Gold Membership and my tack is covered by my house insurance. So, my horse policy with NFU just covers vets fees, £500 on death of my horse plus £200 disposal costs. He's not covered for loss of use and has several exclusions thanks to their blanket 'anything on vet history prior to last year now isn't covered' policy.

I've only ever claimed once to the tune of about £500, all other bills have been paid for by me.

For this reason I'm thinking of not renewing my policy this year but I'm worried about something going badly wrong and not having that back up.

Do those of you who don't insure your horses, do you just put the premium to one side or do you have other ways of planning for the bills that would otherwise be covered by insurance, i.e credit cards, savings?
 
I would never go without vet fee insurance - I would never get over it if I could not give Shy the treatment he needed due to lack of funds.
 
My horse is insured for up £5000 vet bills, for the simple reason that it would be impossible for me to find much more than my excess, £500 and if I could get a credit card I would be saddled with tonnes of debt, plus the option of having that insurance which could save his life if it meant treatment or pts.
Its costs me £17 a month, priceless for that backup. I would always have it and hope to never have to use it
 
Herpesas said:
If my premiums were £17 a month, I wouldn't even be asking this question ..... mine are nearly £50 a month.
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Ditto & due to current exclusions I'm asking myself the same question. The only thing that is making me think twice is if he required colic surgery, which he is currently still covered for.

I'm thinking along the lines of having £1500 in savings, then cancelling & putting my premiums on top of that.
 
Herpesas said:
.... how do you manage your vet bills?

I currently have 3rd party liability and personal accident cover through BHS Gold Membership and my tack is covered by my house insurance. So, my horse policy with NFU just covers vets fees, £500 on death of my horse plus £200 disposal costs. He's not covered for loss of use and has several exclusions thanks to their blanket 'anything on vet history prior to last year now isn't covered' policy.

I've only ever claimed once to the tune of about £500, all other bills have been paid for by me.

For this reason I'm thinking of not renewing my policy this year but I'm worried about something going badly wrong and not having that back up.

Do those of you who don't insure your horses, do you just put the premium to one side or do you have other ways of planning for the bills that would otherwise be covered by insurance, i.e credit cards, savings?
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When they refused to cover my horses legs all four after he had accute laminitus once (never again and had never claimed for anything else) The only cover I had was 3rd party with BHS gold membership.
 
I have death/theft and3rd party/ public liability.....BHS Gold membership covers the latter for 3 horses for approx £60 a year

Most vets bill I had were somehow just under my excess. The two times I had to claim was a nightmare...they paid up eventually but it was a struggle.

If I had a large vets bill now it would be savings or credit card....at least I can make my own decisions rather than be dictated to by an insurance company thats going to try to wiggle out of paying and then slap me with exclusions.....
 
Herpesas said:
If my premiums were £17 a month, I wouldn't even be asking this question ..... mine are nearly £50 a month.
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Ok totally see your point, I have him insured at a very low 'worth' and have no disposal etc. like you got public liability on bhs. I only have it for vets fees and no doubt it will go up and up as he gets older.
I suppose a savings account could work, I know some people who put in money each month just in case. they have quite an amount now!
 
Its tricky, I have always insured mine for everything, but this year I have decided not to renew the two oldies as they are 'injury only' now due to their age. The premium is more than what would paid out on death (accident/injury only). If they had a severe accident they would be put down.
 
my insurance company would only insure up to the value of the horse. As an exracer 1000 was the most i could have claimed. So instead of paying it, i save money every month into a vets fund and now have a tidy cushion saved in case of emergency.
 
My horse's 'worth' is £500, I reduced it last year when I moved to BHS and took the loss of use off my policy - it made a couple of £s worth of difference! :rolleyes:

He's 13 now and I can't see his premiums ever being any cheaper. I would move but everyone wants a 2 stage vetting even for a horse valued at £500 which just seems ridiculous!

I work in insurance and I'm struggling to see where the benefit is to carrying on paying. Like Nic though, my main concern is surgery for something like colic or getting a leg trapped in a fence but IME these bills usually go over the limit of the vets fees payable on my policy anyway.

Also, IME the vets ramp up the bill once they know the horse is insured. One practice tried to insist my horse had bone scans and xrays for a torn ligament (he was intermittantly lame not hopping so no risk of a break) even though they admitted it wouldn't show them anything - as soon as the leg was excluded, they stopped insisting and said it would heal with rest! :confused:
 
OMG I was thinking of starting a post about insurance.
I have never insured a horse, I have 5 at mo & just put with bills as & when.

I did look into it once for a mare I was breeding from, they would not cover anything to do with pregnancy or birthing! & she had once strained a check ligament, which was completely fine, competed after that but they would not insure either front leg as they said she may have weakend the undamaged leg by favouring it when she had strained the other check ligament.
But they still wanted a fortune each month with a high excess.
Save the money instead if you can.

Sidetracking slightly 1 of my dogs had a mammary mass removed yesterday £355.00.
If there wasn't so much insurance around the vet's wouldn't be able to charge so much me thinks.
And no my dogs are not insured either.
 
After age 13 NFU wacked up the premium so have BHS gold and will pay out of pocket for anything but he is an oldie now and apart from his Bute if he got seriously ill etc would be PTS.
 
My current horse only has BHS gold cover. I've had him a number of years and got to the stage where he has had lots of minor(ish) vet treatments, but no biggies. This leaves a situation of lots of exclusions, despite no major traumas.

When I next purchase a horse, it will be insured for the first few years. After that, I will take the vet fee risk.

Personally consider 3rd party cover essential - even for a horse that never leaves the field.

I would always insure if I had any doubts that i could fund major vets bill.
 
Magicmillbrook said:
Its tricky, I have always insured mine for everything, but this year I have decided not to renew the two oldies as they are 'injury only' now due to their age. The premium is more than what would paid out on death (accident/injury only). If they had a severe accident they would be put down.
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This is now the case for my two oldies. They're insured 3rd party via the BHS Gold memberhip only and if they were injured to the point where bute and box rest won't fix it, they'll be put down. I'd not put them through tonnes of treatment, its now at the point where I don't think it would be fair to.

I'd insure a younger horse though and I have a bank account I pay money into to cover vet fees.
 
indie999 said:
if he got seriously ill etc would be PTS.
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This is what I'm thinking with my horse. He's done 3 months of no turnout at a time and that was hard enough on him, if he were to have to do a long period of convalescence only to be retired, he would go mad. For all his skiving, he enjoys getting out and about and doing lots of things and is stressy if he doesn't. If he had to be turned out and left, unridden, for the rest of his life, I don't think he'd have quality of life. At which point I'd make that difficult decision, I wouldn't want him to suffer.
 
Ours are not insured for vet bills. Each horse was approx £50 a month, we did have 6 but now have 3. I have found that the vets are more helpful with saving you money when they know you have no insurance, and our vet will allow payment in installments for a big bill. We have savings if required and third party cover with BHS.
 
I have never insured (it's not as common over here, I'm in Ireland and used to be in the US and various countries around the world - I'm quite old you see:-), not even when I had a biggish stud and a large competition yard. Vets' fees seem to be less here, and perhaps I'm just lucky, but I've never had a bill larger than £300 in all my years with horses. I do think that having insurance tends to push fees up, and also means that they will do more "stuff" which perhaps isn't vital.
 
I never have insured any of my horses over the 13 I have had and never will I normally have money a side in case if not I always manage to find it somehow for me it would be a waste of money.
 
Having insured every horse I have owned before, I chose not to with the current one.

I asked myself a a few questions one of which was "If he colics tomorrow and needs an operation, can I pay for it?". Using my savings the answer was yes.

I then set him up with a savings account and for the first year set up a standing order for £100 a month. I think it is quite important to build the emergency fund to a decent level as quickly as possible and then you can taper it a bit if you wish.

I finished paying for the car this summer and so as I was used to the money going out I upped the standing order to the emergency fund to £200 a month. That will give him £6000 in his account at the end of three years, when I will review whether to keep it at that level or drop to £100 - depends how life is going.

I don't pay routine visits out of it, nor do I dip in for a cut or a scrape or even for investigation. It is there for the emergency I hope we never have.

It is a gamble, but then so is life.
 
how do you manage your vet bills?


I just pay them as soon as they arrive.
 
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I only claimed on insurance once it paid out a fraction of what I thought I was covered for and I had been paying in for years. Now I rely on savings and BHS gold membership. I need to take out personal accident cover though.
 
Cortez said:
I have never insured (it's not as common over here, I'm in Ireland and used to be in the US and various countries around the world - I'm quite old you see:-), not even when I had a biggish stud and a large competition yard. Vets' fees seem to be less here, and perhaps I'm just lucky, but I've never had a bill larger than £300 in all my years with horses. I do think that having insurance tends to push fees up, and also means that they will do more "stuff" which perhaps isn't vital.
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Cortez I think you're right, vet's fees are a lot more reasonable over here, and I have a great relationship with one of the partners at the equine hospital that I use cos I refer so many horses to him (and seem to be forever taking mine to him as well) so I usually get a good deal on vet's fees.

I have 7 horses so no way am i insuring them for vet's fees. We are also a long way from the vet hospital, so in the case of a serious colic for example, there is no way I would contemplate a long journey + operation for any of mine.

I have seen first hand situations where insured horses are subjected to far more unnecessary and intrusive (not to mention expensive) procedures with no better outcome, seemingly with the vet's pockets (not my vet!!) in mind rather than the horse's welfare.
 
Buying a horse is so cheap now and as my boy is is now 15, I have insured him for vet bills only up to £3,000. Have claimed twice and don't regret it for a minute, so much can go wrong with horses I like to feel that I can do the best for my horse
 
Neither of mine are insured. Our vets are so reasonable that I've never had a bill anywhere close to an insurance excess (for example, getting Merlin's tendons scanned on two different machines with all three equine specialists from both the county's practices present - £68, including sedation). I've got a credit card with a £10k limit on it just in case.
 
Mine are just BHS gold membership for 3rd Party etc.

BIlls, I just put up with them, regarding colic, with a minimum 4/5 hr trip to nearest hospital, I wouldn't consider it, so I would PTS anyway.
 
I claimed 4k in vets fees year before last from NFU and my premium went from 300 to 600 for the year. I put £50 a month away into a cash builder account that I can access easily. I have a credit card for emergencies if there is not enough put by. I have bhs gold memebership also and paid £48 this year on a special offer.
 
I have 8 equines, three of whom are currently insured for vet's fees. I took the oldie off insurance as, to be honest, if anything happened to him I wouldn't put him through any major surgery at his age.

I've had a few vet visits for the competition horses for various reasons and all the bills came to just under or just over the excess, so not worth claiming BUT I didn't inform the insurance company about these visits.

I have, in the distant past, claimed a substantial amount in vet's fees which was paid out quite fairly. I no longer have the horse. However, I think now I will open a savings account to save for vet fees, I'm a BHS gold member so covered for third party liability. I pay £135 a month for three horses. My plan is to put away £200 a month until my insurance is due for renewal and then continue to pay £135 a month into the savings account.

Knowing my luck it'll all go horribly wrong!
 
I never insure, I had one in for surgery yesterday I just pay the bil.
I can afford it , I don't believe in putting horse though lots of invasive treatment and so would PTS say a serious colic or something like that.
It's a gamble but it's good to make your own desisions without having to jump through hoops for the insurance company.
 
I think insurance is a bit of a scam to be honest. Those of you who are saving money up in case of an emergency are going about it the right way. If I ever got a potentially humungeous vet bill situation, or a really traumatic surgery or proceedures I'm afraid I would PTS rather than put the horse through it. It is a cost / benefit situation too, but then my horses are part of my business. Don't worry: I do love them too!
 
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