vets fees insurance

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laura_nash

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I'm considering cancelling my vets fees cover. What does everyone else do, do you all have cover? I've always thought of it as vital, but £300 a year just seems like a lot of money this year (new baby & un-employed partner). I would still have third-party liability.

I have an 11 yr old sensible cob who in three years of ownership has never injured himself (not even a scratch) - touch wood. Even when he's got himself into situations (like getting tangled up in a five bar gate after attempting to climb it like a ladder to get to the good grass and flattening it in the process) he's always got himself out again without injury (in that case he just disentagled himself and calmly grazed beside the gate, apparently happy with the outcome!). He's not had a day of lameness (he's unshod) and his only known health problem is a tendency to obesity (which I do my best to control). We don't jump or compete (apart from the odd local show for fun). He does have to have his hay soaked or he coughs, but I can't see why that would get any worse now.

I'm dithering because I know its a gamble and I could regret it. I would be able to borrow money from my family if something happened so I wouldn't be in a situation of having to put him down because I couldn't afford an operation or treatment, but then I would end up poorer in the long run if something did happen.

I've got a week to decide and I can't
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I have just canceled all my horse insurance when i found out my insurance company, wont cover her for lami only accident. Instead we opened and account up and all the money normally sent by direct debit now goes in there.1 of my horses i have made not claim on since 2003 so they got £ 3,200 from just one horse alone his policy is over 400 a year and 1200 from the pony and some from my mare. This way it will accumulate and when i need it it will be there. There are so many exclusions now if you dont read the small print. Like if you dont notify them on the same day of the accident or injury your not covered.
 
Personally I would always have mine fully insured. I can understand that it can be expensive but for me cancelling/not being insured for vets fees is unthinkable.

It would be just my luck to cancel the vets section and then have something awful happen.

I guess its a question of money prioritisation and personally I cant be without insurance.
 
Personally I would be without mine, but then I've not had the best of luck with my horses. I lost one in January and my new one has ringbone. When you think that colic surgery can cost over £5,000, £300 is not a lot in the grand scheme of things. Maybe cancel for now whilst money is tight, then have it again in the future. Insurance is always expensive until you come to make a claim, vets fees are very expensive these days. Hope your horse stays fit & healthy.
 
Can I ask where you are getting your quotes? I had one from petplan £100 per month! With 3 horses £3,200 per year was out of the question.
 
Catherine123 said:
Can I ask where you are getting your quotes?
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In my case, Equine Insurance Solutions. I've been with them since I got him and they're always helpful when I've rung them, but I've never had to make a claim so can't comment on that side of things. They did take off his 'skin condition on his nose' exclusion fron his purchase vetting when I got my vet to write to them confirming it was just sunburn.

I had a bad experience some years ago with my old TB when the insurance refused to pay up £2K of vets fees on a technicality (it was E&L) which is possibly another reason I'm not sure about it.
 
As long as you can put your hands on £3k easily - then no problem to cancel.

My wonderful little mare who'd never had a sick day did her sesamoid ligament (no idea how) and her treatment cost in the region of £2k. I wouldn't have had that money to hand, so had insurance.

It's a dilema, I agree - but for me it's piece of mind.
 
Personally I woundn't ever be without insurance, I've claimed too much on various horses and even the horse I had for 7 yrs without a claim I was able to get the death value at the end.

Can you get the premiums down though. Perhaps shop around, have an higher excess, reduce his value? Pet Plan do (or maybe did) a £500 excess and this gets the premiums down quite a bit.
 
Personally I wouldn't cancel my insurance. The way it's added up for me:
I've had my horse for 12 years and paid Petplan £35 a month for that time, so I've paid about £5,000 or so in insurance. In fact, it would be less than that because the insurance is £35 a month NOW and I the insurance has definitely increased a lot since I got her. It might have been £20 a month when I got her. But say £5,000 which is definitely on the high side is what I've spent on insurance.

In the last year alone - she is 21 now and she started getting stiff - we thought she had spavins and it turned out that as well as spavins she had an old chip fracture in her hind fetlock. This has meant surgery and two claims, one for the chip fracture and one for the spavins with a £5,000 limit on each. I have had access to all the latest treatments and now she is getting a stiff again I can give her good drugs to help with actual joint mobility instead of just masking the pain with bute, which, to be honest is what I would be doing if I didn't have access to the insurance money. Petplan have been really good and have paid out and just on these two claims it has been well over £8,000.
To me that justifies my entire twelve years of insurance right there, and has meant that I haven't had to make any difficult decisions about her treatment. I have been able to take the vet's advice and throw the best that the vet has to offer at her.

I have had my horse for 12 years and in that time there have been other claims such as when she got a bad injury in the field and needed a month's box rest (£300, nearly paid for a year of insurance), when she had a virus and had to stay in horsepital and when she had laminitis when I very first got her.
 
I have not insured mine for over 3 years. With only 1 in work it didn't make sense. Things have changed over the years so you only get "market value" not insured value if they die. Definition of "field sound" seems to not consider quality of life, so you may PTS and not be able to claim. The excess on Vet fees is so big that only major problems can be claimed for. When one of the 4 was diagnosed with bad bone spavin my vet fees still came to less than the yearly insurance would have been. So in my situation it is better to put money aside. If I had 4 in work or only 1 horse I might think differently. You have to go through the"what if" scenarios.
 
There is some talk in this thread about veterinary fees amounting to many thousands of pounds for a single incident.

My insurances covers up to £3,500 per incident with a £500 excess.

There is talk of sending my horse to Newmarket for an operation (bone chips to be removed from leg).

Is the £3,500 likely to be adequate or should I be thinking about a great deal more?

I have no perspective on this.
 
Vets fees cover doesn't just pay out for accidents - what if your horse pulls a tendon or develops arthritis? I claimed a couple of years ago for a virus my horse caught - even that was quite expensive as it required an emergency visit on NYE because he couldn't breathe properly. What about if your horse gets laminitis and needs a lot of treatment plus remedial farriery?

Mine have so far paid for bone spavin treatment (just short of the 5K limit over 12 months), virus (a few hundred £), currently at 1.5K for ringbone treatment. I wouldn't have been able to pay for that myself and TBH £300 per year for insurance is a hell of a lot cheaper than several £1000s...
 
Leviathan said:
Read some of these comments:) gals the reviews
E&L don't come up good
http://www.equinecompare.co.uk/veteranHorseInsurance.php


Pet plan didn't want insure my mare

SEIB would only do accident and tack to 1500 which is no good.

if i put away the 200 a month i would normally pay into bank soon adds up .:)
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Friend of mine had a cat insured with E & L. When it got hit by a car and died, E & L wouldn't pay purchase price death value. Why? Because she had had it neutered and so they said it was worth less!!!!!!!!!
 
I'll C&P what I put on another thread:

I don't think there's any right or wrong answer to the insurance thing.

I had one horse who in three years has cost about £15,000 in insurance claims. :o The LOU pay out gives me a good sum towards buying another horse that I can ride, so that and her having the best vet treatment going makes the premiums I have paid well worth while.

However, my dear old girl who I said goodbye to this week I paid 14+ years worth of cover for, and never claimed a penny back! Nor will I now, on her death, as she passed due to illness, not injury and being a veteran her policy won't cover it :(
 
Friend did this years ago after having her horse insured for years thought the same as OP. She didn't renew insurance, turned horse out the day after it ran out, horse got kicked in the leg by it's life long field friend, broke it's leg and had to be PTS. She got nothing as was not insured. Just something to think about, I'll always have mine insured now.
 
I engaged a solicitor some years ago and the Ombudsman when E&L refused to pay out for a condition that they alleged may have pre-existed the insurance and my purchase albeit that the horse had been fully vetted and certified as healthy.

I got my pay out.

I thought that that was the end of my relationship with E&L.

Some years later my girlfriend (now wife) had her E&L claim approved, but E&L said that they had to delay payment because they "were having cash flow difficulties". They paid out when I demanded that they act responsibility. What sort of an insurance company is it that can't afford to meet its claims from day to day?

I have since studied law which is helpful when dealing with horse insurers and in studying the contract particulars.

It is vitally important to read the contracts and follow the processes to the letter, even when you are wholly stressed out by circumstances, e.g. pending euthanasia.
 
Difficult one. I only used to insure my ridden horses not the broodmare and youngsters but when one of the ridden ones got colic and we had to have surgery I realised that I could be in that position with any of them and would then have to either fork out for the surgery or face having them PTS so now all are insuranced and I can sleep easily at night!

Up until October last year I had never made a claim on my horse insurance (which I have held for different horses for about 11 years) but I have had an unlucky year with horses so far and will have claimed in excess of £12k from the insurance this year alone in respect of 3 horses (colic and 2 x lamenesses one which required surgery) so I'm very glad that I have insurance.
 
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