what value have you insured your horse for?

diggerbez

diggerbez

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i was just wondering if you have all insured your horses for their actual perceived value or not? V is currently insured for what i bought him as an unbacked 4 year old. i would like to think that his current market value is significantly more than that but have never changed it...the thinking was that if something happened then its at least enough money to buy myself another nice youngster...however, haven't got LOU on my policy as i just can't afford it (and was also stung in the past with an insurer refusing to pay LOU on a horse that could no longer do what it was insured to do)...so was wondering if its even worth me having V insured for anything over the minimum value. was just reading the other sad post about hayleyuk's friend...and it got me thinking that it might be a risk worth taking- to drop the value as much as poss (£500?) and just insure for vets fees? clearly if he breaks his leg in the field i will regret this decision...but most horses i think tend to be PTS over less immediate issues.... thinking crudely if he injures himself then i can't afford to keep another horse anyway...and if he has to be PTS then i could quite quickly save up for another horse if i wasn't having to pay to keep one? sorry, realise that probably sounds very insensitive and its really not meant to...its just a case of trying to weigh up options...any thoughts?
 
I've got mine insured for £1 each, with full vets fees and public liability.

My friend had her PSG dressage horse insured for £25,000 (which was less than she was worth but it was getting staggeringly expensive) she was in the same situation as you have said and had to have the mare pts and they didn't pay her a penny.
 
I reduced my horses value to £1000 this year as the renewal premium nearly doubled, havent claimed for years so was a bit shocked. I decided that my main priority was vets fees and 3rd party liability. He fractured his leg a few years ago and came through that and chances are horses are more likely to go lame with Navic, ringbone or whatever so you cant claim unless you have LOU. Colic Surgery would be covered and if I decided I didnt want to put him through that, then I wouldnt be covered anyway if I decided to PTS so thought sod it. My premium is still over £30 a month.
 
Mine is insured with a nominal value of £500 - she is on permanent loan and as she won't ever be mine, the actual sum insured is meaningless to me. That was the figure suggested by my insurer so that I would have full vets fees cover etc. Needless to say, if I had to replace her, £500 wouldn't cover one leg :eek:
 
I put roo's up. I insured him initially for what we paid for him as unbacked not quite 3, didn't change it then he got kicked in field and we thought was potentially a bad injury, I also got quite attached to a bigger flashier WB type and realised I would struggle to buy another for what he was insured for. We upped it to £4k based on what equivalent 4/5 year olds would be selling for. He's probably worth more now but I won't go up again as does up the premiums a lot!
 
Mine are insured for the sum I paid for them, seems fair to me.

A friend and I us that term loosely, always buys hers for around £5000 then insures them straight away for 15,000-20,000 madness! she always thinks she's got the next Totilas! and she wonders why she has money problems! best of all she does some in hand showing with them and then trys to sell them for the insured amount!
 
Mine is insured for £1000 to get full value vets fees. No point insuring for more unless you go the whole hog with LOU, in which case it's so expensive you may as well just start a fund!
 
I don't have LOU as its so expensive. My older boy is only insured for £1k as to be blunt I wouldn't be looking to replace him if something happened!
 
snopuma said:
Mine are insured for the sum I paid for them, seems fair to me.

A friend and I us that term loosely, always buys hers for around £5000 then insures them straight away for 15,000-20,000 madness! she always thinks she's got the next Totilas! and she wonders why she has money problems! best of all she does some in hand showing with them and then trys to sell them for the insured amount!
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Totally Brainless if you ask me !who is she trying to kid as she must know the insurance company will only pay out market value or sum insured whichever is less and they are not stupid.What is the point insuring for 15k when they will only pay out 5k at best
 
Mine is insured for what I paid for him but I was thinking of increasing it this year.
Mine isn't insured for LOU either. However the reason i'm thinking of increasing it is when Vaya and Red died, both of colic, both on the operating table :(. My mum and I got back what they were insured for under the mortality clause. I got back 3k for Vaya (she was insured for 3.5k) and mum got back 2k for Red (he was insured for 2.5k). This money basically enabled us to get our new horses.
Mortality clause only applies to if they die on the operating table or have a post mortem if they don't die on the operating table, and it has to be like a disease or colic or something that wasn't pre existing. Also if they had an accidental death we would also get the money.
Thats why I pay higher premiums and insure not for their worth but for an amount which is at least enough to buy another horse should the worst happens. Otheriwse I would insure just for £1 for vets fees as well.
I use KBIS :).
 
We have insured Mini TX's mare for her purchase price, which I dont want to actually say, but was well into five figures, she is also insured for LOU as well. Expensive, yes and it was a rigmarole to get the insurance. Had to have a proper receipt from last owner, plus the insurer (NFU) insisted that we have an independent valuation from a professional, which we had to get. She is worth more now, but I havent upped the insurance value. If we ever need to claim (god forbid), the amount she is insured for will definitely buy her another quality horse.

My cob is insured for what I paid - £2,500. However, with him, its not the point as he is totally priceless.

Both have the ususal £5k vets fees etc, plus we have both got rider insurance and 3rd party liability, plus my trailer is insured with them as well. Its pretty pricey, but seeing as Mini TX's little mare has just cost our insurers £3.5K in vets fees, worth every penny
 
I can't actually remember - possibly £800. I wont get one after her for a looong time though so will probably reduce it on renewal!
 
I have just cancelled Megans insurance as she now has that many exclusions and to insure her for £1000 was costing me £40 a month plus she is 19 years old now and retired and if something happened to her i wouldnt be replacing her. I have Magic insured for £1000 as thats what she cost and Rocky is also insured for what i bought him. I lost out terribly last year as i only had my foal insured for £500 when he was worth about £2000 and he broke his back and had to be pts. After a long battle the insurance finally paid me my £500 but it was a struggle to afford to replace him and i certainly couldnt afford to replace another one.
 
Mine aren't insured based on the fact they are both at home and not handled by anyone else therefore (in theory) less risk than on a yard with 40 others. Also being brutal I wouldn't be faffing about trying to fix either of them if they were injured beyond full recovery (Sov would never cope with box rest). I could replace both of them with change for £1500 so I would be well out of pocket if I insured.
I have owned Touchy for 11yrs and never had anything other than annual vacc's, and Sov for 7 years and has had 2 big bills, one of £600 and one of £200 so I still don't feel hard done by.
The other option is to put aside the LOU premium each month and see what's there if and when you need it?
 
I have insurance with friends of animals fairly new insurer.Im insured with bsja £25 per year and my insurance for 5 yr old £25 per month no loss of use and valued £1500 considerably less than what he was for sale for but alot higher than what I paid :D
 
I didn't really realise you could choose a value so have only ever insured for purchase price.

After my gelding had had lots of problems (& a couple of big claims) his premium naturally went through the roof. I asked to reduce his insured value - as he was by this point worth nothing & wouldn't be doing anything other than decorating a field (being a one-eyed horse with a tendon injury & having had unsuccessful KS surgery) but the insurers wouldnt reduce his insured value under half his original purchase price!?
 
L is insured for 2.5k which was the least the insurance company would insure her for based on her purchase price and activities insured for. I insure her for vets fees. My friend paid out for a 8k horse for years, had him pts øn vets recommendation and they wldnt pay a penny towards his insured value, which meant shed paid a massive premium for years unnecessarily!
 
I.had one insured for 700 and one for 1500, covered 5k vets fees on each, plus tack etc. Both cost the same on monthly premium. One was free, the other was advertised for 2k but I paid 500. I insured them for the amount it would cost me to replace them.

Insurers were fab at paying vets fees and stolen.tack. but wouldn't pay when.had old boy pts, even tho vet agreed was best decision, as was not an emergency, so got nothing and had to pay disposal.costs!
I still have insurance, but am looking at changing to someyjong cheaper as mine us very comprehensive, and all I do us school and hack.at mo!
 
so it seems that i would be better off dropping the value but looking like i might be limited as to how far i can drop it...hmmm...my insurance is up for renewal next month so will have to have a good ring around...
one other thing...do i need public liability on my insurance if i am also a BE member? do i get that through BE? 0r did they get rid of it?
 
The BE public liability has a 1k excess, so I wouldn't rely on it!! I got BHS gold membership to cover the PL side of things.
 
I have the third party stuff through BD. Otherwise don't bother as past experience has suggested its not worth it. The LOU on a horse worth anything over 10k is astronomical. Petplan told me they would cover my 5yo for vet vees up to 5k, death and LOU, the premia would have come to 15% of her purchase price a year, and (and this is the killer) for LOU they would only pay out max 60% of insured value or difference between residual value and insured value (as I have a well bred mare you can see there would be plenty of scope to argue that she is valuable as a broodmare and hence tiny LOU payout). So, 4 years of premiums would equal the most I could get paid out on LOU, and 6 years would get me a new horse. So, better of saving the money and putting it to one side. The oldie has never been insured and although I have had a couple of chunky vet bills, its probably less than the premia I would have paid out over 16 years. Previous horses ended up with so many exclusions that the conclusion was it was simply not worth it. If you insure for vets fees and/or a low value then the premia arent too bad, but insuring for actual value on even a little bit pricey horses is just not worth it IMO.
 
All ours are insured for £250 despite some being worth £20K+. Most often insurers wont pay out insured value and when you have a few insured it just become too expensive to insure any other way.
 
I've got LOU on my policy after being bitten last time round.. It's expensive but peace of mind for me..
 
snopuma said:
Mine are insured for the sum I paid for them, seems fair to me.

A friend and I us that term loosely, always buys hers for around £5000 then insures them straight away for 15,000-20,000 madness! she always thinks she's got the next Totilas! and she wonders why she has money problems! best of all she does some in hand showing with them and then trys to sell them for the insured amount!
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lol this gave me a chuckle - i think we all know someone like this!
 
I was interested in this thread as i am in exactly the same position and have been thinking about increasing the value of mine as he is still insured for the sum i insured him as unbroken 4 year old when I bought him and is now 6, done a fair bit and worth considerbly more. When i made an enquiry about increasing his value i was told by insurers that i would have to provide a letter from a qualified person?? confirming his value was what i was stating. Monthly premium would obviously increase as well which I could do without too. I havent got round to do any more about it but was wondering if it was worth it as long as I had full vet fees cover and after reading this thread, think i might leave it as it is!!
 
My brother-in-law works in insurance and he says the biggest department besides selling is invariably the one that examines every claim looking for any reason not to pay out, or to find a way to delay or reduce a claim. We have our horse insured for what a much younger and inexperienced replacement would cost. The more an insurance company potentially pays out the more time they will spend looking for reasons not to, so hopefully we've got a figure where we stand some chance of a payout. The one time I did try to claim on our boy I was immediately asked for his entire medical record from birth to present - instant delaying/denial tactic. In my opinion, the entire insurance industry across pretty much every area, is one big scam (rant off!)
 
Just a wee word of warning that some insurers have a clause that states the horse must be not be underinsured on purpose. Just thought I'd let you know so you can check with your insurers just incase ;-)
 
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