Who pays vets bills for horse injured on working livery?

[Henry02]

Totally random question I thought about on the drive home, and totally theoretical.

Say if you horse is on working livery and gets injured whilst working, say a clear cut injury that is directly caused by the horse being used in a riding school (ie being kicked by another horse whilst in a lesson, or something similar), who would you expect to pay the bill?

Would you also expect cheap/free livery whilst you are unable to ride your horse?

 

[PonyclubmumZ]

Hopefully you would have a nice contract that makes that kind of thing clear, and insurance to cover the costs.

 

[webble]

It would depend on what the contract says. I guess ideally the horse would be insured

 

[Henry02]

Even if horse is insured through your own "personal" insurance they don't generally include for horses whilst they are working, and I can't imagine riding schools have a "blanket" vet insurance policy the costs would be astronomical

 

[be positive]

Even if horse is insured through your own "personal" insurance they don't generally include for horses whilst they are working, and I can't imagine riding schools have a "blanket" vet insurance policy the costs would be astronomical

If you had the horse insured and did not have it covered for "working" the insurance would be void wherever the accident happened even if it was while you were riding it or while in the field, in the same way it would if you had it insured for hacking but went hunting only for it to go lame a week later if they find out you have been using it for something that is not specifically covered then they can quite rightly refuse to pay out. You can get cover for a horse to be used in a RS or similar but the company does need to know so they can increase the costs to cover the increased risk.

I think it needs to be clearly set out in a contract and that for peace of mind the owner needs to fully insure as the RS will be unlikely to have any vet fee cover as it would be prohibitive to insure all the horses when most are barely making ends meet anyway.

 

[Boulty]

I would expect this to be clarified in the contract. If horse is insured (And if I were the RS I'd be insisting on insurance for just this sort of occurrence!) then I'd expect RS to pay the excess. If not and injury is severe it's a tricky one as what the owner wants and what the RS will pay for are likely to differ...

 

[benz]

I worked on a yard with working livery and the policy was any injury caused by actually working ie on a lesson or hack or if horse ill or injured due to livery yard ie put out in a field with barbed wire without owners permission - all paid by yard. If horse injures itself or becomes Ill otherwise then paid for by owner. The YO was very fair and often paid for minor things that really they didn't have to. They also paid annual vet check, wormers and vaccinations so a good deal really!

 

[Shay]

That is a good deal. I'm not on working livery and never have been - but we have friends who were. Injury was the responsibility of the owner no matter how caused - as long as there was no outright negligence. Horses wear and tear it was said....

 

[Firefly9410]

I was on a yard that did working livery and a horse there went lame which was nothing to do with the riding school but while the horse was off work and when sound building up fitness, the riding school charged full livery because the horse could not be on working livery. This horses owner was also annoyed because the reins broke once and he thought the riding school should contribute towards the replacement cost as they used the tack more than him, but they did not want to. I would be wary of assuming a riding school would help you out at any point however an injury had been caused. I see working livery as a risk a bit like sharing. The yard I was on it was a simple business arrangement with yard providing full livery for half the price and the owner providing a sound safe horse with tack. All the responsibility for the horse seems to be with the owner which does make sense to me.

 

[MiJodsR2BlinkinTite]

Mine was on working livery at a college and it was clearly stipulated in the contract that in this event it would be fifty-fifty; i.e. college would pay half & owner was liable for half.

 

[dollyanna]

When I was on working livery vets bills, vaccinations, worming etc were all split 50/50. The other difference was that because of the experience of the yard all minor ailments that a private owner would probably call a vet for were treated easily by the staff, using materials provided for by the yard ie vetwrap, poulticing, so saved a lot of money if you had an accident prone horse!