Horse Insurance for 20y/o to cover illness (NOT E&L!!!)

sammype · 9 May 2018 at 1:03PM

I am going round in circles trying to find an insurer that will cover my 20 year, 10 month old retired grass kept mare for illness as well as injury. Spoke to NFU, KBIS, Petplan, Stoneways and SEIB, and the only one that does it is kbis and that's only for a measley £1250! I am not expecting any vet bills, bless her she's cost me barely anything over the last 10 years but i would not have a spare 5k+ should she ever come down with colic or some other illness and need surgery etc. Right now I have her covered for basic injury with Petplan but I'd really like to have her covered for illness as well up to say 5k. I don't mind if I have to pay an excess up to £500, and can manage up for £60 per month. I do NOT want to go with shady e&l or their sneaky variants (animal friends, insurance emporium etc).

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Savvy_Sue · 9 May 2018 at 11:35PM

Are there any horsey organisations who might have recommendations?

does your vet? local Stables?

Have you tried a broker?

Although having said that, and not being a horsey person at all, I would wonder whether insuring a horse of that age for illness would be economic - that £1250 limit might be there for a reason?

Soot2006 · 11 May 2018 at 12:51PM

Unfortunately most veteran policies won't cover illness. Some policies will roll over into old age if you've been insured with them for a long time but that doesn't help you now. In my experience of veterans, Petplan provide the fairest cover. http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/horse-care/horse-care-tips/insuring-the-active-veteran-145022 seems to confirm this. I don't know of any that cover colic in 20yrs+ horse. It's no age these days, but I think the risks are considered too great for the insurance. Might be worth asking on the Horse & Hound forum?

Soot2006 · 11 May 2018 at 12:53PM

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Although having said that, and not being a horsey person at all, I would wonder whether insuring a horse of that age for illness would be economic - that £1250 limit might be there for a reason?

The problem is that in the past a 20 yo horse was considered very old, whereas nowadays many are competing and have years and years ahead of them. Colic surgery costs anything between £5,000-£10,000 so most of us are insured for it! However as colic risks do increase with age, veteran policies tend to exclude it which is v worrying. I know people who've paid for it on a credit card and the horse has had many more wonderful years, but equally, they sometimes don't make it after the surgery anyway and that risk also goes up with age

.

w06 · 12 May 2018 at 8:20AM

That's exactly why it's, from the insurers point of view, a poor insurance risk too. It's the same with cats and dogs, the older the animal the harder and more expensive to insure.

A budget of £60 a month for horse illness insurance is not going to buy very much cover, out of curiosity I've just got a quote for my healthy 5 year old rescued greyhound, petplan's lowest quote is £63/month for a 'lifetime' policy with up to £4K claim limit. For my 11 year old greyhound i couldn't get a quote for lifetime cover and the 'essential' policy costs £60/month with a limit of £3k + excess of £95 and 20% of costs.

3rd party liability insurance +/- injury insurance and a credit card set aside for vet bills is probably your best bet

Soot2006 · 12 May 2018 at 1:10PM

w06 wrote: »

A budget of £60 a month for horse illness insurance is not going to buy very much cover, out of curiosity I've just got a quote for my healthy 5 year old rescued greyhound, petplan's lowest quote is £63/month for a 'lifetime' policy with up to £4K claim limit. For my 11 year old greyhound i couldn't get a quote for lifetime cover and the 'essential' policy costs £60/month with a limit of £3k + excess of £95 and 20% of costs.

I pay £45/month for my competition horse, insured for value of £3,000 (his untrained value - decided not to increase), loss of use of £3,000, vet fees of £5,000 - for for all activity groups and is pretty standard for a healthy young horse without too many exclusions. Horse insurance don't do "lifetime cover" - we get excluded for each condition after 1 years for every claim. My younger mare is only insured for colic as not worth insuring the rest of her as Petplan have spent £35,000 on surgeries and illness over 6 years for her. They'd still insure us for about £70/month, however almost every bit of her is excluded so I got a broker to find me a specific colic (and accident, etc).

Think horse insurance is often different from other animals because of the activity groups and loss of use? (+ value of the horse - e.g. for a very valuable horse you need to submit Xrays etc for the insurance quote. Even for a £6,000 horse you need a vetting certificate).

DD265 · 12 May 2018 at 4:48PM

We'd been insured with the NFU from the get go and had the option to extend it up to 25 years old but it was expensive. I would be amazed if a) you can find it and b) it only costs you £60 a month.

I would go down the self insurance route. If she's been healthy for the past 10 years, then touch wood she'll stay that way. Put the £60 in a savings account and if you had a credit card with that kind of limit then that's an option. Some vets will do payment plans too though I appreciate that with the big bills the numbers are likely to be higher than £60 a month.

Another consideration is whether you would actually put your 20 year old mare through surgery to warrant the insurance? Every horse is different and I appreciate that she might be much healthier than mine was when he was 20, but it's a big ask and recovery is often very difficult on older horses. I can understand wanting to have the option, but at the same time I was glad that I had already decided not to have any invasive treatment for my 25yo last year. I wouldn't have liked to have been agonising over that decision in the moment.

Horse Insurance for 20y/o to cover illness (NOT E&L!!!)

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