HORSEY PEOPLE please help

[sunflowerfields19]

Hi I’m so sorry for the abrupt title- I’m absolutely worried sick about this.

my horse was taken to the emergency out of hours vet due to sudden colic. He has had a lifesaving operation and is thankfully on the mend now. I have him insured for the highest vet fees level available but I’ve just realised something- I totally forgot to get his passport updated to my name. He never usually travels or leaves the yard for competitions and it slipped my mind to send it away and get it updated with my name and purchase date and my details. Does this invalidate the insurance and mean I won’t get the fees covered? We are looking at £9k plus already and im terrified that I’ve stupidly invalidated my cover by not having my details updated. I know lots of people don’t bother updating the passport but did it affect if you had an insurance claim? I’ve never claimed before so I’m clueless but worried sick.

thanks so much anyone in advance x

You need to check your individual horse insurance policy.

But, a passport is not proof of ownership and you can insure a horse you don’t own so as a general rule not having the passport in the correct name shouldn’t automatically invalidate the insurance.

Pressed post to soon.

One of mine also didn’t have mine name in their passport - he passed to me following his breeders death so no one to co-sign and I never got it sorted.

it didn’t affect any vet or insurance claims up to and including his eventual euthanasia - I was with SEIB.

Agreed, my daughters 2 competition ponies are on loan to us but we insure them - so that shouldn't automatically be a problem

I don’t think it will make any difference. Presumably when you took out the insurance you supplied a description of your horse and proof of purchase so they will be able to verify you are claiming for the right horse! I hope he’s doing ok now.

It shouldn’t make a difference but get it updated as insurance can take a while to process anyway I’ve just had a claim from mine and it took ages after and the vets sorted it all out so I didn’t really have to do much other than signing and giving the insurance reference numbers and animal information

Never heard of it being an issue and I have a lot of horsey friends, some of whom work or have worked, in pet insurance.

Hasn't ever made a difference to mine but might be worth checking the small print and speaking to the insurer.

I had a horse doe of atypical myopathy in the wee hours of a Saturday morning. I had never changed the name because hos passport issue had their statis withdrawn the da I posted it to do si and it took nearly 3 months to get it back unchanged and I never dared send it to the PIO that took the book over. NFU paid out because I could show vetting cert as proof I'd bought him.

You will be absolutely fine! I've claimed on insurance for two different horses which were still registered to their old owners. My insurance policy in both instances were with petplan.

Yes, it's fine. Hope he continues to make a good recovery. Colic surgery is scary stuff