Insurance

[bonzo77]

I am hopefully about to purchase my first pony. Shes a 13.2 hh coblet. Of unknown age but probably around 7. Hardy little one that I will use for hacking, schooling and maybe in time some low level fun like XC schooling, fun rides, potentially low level fun competing but not sure how I will get the time... So I've been looking at insurance and am frankly overwhelmed with the options. What is essential? What level of cover do I need for vet fees etc. I am so lost on this, it seems so much more complicated than insuring my car. Or my cat!

We have ours insured for vet fees - £5,000 per condition per year. Our older boy had only seen a vet for vaccinations until three days before his eleventh birthday and then he racked up more than £10,000 in vets bills in less than nine months . Apart from our excess, it was all covered although his insurance now excludes all the things we claimed for that year. They’re also insured for death and theft as standard. We didn’t
go for loss of use as it’s very hard to get a payout and it massively bumps up the premiums.

You need to remember that pretty much anything you see the vet for will henceforth be considered a preexisting condition after 12 months so having insurance does tend to sway vets towards throwing the kitchen sink at diagnostics because the clock starts ticking from the first visit.

Eventually with ours we will probably go down the self-insurance route (saving the premiums we would have paid the insurance company), but it helps to have a decent amount you can access quickly if you decide to do that

If you want to insure for vets fees you'll probably need a vetting (if you're not already planning to). They'll normally check the age then too.
As a minimum you need third party liability and lots will cover personal accident and tack too. Vets fees is where it gets expensive...
I think if you can afford to it's worth covering vets fees when they are young and it's affordable. Can you afford £5000+ at the drop of a hat for colic surgery if needed for example? You can then review the level of cover as they get older and premiums go up. When mine was older I had catastrophe cover from KBIS which covered external life and death injuries and colic only.

@LouMoo13 I was planning to have a 2 stage vetting only. Is that sufficient for vet fee insurance?

It depends on the insurance company and how much you’re buying the horse for.

Yes, as above, think it varies from insurer to insurer and is related to purchase price