Advice on insuring a pony? Which company?

[OopsItsAPony]

We have just become pony owners for the first time. I am clueless, which for the pony’s sake doesn’t matter as he lives in a friend’s yard with her ponies and she is taking care of him.

However, I do need to insure him. He’s 14 and as far as we know very healthy. Which insurance companies do people tend to use ?

NFU, not the cheapest but I have had many huge claims paid out without fuss.

To be honest I’m not sure that vet fees insurance is worth it for horses - at 14 there will almost certainly be something that comes up which will then be excluded.

Two of my friends have been told by NFU that they won’t allow them to renew once their current policy expires as they’ve claimed this year and they refused to even give me a quote for my dd’s new horse as we’d made claims for a different horse who was covered by a different insurance company 😯.

Another friend had a nightmare with KBIS - ended up taking them to the insurance ombudsman but was still thousands of pounds out of pocket.

We’re with Insurance Emporium who were really good but they’ve increased their premiums even though we haven’t made any claims and you now have to pay a larger excess plus 20% of any bill.

The other issue with equine insurance policies is that claims have to be finished within 12 months as there aren’t any lifetime policies like there are for dogs and cats. This means that there’s lots of pressure to throw everything at a problem including invasive procedures when quite often the best thing to do would be to wait and see.

We now have our horses on catastrophe cover so that external injuries and colic treatment are covered which is a lot cheaper and also harder for insurance companies to wriggle out of paying. Anything else we pay for as we go and I’ve got a credit card with a lot of available credit if something major (and treatable) crops up. Third party liability insurance is a must whatever you decide.

There is one company that does lifetime cover now. I can’t remember the name though but will post it later. I know someone that works for them. I doubt it’s worth the cost though.

My mare had 2 operations under general anesthetic in her late teens. Unrelated but on the same hind leg and NFU covered that without quibble. She has had payouts of over £15k and I only stopped insuring her at 23 (she’s 25 nearly). They are the only insurer my vets like dealing with-each time I just had to make one call and they dealt direct with the vet hospital and I only had to pay the excess.
I would check with your vet too as at mine with some insurers they insist on payment upfront and leave you to reclaim the costs as they don’t trust the insurer to pay out.

www.agriapet.co.uk/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI5tDv8N2v-gIVIu_tCh1tgQcoEAAYASAAEgIvKvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

This is the one that does lifetime cover. But I have no experience of claims with them so
am not endorsing!

I agree with PP in that I wouldn’t bother and don’t insure mine…
I would never put a horse through colic surgery and my vet has a good payment plan so I don’t bother.

Thanks for all the input. Not sure what to do now, but food for thought!

Pet plan. I've had many claims paid out by them with no quibbles and my premiums, whilst increased, haven't gone up unreasonably. I have loads of exclsions now though and am on the brink of stopping paying as my excess is £500 and something major has to go wrong to exceed that. I've put my horse thorough rehab before and have sworn never to do it again as long term box rest is just cruel. The next major illness/injury will be the last one she suffers.

We self-insure ours, too.

Petplan, never had a problem with getting claims paid, easy to deal with

We are insured with pet plan. They have been very good in paying for several things. They don't do lifetime cover though. Few do with horses as already mentioned. It's worth noting though that even if you don't insure for vets fees you should have third party insurance in case your horse causes an accident in any way. Congratulations on your new horse!!

NFU for both ours - one 15 and the other 17. Can’t fault them.

Mine was with NFU until he hit 20 and it got very expensive. I had £13k of claims in 14 months (2 horses) with no issue including an emergency pts in the wee hours of a Saturday morning when I couldn't talk to them until the following Monday. One advantage of NFU was I could include my trailer on the policy gor a very low cost.

I don't insure either, I have BHS gold membership so I have public liability insurance through that and just pay my own vets fees. I wouldn't put my horse through anything invasive like colic surgery so am happy to take the risk of not being insured.