Insurance

[liveforsummer]

Talk to me please about pony insurance. So many out there and some of the quotes seem ridiculous! Young, low value (3-4K) pony with no known health issues. Who are people using and what ball park price to include vets fees but no other extras?the last quote I got was £70 4 weekly. Seems insane!

Horse insurance seems to be getting more and more expensive and most companies seem to work very hard to wriggle out of paying. I’ve had good experiences in the past with the insurance emporium but they’ve hiked up their prices plus increased the excess and you now have to pay 20% of the vet bills upfront. They’re also quicker to exclude conditions than some of the other companies. Last year I changed DHorse to external injuries only - he’s retired now and I wouldn’t put him through colic surgery or anything requiring box rest but it did cover him for stepping on a sharp object in the field last year.

Friends have had bad experiences with PetPlan, KBIS and NFU so I’m not sure if there is a sure fire option out there..

Oh god, thanks for the heads up about insurance emporium. I'd looked at that but the cost was insane and yes expected a percentage of vets fees still to be paid on top of excess. For a young healthy pony seems crazy. My biggest worry is laminitis as he's a good doer native/cobby type or I'd probably not bother with insurance. I'll have paid more than his value in not much more than a year at their prices though

Bumping - need to insure pony by mid February and hearing nothing but bad review or everyone 😬. Any good experiences- insurances that won't cost the earth then refuse to pay?

I have to admit that these days I just have public liability ins for mine. I've had vets bills for mine but can afford to pay for them and the big ticket items (colic surgery for instance) I wouldn't put mine through as they are oldies

I am with NFU and have been for 12 years. It's extortionate, about 110 a month PER horse! But I claimed online yesterday for a 900 vets bill and by this afternoon they'd paid the vet.

£110 - Christ 😬 pony only cost 3k, that's nearly half his value in a year 🙈. He's 5 on passport but I'd be surprised if he's a day over 4 so would definitely be worth treating for colic/lami etc at this age so vet fees insurance needed

I personally don’t bother. I’d never put a horse through colic surgery or any process that involved them being on box rest for a year and my vets do good payment plans.

What will you do if they need a long period of box rest?

I only have catastrophe cover (accident/injury and colic) on mine. I'm with KBIS and it was £450 per horse per year, both insured for more than 4k. I bought the plan in March so it will be due for renewal soon, not sure what their prices are like now!

We just have PL insurance and I put away money in a Vet bills saving account every month. That way if disaster strikes we will have it but so far it hasn't. It's totally pointless anyway for most leisure ponies of this kind of value IMO. But do put the money aside, that's the key.