Breeders - do you insure your mares/foals?

[tmo0hul]

So yesterday I tragically lost my stunning 7 month old Trakehner filly. I posted in Horse Care about it, but unfortunately the vets could not save her. She was not insured. Not that the insurance claim could replace her, it certainly would have offset the considerable investment that I had in her.

How many of you insure your broodmares and young stock? Do you insure your mares if they are in foal? I’ve never insured anything personally - frankly in all my years of horse ownership I’ve never had more than a stitch to deal with and only had to put down aged horses, so this was shocking and devastating.

For those that do insure - is it just for mortality? Who do you use? What is the rate structure vs. insured value? How many claims have you filed and do you think it is worth it? When I worked in the TB industry many people just self insured if they had large numbers, or just insured the top 10% of their stock.

[khall]

I always insure my foals for at least mortality as early as I can. You can only do so for 3xs the stud fee and then the following year it can be raised. MM I like to but foals have to be certain age before MM is applicable. My mares, sometimes I do sometimes I don’t, depends on age etc. I have had where two of my mares had placentitis with MM coverage, that can be expensive treating and they paid no trouble. Dietrich is the company XL is underwriter. Great American had been underwriter then they changed their policies re MM.

[Mistysmom]

I insure my horses, including mares that are in-foal and foals, with mortality and surgical. Foals are 3x the stud fee and I raise it accordingly as they mature. It is costly but it is worth it for the peace of mind especially if any expensive surgery is required.

[Ride4Life]

I bought a policy on my 2014 colt - more for peace of mind than anything. I got so attached so quickly to the little guy that I knew I would spend whatever it took to save him if something happened. So insurance made me feel better.

I got a policy through Broadstone agency with the Hartford as the carrier, mortality & $10k limit for major medical. It was expensive and I could not get the coverage until he was 30 days old after a vet exam. I paid $140 for the vet exam, $700+ for the policy. I believe the mortality rate was $5.75 per 100 of value. Last week he developed an umbilical hernia that required surgery and it was excluded on the policy under congenital defects. I did read the policy when I got the coverage and saw the exclusion but he did not have a hernia at 30 days old so didn’t see a problem with it.

Soooo, now I’m out $1,667 for the surgery (we went ahead and gelded him while he was under anesthesia so it was a little more) $700 for the insurance, and the $140 for the vet exam required by insurance. Total of $2,507 out of pocket and I’m not happy. I don’t even want to think about what it cost me total with the stud fee, mare care, vet bills to breed, etc. etc. I love him and he’s totally worth it to me but I won’t be breeding again. I am going to keep major medical until he’s 3 years old at least in case he has a colic or other injury. But I may shop around at renewal and move to Great American or another carrier.

I don’t know how anyone makes money breeding horses. Maybe the guys running large herds on ranches with no vet care and minimal interaction can but that’s about it. I’ve bred 4 over the years - all for my own or family use. If I was breeding as a business I would have lost money on every single one.

Just my 2¢!

[TrotTrotPumpkn]

Oh I have a story about this. So I insured my coming 5 year old as a foal (I didn’t insure her mother, older mare). Each year I have paid my $500-$650 to keep her insured. When she was two, she suffered a pasture injury that the barn owner didn’t treat (I was out of town for a week). They said she was never limping so they didn’t do anything! AUGH… Anyway, I get back and her leg is swollen and there is proud flesh on her ankle. I left as soon as she ended stall rest–fancy facility, not so fancy management.

So vet does an exam and part of that is 3 x-rays and they are fine. I treat it and to this day there is a bump. Last year Broadstone suggests I leave Hartford for another company that has better coverage. Then last fall I decide to sell the mare, because she’s just wasting her talent in my back yard, so I do new x-rays because I know the bump will come up as an issue for any buyer, and I’ve arranged to put her in full training to be sold. Different vet takes 4 views of ankle (along with all the other pre-sale x-rays…$). The one view we never took before reveals a bone chip in the joint. Horse flexes and works sound. And by God, now I know she has perfect hocks! LOL. Surgeon consult is done and he wants to leave it alone. Which is good, because under the terms of the insurance I had to disclose an “injury” and the insurance company denied the claim, stating it was a pre-existing injury. So if surgery had been advised, I would have done it out of pocket. I was so upset–I felt like I had done everything correctly and paid for the insurance with no lapse in coverage.

Still I am going to keep her insured. I’m sure they will deny any future claims on that ankle. Really it breaks out to about half for health insurance and half for mortality in my mind. I think I had $11,000 of coverage and I will probably drop the mortality down to $7,500 for next year. I still like having catastrophic coverage.

[winter]

Oh man, don’t get me started. Horse insurance is SO expensive. I hate to think that I pay a higher annual fee to insure a 12k horse that I do to insure my house (which thankfully is worth a lot more than 12k).
For foals it’s tricky, as you mentioned they have to be 30 days old and have a vet checkup. They also can only be insured for 3x the stud fee. Since many stud fees are $1500 this works out to $4500 and they won’t give MM on a horse worth less than 5k. I would insure for MM without mortality if it were an option but it is not. A horse dying doesn’t cost me anything and since I have multiple horses, I wouldn’t be left horseless, whereas medical bills could be a real hardship. Since I breed my own, I do have money invested in them, but not the same if I had just paid 40k cash for a single show horse that then died.

I go back and forth on insurance, and when you have a large herd like I do, it really makes more sense to self insure. I honestly can’t remember if I have my two 4 year olds insured right now or not. I panicked and had them insured last year (or the year before) but can’t even remember if I renewed it. Every time I pay it I resent it. For me, the only thing I feel makes the insurance worth it is colic surgery but I thankfully have never had a horse colic so haven’t been burned by that yet. In my youngsters who aren’t yet started, or my old broodies, I would euthanize rather than do surgery. The riding horses are trickier and I would be hard pressed to make the choice.

[RanchoAdobe]

No - I basically ran the numbers and self-insuring makes much more sense with a herd over 10 or so. I do insure the young horses once they start showing and added risk of travel and competition (and increased value). I think we figured that unless you were facing a colic surgery every other year it is more economical to pay out of pocket.

[gumtree]

I breed TBs not high end but not the bottom either. That being said and having a pretty good idea of what the average sport horse breeder has invested. Which in most cases is substantially less than the value of our average mares and even more so when it comes to stud fees. Which in our program is around $20,000. I have not insured anything in over 10 years. I did for a number of years and never had a loss/claim. Of course Murphy’s Law kicked in the first year we didn’t. A yearling colt broke his shoulder in the paddock by himself. How, to this day I have no idea. That was more than 10 years ago and many foals/yearlings since without a mishap. We breed live cover and only on stud fees that are Live Foal, Stands and Nurses. The majority of stallion farms/owners I work with are reasonably loose on the definition of “Stands and Nurses”. IME if a foal is going to develop life threatening issues that most likely will progress to death, it is shortly after birth. This has only happened a couple of times and we were never required to pay the stud fee. They could have held us to the “letter” of the contract. But the stallion farms know it is not good business in the long run.