This has been happening for awhile, really.
2 Likes
Iām so frustrated. I mostly do jumpers with my horse, and added eventing insurance because Iām a worrier and want him covered for the 3 events we do a year. My broker told me a few months ago that coverage will be dropped when his policy renews in February. Weāll never do more than novice, and we barely event, but I will have to switch insurance companies if I want continued eventing coverage.
I wish companies would consider at least covering lower level eventing.
5 Likes
I wonder if they have the same issue with Hunters (meaning the ones who actually fox hunt)
3 Likes
I think someone in the comments on the facebook post mentioned this, and they do NOT have the same problems.
Probably because there are so many fewer fox hunters that itās not triggering whatever algorithm theyāre using to analyze the data.
Unsurprising, insurance has never been about benefitting the recipient.
This is why I self-insure. If itās an option for people, itās what I suggest doing. $100 each paycheck goes to what I jokingly call my horseās college fund. But itās really for medical expenses.
I donāt wonder if the correlating ālossā has anything to do with eventing culture as a whole versus their horseās actual use. Itās my experience eventers tend to be very self-motivated and hands on, tend to have a high standard for soundness, and tend to be more involved in general horse care practices including staying up to date with latest medical/therapeutic advances. They also tend to be independent and act outside of their trainer (although this has changed in recent years), where a trainer might be more likely to say āDobbin will work out of itā when an owner says āDobbin is .0156788/5 lame, Iām calling the vetās emergency line right nowā.
9 Likes
so hereās the problem with this. Iāve never had a horse who waited till I had the $ saved up! Literally the 7 days to the day of buying my current horse he needed emergency colic surgery. So if I hadnāt had insurance that would have gone on a CC and that extra self insure money would just never catch up. I canāt be the only one who has extremely unlucky encounters!
8 Likes
I hear youā¦ Six months after owning my horse he incurred a 20k vet bill. Horses. You plan for the worst and they still surprise you.
For my situation, self insurance is better as no policy would cover my horse in the way I need or wanted them to - and heās an eventer, so now heād be excluded anyway. I shopped for insurance and gave up when they came back and said four of his legs were excluded for āpre existingā injuries (abscesses requiring vet attention).
1 Like
When I was shopping earlier this year some companies did draw a distinction between upper and lower level eventing. Seems like a reasonable compromise to me, hopefully it catches on.
I may be in the minority here but I think my medical and mortality policy is a pretty great deal. Saving $100 a month really doesnāt cover much more than routine expenses. Plus insurance gives me peace of mind knowing that I wonāt have to make major medical decisions based on cost, Iād happily pay extra just for that.
5 Likes
Mine was just renewed and I changed it from hunter/jumper to eventing below training (or it might have been through training). I think the policy was $40-$60 more
I canāt imagine $100 a month would save anything! I do $100 every paycheck, which is weekly. That is purely āinsurance/emergencyā money - not money I spend for maintenance or routine things. I did the math years ago when trying to insure my eventer. Between huge deductibles and minimal coverage it just made more sense to self-insure ā but each person and their situation is different.
Having owned a horse (who is now semi-retired) who is probably the unluckiest creature on earth, Iāve had my fair share of major medical expenses. Sarcoma in his sheath that required surgery to remove, entrapped epiglottis, EPM, kicked in the hock exposing the joint capsule which required a decent hospital stay, split open his knee in turnout (another 2 weeks in the hospital), and a sliced open fetlock.
None of these injuries were related to eventing or his workload. He got routine vet care, shoeing, chiro, feed, supplements, deworming, more than adequate turnout, etc. I honestly donāt think that him competing in the hunters or dressage would have prevented any one of those conditions/injuries listed above. Yet somehow Dobbin the pleasure backyard horse being kept in a paddock wrapped in barbed wire full of possum poop, eating crummy hay, and being trimmed once every six months is considered a āsafer betā than my guy.
Itās ridiculous that underwriters want to use our discipline to exclude us from treating the injuries and ailments that, short of bubble-wrapping our horses and keeping them in hermetically sealed stables, could prevent.
7 Likes
I wonder if there are other cultural issues involved.
I was just thinking that none of my big ticket items directly involved eventing, but most were related to group turn-out and several to old track injuries which might be more common among eventers than other disciplines who are more likely to do less/solo turnout or not have OTTBs. Fitness might also be a factor in turn-out injuries.
4 Likes
Foxhunters are less likely to insure their horses and less likely to pursue high dollar diagnostics.
2 Likes
It sounds like itās based on actuarial data though? Meaning that event horses do cost insurance companies more than other horses. I am also skeptical that this is due to the actual eventing work, because so many horse injuries are non-riding-related and lower-level eventing doesnāt seem terribly risky to the horses. I wonder is @Beam_Me_Up is onto something with the other lifestyle/history factors that may correlate with eventing.
For anyone looking, I just renewed my Lloyds of London policy (through Smith-Embry Insurance, whom I love) in August without issue. For them Prelim is still considered lower-level. My horseās mortality rate has been 3.7% since I bought him four years ago. The cost of annual major medical has increased by $225 since 2019, which Iām okay with given increased costs of everything.
1 Like
My info is waaaaaay (near 30yrs) out of date, but my agent had us insure my TB as a Pleasure horse (not WP - more like trailriding) & DHās TWH as an Eventer.
He was going strictly by statistical numbers. How many TBs were used for Pleasure, how many TWH were Eventing 
ETA:
Both were Evented infrequently, maybe 3X a year
He also suggested lowering my mortality coverage when TB neared 20.
I had always considered that policy as Replacement Cost & had insured horse for mid 5s - verified by show record & training costs - when he was bring hauled monthly to shows.
My broker mentioned a few companies did this! Unfortunately not the one I use now, and I really wanted to stay with them.
1 Like
I just got dropped as well. My agent said it was because too many eventers get free horses off the track with pre existing injuries. Which is maybe true (I got mine free and did not do a PPE).
But most eventers I know are so in tune to their horses and do whatās right-the sport is too risky to not make sure your horse is 100%
I also donāt understand how my lower level adult ammie packer who lives in my backyard and I treat like heās an over grown Labrador is more of a risk than a lunged to exhaustion 3ā6 hunter. Slight change in anything with him and Iām on the phone with my vetā¦.
3 Likes
Because they arenāt comparing your backyard low level pet to a 3ā6 hunter. They arenāt necessarily comparing anything other than the fact that the pool of horses declared as eventers are not profitable, while the pools of horses declared other things still are.
Being āin tune with your horses and doing whatās rightā have zero impact on the fact that many people pulling horses off the track with no vetting means a lot of diagnostics and treatments for pre-existing injuries, nevermind injuries incurred schooling and showing, and itās costing the insurance companies more than what itās worth to them to keep those horses in the portfolio.
6 Likes
Someone who calls the vet out regularly for lots of diagnostics in an effort to stay on top of things probably costs the insurance company more than someone who is less diligent?!
8 Likes
As long as they are filing a claim. If they arent, they dont cost the company a dime.
1 Like
