Equine Insurance for your Jumper and a value question...

[megans113]

This past year we purchased a 1.30m jumper from Sweden (bred in Holland) and imported him to the USA. We got quite a deal on him - especially for how nice he moves and how careful he is in the show ring. We have only been doing the 3’6 stuff but he has never even touched one of the fences. Including the shipping fee and PPE/X-rays, we payed about Low-Mid five figures (US$).

His mortality/colic insurance is going to be renewed soon and it will cost us about $1000. He is only 8 years old and should have a long show career ahead of him! Is 3-5% of their value the going rate for yearly mortality insurance? (BTW we are using Markel right now). Does anyone else use other insurance companies that are cheaper?

My second question has to do with his value. He will have gone to 2-3 “A/AA” shows by the end of the summer and we plan on going to more throughout the end of the year. We are going to start out in the High Ch/Ad Jumpers and slowly move up to the Low Jr/Ao jumpers. For an 8 yr old imported Dutch WB that consistently gets clear rounds in the 110-120 divisions what would you estimate his value to be. (He is extremely easy and manageable and requires little to no preparation for shows and at home his giant 17.1 body can gently care for 10 year olds and take them around a small 18" course). We will never sell him but we are thinking about increasing his “value” possibly next year for insurance purposes.

Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!

[bluecharm7]

I have Hallmark underwritten by AEIG. For me they were cheaper then Markel.

[findeight]

Just remember if you up his declared value? Your premiums so go up. Should he unexpectedly “top out” due to an injury, suffer a fall that rattles his confidence, suffer repeated suspensory issues or you learn he hates open water? You cannot simply drop the value back down past a certain percentage of current insured value.

Most Pros carry minimum value to keep the premiums affordable. Oh, and forget loss of use. If they pay off on it, which is not a given if he can be used for anything else, they may own the horse- google Cigar on that one.

Markel is fairly consistent with good claims service, some lesser priced underwriters are not- and there are only a few actual underwriters despite hundreds of agencies and agents selling the stuff.

Easy to let ego take over establishing insured value to base premiums on, often better to let common sense take over. Underwriters love letting you bump the value up on healthy 8 year old horses they are betting will live to a ripe old age.

[skyy]

I’ve had good experiences with Great American and I think the pricing is probably comparable.

[abrant]

I have an oddly specific answer for you I just emailed Hallmark because my jumper wants to be a hunter. The hunter rate through them for my horse (11yo thoroughbred) is 3.6% and the jumper rate is 3.7%.

Love Hallmark, the customer service is phenomenial. I get almost immediate, thorough answers every time I email them.

I also asked about loss of use because pretty much the worst thing that could happen is 15 years of retirement on a horse who cannot survive on rough board and it’s pretty much the same as the poster above. The most they pay is 50% minus residual value, the complete coverage requires full x-rays, and it’s hard to make a sucessful claim.

As far as value, I’m still mulling it over for my renewal. I have to really think about what I would practically spend to replace him now that he has some value. He’s wonderful but much fancier than my 30 something office slave self would really need again He’s really insured for the medical coverage.

[Credosporthorses]

I will second Great American. I’ve had them on all of my horses and they are wonderful. My horse is insured major medical/mortality and colic. His declared value is what I paid.

[roamingnome]

I’ve got my jumper insured through a non-horse insurer. (Weird, I know) But it’s much cheaper and all they ask for every year is some sort of record that he’s not just sitting in a field. We first insured him for his purchase price, then his value went up, and when I stopped competing him on the AA circuit, we bumped his insurance down to his original purchase price.
He turns 18 on Friday and is still covered for mortality (for what we bought him for over 9 years ago) and major medical, and his premiums have been around $600/year.

[megans113]

Don’t worry I had no plans to take out a “Loss of Use” policy because I know they are extremely hard to prove and more often than not don’t go exactly as planned (Not to mention they are super expensive and he isn’t a million dollar horse!).

Roamingnome: I’m sending you a PM b/c that sounds promising!