Not sure where is the best to ask so here goes! I have insurance on our 20 year old horse as he is still being leased out. But now I have a 6 year old trail horse. What kind of insurance should I have on him? After dropping close to 10k in vet bills in my 18 year old trail horse only to get him sound enough to retire, I’m wondering if maybe I should get something on the new guy? Thoughts and what type?
Standard mortality and Major Medical. Imagine you have mortality and a surgical only policy or just mortality on your 20 year old?
Regardless of who you go with, make sure you know your policy inside and out! Is your horse going to be insured for “agreed value” or “actual cash value” (fair market value)? With agreed value, if your horse is insured for $10,000 and the horse dies, the insurance will pay out $10,000 as long as there is proof of value. With actual cash value, you may be paying premiums on $10,000 for 5 years, but if your horse dies, the insurance company will only pay out what your horse is worth at the time of death (fair market value). If the economy tanks, etc., and the fair market value is only $4,000, that is unfortunately all you will get.
Most horse owners are under the impression that if they insured their horse for $20,000 and they have paid their premiums every year that they will get $20,000 if they die. Unfortunately, no always true! This often occurs with a horse that was originally insured at a reasonable age and is then suddenly not doing much at 19 years old and an injury or death occurs. What they were once worth at 12 years old may not be the same at 19.
Regardless of the insurance company you choose, please, please, please make sure to keep good records on your insured horses - including pictures, video and show records…and remember to continue to update them! I’ve done several very tough equine appraisal cases in which the owner didn’t have a single photo or video of their insured horses that passed away, no show record, nothing…which makes it extremely tough to prove their value! And, if you feel like the insurance company is giving you the run around, and you truly believe your horse is worth more, get your own independent equine appraisal done and present it to the insurance company. I do a lot of these…and it does work! Though, the owner has to be realistic in regards to what their horse’s Fair Market Value actually is. 
I’ve got a few insurance tips and tricks on my website and on our Facebook page to help horse owners…so my job isn’t so hard if someone needs to make a claim at some point!
Daventry Equine Appraisal Services
www.equineappraisers.com
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I absolutely would get mortality and major medical on your 6 yr old. Most plans are pretty cheap- and good plans cover a LOT of vet bills. My insurance has paid for itself 4 times over this year and I am thrilled that I have it.
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I guess that depends on your definition of pretty cheap. Most places will no longer insure for major medical on a value of less than $15,000 - the premium on that for my horse last year was over $1400.
And be sure you READ THE ACTUAL POLICY before you buy it. Understand the difference between the friendly commissioned sales person who pitches the product and takes your check and the very few remaining underwriters who pay the commission to the sales agent and pay or decline to pay claims based on the written policy you bought. Underwriters aren’t so friendly…
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My premium was $580 this year, and they have paid out approx $2300 for an ongoing issue over the past year. They also let me split the premium into 2 payments. There ARE good plans out there!
Who is your insurer? None that I have worked with will insure for less than $15,000.
Contact Jennifer Oliver- (jennifer@centralvains.com). I heard of her through this forum. She’s an insurance agent. She got me my policy and was incredible to work with. My policy is mortality and major medical for $7500, plus an additional 3k in the case of colic surgery.
2300 in a year, 4 times your premium, is not much, paid more then that in routine, uncovered vetwork in many years …the issue is what they would pay out for, say, a surgical bill that exceeded your stated or market value and a mortality claim 3 months later from complications of said surgery. And that happens. That’s why many owners just put the 600 a year in an emergency fund with lower valuation horses.
Who is the underwriter on your policy? Who is the underwriter the above agent wrote the 7500 policy with? My former underwriter (horse aged out of eligibility) won’t write MM under 15k anymore as most covered medical procedures can easily exceed that valuation and they loose too much money. Income from premiums doesn’t come close to covering actual reimbursements so most underwriters quit offering coverage that is likely to exceed value of the horse or premium income from similar. Insurance companies are businesses.
Probably Praetorian, that’s the company Jennifer is recommending now as having the best pricing and without the ridiculous co-pays on diagnostics. I have one insured for $10K and one for $12K.
Yes! That is the company. I have been happy with them so far. The co-pay is $300 and after that they 100% cover diagnostics/treatment expenses etc (or at least they have for me so far). They even agreed to cover multiple shockwave treatments, which I was quite pleased by.
Crazy. My insurance is nearly $300/month!! I just assumed it was like a car.
Rates depend on tne value of the horse. Means nothing unless you know the value of the horse, convert it to a percentage of value. Like 6% of value per year. Don’t go by the amount somebody pays to judge insurance affordability, get the percentage.
Not everybody insures to full value either. Not a guide.
Thanks everyone. Our policy on Daughters horse isntriugh THIS. I know of M&S and Hallmark. Going to look at the one mentioned above. Especially if they cover showave! I fell over when I added up all I spent on my guys suspensory problem
FWIW. I use Cunningham and Cunningham out of NY. I’ve had two horses with them. One collected on 20k MM/mortality policy through GA. New horse was purchased for 400 and initial policy was 1500 mortality then 3500 mortality. Next year increased to 7500 with MM and mortality through JT Ketch via BritAmerica. Last year at 10k and this year at 30k. I also pay 1400 for what I’m guessing the above person several posts up pays for a 15k policy of MM/mortality. It’s worth looking into as my rate is 3.6% plus mortality rider or MM with 325 deductible. I am not 100% on the logistics of it all. I just know I’ve got the best options/coverage for what I wanted and needed for my show hunter. I also supplement it with colic care so I have an extra 7500 in colic surgery coverage…a good broker/agent is what you need. Give Sara a call and have a chat…they are extremely helpful and have 3 companies they work with, maybe more to suit what you need. 15k is not a minimum requirement for MM at all. 7500 generally is the lowest value they will issue is on.
