Owner requiring Personal Equine Liability insurance for boarders, this is self-care boarding. Haven’t boarded a horse in a long time, is this a new thing? I can see the logic behind it, but have not run into this previously, so didn’t know if this has become the new norm.
No not that new. I’ve had it for years since I rough board and don’t own a home. Some places require it. It’s worth the peace of mind. I get mine through Corinthian Insurance.
humm, ask them if they have care and custody insurance since they are responsible to contain the said beast
1 Like
Based on other threads in CoTH I think that a BO requiring a boarder to have Personal Equine Liability insurance is very country and regional dependent. I have never seen it required in my area which is SE PA. However I have chosen to go with an additional umbrella/liability type policy on my homeowners that will protect me if my horse injures somebody. This way it isn’t limited to just my horse.
You can get Equine Personal Liability Insurance for relatively cheap through some of your local or national horse groups. I have mine through the Virginia Horse Council. It is $50 to join the council as an individual ($75 for family) and then the EPLI is $25 for an individual($45 for a family).
I believe you can find something similar through different breed organizations as well.
ETA: The EPLI is a 1 million dollar policy
Sorry it took me so long to get back to this thread. Thanks for the answers.
Didn’t know that in a Selfcare situation the land owner needed to have CCC, good to know, I’ll check.
SonnysMom not too far from you Central Maryland
1 Like
I would wonder if the owner is under-insured and/or not insured themselves, and hoping the boarders’ insurance will cover them in the event of an incident.
That would concern me as a boarder - because I don’t want my insurance to kick in only because the facility owner doesn’t have any.
I would ask about their own insurance coverage before boarding my horse there.
An EPL policy is quick and easy to get from Hallmark insurance (www.hallmarkhorse.com) and comes in 3 different $$$ amounts. Check it out!
I thought care, custody, control insurance only applied if the BM/BO was found negligent in case of a claim… it does not cover every possible liability scenario
if they injure the horse while under their care the insurance is there to make payment, but it is not automatic one has to take comfort the carrier to make the claim (or sue for the loss)
If the owner is running a self-care boarding operation without commercial liability coverage, he/she is playing with fire. It s a good idea to have anyone boarding (even in the field, even with self care) to have their own liability insurance. It is cheap, cheap, cheap for an individual policy. However, that is NOT going to protect the farm owner from a suit alleging their negilgence or an issue with a contract. And it really does need to be a commercial policy not a personal homeowner’s policy. Basically the owner is what we call “naked” without the coverage and could become a deep pocket in a suit between boarders.
2 Likes
Honestly, if you own a horse, having your own personal equine liability policy is a great idea whether or not it is required. Owners of animals are generally held responsible for damages or injuries caused by that animal. If your horse bites or kicks someone, or breaks loose and gets out in the road, as the owner you could be held responsible. As @IronwoodFarm describes, these policies are very inexpensive, overall a great deal for the horse owner.
It is very reasonable for a barn to recommend or even require that you have this insurance, even if they are well insured themselves. I do NOT think that requiring these policies is some kind of a red flag that the BO is not properly insured. I recommend these policies all the time and I am well insured. It is perfectly fair to ask what insurance a facility has, but it has been my experience that people are not always up front about that kind of information.
1 Like
I recently discovered personal liability insurance for my horses and it is such peace of mind! I went through Hallmark Equine Insurance as well and they were great and so helpful. I was amazed at how affordable it was too! 800-734-0598
That seems odd, though. Especially in a self-care situation where the owner is requiring boarders to obtain insurance.
I would definitely want some proof that the owner is carrying an insurance policy that would protect ME if I got hurt while at the barn, from whatever source. That is the main expense in a boarding policy - it’s not facility damage by horses, but injuries to boarders….could be from a horse, or from a million other farm related injuries (e.g. hay falling from a stack, a slip and fall while dumping manure, or an injury while leading a horse.) Or, an injury to the vet or farrier while at the barn - whose insurance is going to kick in if the vet falls on ice, for example?
It’s probably not going to be covered by the personal equine insurance - and/or I’d be pretty angry if my insurance got tapped as a source because the barn did not have any commercial coverage.
You are correct that there could be some circumstances where your liability and the liability of the BO could intersect–let’s say your horse gets out on the road and causes an accident–both YOU and the BO could be held liable. It’s very fair to expect that your BO be insured. BUT, I would also say that the wisest course of action is to always be sure that YOU are appropriately insured because that is the only factor you can 100% control. What if your BO shows you a copy of his insurance policy when you arrive, but then fails to pay the next premium and it lapses? What if your horse injures someone and a jury decides that YOU are responsible, not the BO? Ultimately, you having your own policy would protect you.
1 Like
USEF has a good policy that you can get fairly cheaply with a regular or fan membership. It would cover you, as the horse owner.
The farm owner needs their own policy to protect THEM from you suing them.
Equine liability statutes we see on the signs cover things that horses do, like spooking at something and running away. You are liable for things that humans do, like using tack or over-facing – picking which horse you are going to ride. Horses don’t build fences so if they get out it’s your problem, Beach rides and public trail rides are pretty much gone in this area because the insurance is so expensive. My BO’s insurance paid a settlement to a rider because a piece of leather tack broke. The rider wasn’t injured although she fell off at the walk. The income didn’t pay for the additional insurance.
The State of Maine has a statue that protects property owners from liability if someone is on their property, such as for horseback riding or hunting. There are requirements for what and where you post for trespassing if you want to keep people off your property.
Well, sure. Of course it doesn’t hurt to have insurance for yourself.
In a self-care situation, however, I would want proof that the owner understands that THEY need to carry liability insurance as well. I could easily imagine that a property owner might think they are not in danger of a lawsuit if they are not handling the horses. But they are the ones allowing others on their property. So if a fellow boarder leads your horse out of the barn, trips and gets kicked in the head – whose insurance is kicking in when her health insurance wants to subrogate the claim?
I think most commercial boarding stables would not be underinsured because this is their business. My neighbors has a self-care boarder with 5 horses. They know absolutely nothing about horses, but bought a farm that had a 5 stall barn and paddocks and figured they could make some extra money. I would not be surprised to find out that they have zero liability insurance for the boarded horses and owners, or anyone else that handled the horses.
I’m not sure it’s really a bad thing for the owner to demonstrate proof of insurance. I don’t really think that makes them more open for a claim because someone knows their limits. One would expect all barn owners to be insured.
In a self-care boarding situation, if a fellow boarder leads your horse in and gets kicked in the head, you (as the owner of the horse) would be primary person liable, not the BO. It’s the same scenario if you invite a friend out to ride your horse and your horse bucks them off and they are injured. This is because there is a general legal principle in the US that owners of animals are responsible for the actions of that animal and any damages it causes.
Obviously this is a simplistic explanation as anyone can be sued for anything. The key point is that having friends and fellow boarders help care for a horse via a group arrangement in a self care setting opens individual horse owners up to a lot of extra liability. A barn’s commercial policy does NOT protect horse owners at all when they personally allow friends or fellow boarders to handle their horse.
In comparison, in a professional full care setting, the only people that should be handling/caring for a horse should be professional barn staff. If a professional barn staff member is injured, their employer is responsible for them because they were injured on the job and ideally they would be covered by Workmans Comp, which makes it impossible for them to sue over a work related injury. In a full care setting, it also is generally pretty clear that the BO has custody of the animal and is responsible for controlling it and managing it on a day to day basis. In this type of setting horse owners have a lot of protection from liability. Again, this is a simplistic explanation as anyone can sue for anything, and animal owners can always be held responsible for any damages their animal causes.
But, you are 100% correct that even a self-care facility owner should carry a commercial liability policy. Accidents related to how the facility is managed or maintained could definitely result in liability. A potential exception would be a scenario where a facility is rented out to a tenant, and the tenants are responsible for management and upkeep. This may be your neighbor’s scenario–they have rented part of their property out to a tenant. A rental arrangement is different from a self-care board arrangement.
Obviously any property owner or equine business owner should be consulting both a lawyer and an insurance agent to make sure they have protected themselves adequately with proper contracts, releases and insurance.
Well, yes, I think that is too simplistic. If the barn owner is selecting the boarders and they are paying him/her to board there, I don’t see the boarding barn being off the hook here.
Are you a lawyer or are you just extrapolating how you think it would work.
Currently, I am a named party in a lawsuit because my daughter was in an accident in a car I own. I wasn’t even in the car, let alone the driver. I think the idea that the barn owner’s insurance is not going to get tapped in a situation like this is optimistic at best.
