Hello all, I recently purchased a foal in utero and am very excited! This will be my first baby and I would like to have insurance on him/her and was interested to hear from the breeders here if there are any particularly good insurance agencies for a foal. I’ve only insured show horses before, and I would prefer to go with a company with reasonable procedures in place so I can get coverage quickly without waiting for vet exam or an appraisal.
Insuring foals on the ground is easy to do. Send me a PM and I can give you some referrals.
The process is straightforward. You’ll speak with an agent like you normally would to discuss the amount and type of coverage you are interested in. Then you will need to have a vet fill out a health report.
Once you have an agent, I think it shouldn’t take more than 7-10 days to get coverage. That’s if the foal is already on the ground. I don’t know how things work if you purchased the foal in utero, but someone here will be able to chime in.
The term you are looking for is prospective foal insurance, that may help you with your search. I always found it to be too cost prohibitive so can’t help you with the specifics. Best of luck with your foal!
[QUOTE=Laurierace;8946042]
The term you are looking for is prospective foal insurance, that may help you with your search. I always found it to be too cost prohibitive so can’t help you with the specifics. Best of luck with your foal![/QUOTE]
Thank you- I don’t need insurance until the foal stands and nurses/48 hours, so I guess I’m more looking for an agent who is able to move quickly once it’s born. The show horses I have insured required submission of show results and a vet exam, so I’m hoping someone familiar with sporthorse foals will be able to work with me on valuation without having to wait on a formal appraisal.
[QUOTE=Railbird;8946150]
Thank you- I don’t need insurance until the foal stands and nurses/48 hours, so I guess I’m more looking for an agent who is able to move quickly once it’s born. The show horses I have insured required submission of show results and a vet exam, so I’m hoping someone familiar with sporthorse foals will be able to work with me on valuation without having to wait on a formal appraisal.[/QUOTE]
Ok, sorry about that.
Markel has been great to work with for foal insurance - That’s who I generally recommend to my clients.
There should be no need for an equine appraisal unless you are trying to ensure the foal for more than three times the stud fee. Either two or three times the stud fee is standard for most insurance companies when trying to ensure a foal. I’ve also heard Markel is a good place to start for foal insurance.
Foal insurance is not as straightforward as horse insurance unfortunately. You can insure after well foal exam for mortality only. At 30 days the major medical can be added at a higher percentage rate than an older horse. Even prospective foal insurance is for mortality only.
Praetorian Insurance Company also does a good job. I insured at the 31 day mark.
It’s good you have that 48 hours. If you want to insure the foal from birth the prices are MUCH higher than insuring them starting 7(?) days old. And the higher rate you pay to get that first 7 days of insurance carries over for the whole first year.
I bought a valuable fetus (the only Baloubet du Rouet born in the US that year) so I chose the ‘stands and nurses’ expensive insurance. ---- It all depends on the value and your comfort level.
Damn — Sill cannot edit…
new post added to say that the 7 day period was wrong. The options given are 1. insuring the foal from birth or 2. insuring the foal beginning after the first month of life.
I’ve always insured my foals after 24 hours and a vet exam/IGG results which is taken at 12 hours old or so. (done before 24 hours) I use Dietrich and have for years. I insure for 3 xs stud fee, which is standard. It is cheaper to insure if you insure at 30 days old. I don’t usually do that, I insure as early as I can.
Bumping this post to ask if anyone had any luck finding mortality and major medical for a foal younger than 31 days?
Markel will do foals under 90 days with a vet exam, but said the premium is considerably more expensive than it would be after the foal is 90 days old.
Just emailed an agent about this today.
To clarify, that was for mortality only. She said once his value reached $5000, we could add medical.
Yeah that is the problem I am running into, no issues with proving value but didn’t realize I needed to wait until he was 31 days old.
We have Equine Brokerage (in NY) and Great American as our insurer. For foals, we get mortality at 24hrs+ with a basic vet exam and then major medical at 30-days. Value we can substantiate based on records of parents/sales of siblings as I don’t feel the 3x stud fee works for the sport horse world in general. If you are purchasing the foal, that should set your insurance value however and you won’t have a problem. Good luck!
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So what you are saying is there are no companies that will write major medical under 30 days old apparently. That was my question, thank you.
I am sure there are – it just comes down to how much you want to pay for that major medical coverage. I think, although it was quite a bit back so not 100% certain, we did have that option with GAIG but at a much higher rate than our normal major med coverage.
