Insuring the homebred leased horse--via XL? Experiences? Update post#10

[thealterofmemyself_i]

***Quick update–XL (via Blue Bridle) is willing to insure the mare for the owner’s full asking value. The rates are high, but they seem to offer some nice coverages that other companies didn’t. If anyone has used them, I’d love your experiences or thoughts on them as a company. I’m much more familiar with some of the other companies.

I will be leasing a lovely 14yo homebred that is still owned by the breeder (so no sale price to easily set the value!). The mare is sound for my purposes–super low level jumpers/eventing/dressage/hilltopping/trails. She has had a fairly light show history (also not helpful for setting a value) and has reasonable physical wear & tear (lots of exclusions assuming I can find someone to insure her). So far, Brit America and Marketscout have declined to do a MM policy. My agent has recommended that we look at Mortality and Surgical only policies with Great American. Markel will do Mortality only.

I’m really frustrated. My gut says the owner will not take this info well and the lease may go south. She’s a long time horseperson so you’d think she’d get it though. I’ve submitted applications with a second agent who reps for XL and American Reliable in hopes that they might give a different answer.

If anyone else has had trouble getting one insured, I’d sure love info on if/how you finally got things squared away. Or if you have a superhero agent who likes tough cases, please send me their name! I really like this mare. She’s certainly not perfect, but she’s kind and honest, and should be able to help me get legged back up after a prolonged injury/recovery after a bad fall. I felt safe and secure on her and that to me is priceless. Too bad I’m not an underwriter!

[IronwoodFarm]

Sometimes a horse becomes uninsurable. If you have applied and been declined, then let the breeder figure it out.

[findeight]

You need to have mortality to get major medical and you may be running into a minimum value problem, some won’t write anything on a valuation less then $XX.000 since medical claims often easily exceed the worth of that horse.

Mortality and a limited surgical policy with a cap at or below the value of the horse might be all you can get. My experience with that surgical was its relatively expensive and doesn’t cover much so you might want to just get mortality.

The owner should be aware of this. Can’t believe she’d be mad at you over it. Some on here have mentioned one underwriter than will insure lower valuation animals…is it Blue Bridle, Blue Diamond or something like that???.

Ask the owner for help if she’s insisting on insuring what might be an uninsurable horse.

[Guilherme]

You are trying insuring somebody else’s property. If you can’t bind coverage due to limitations on the property, itself, that’s hardly your fault!

Horses are chattels (property). In that sense they are no different than your truck. Your truck has a value that can be roughly determined by age, condition, etc. as lots of trucks just like it are sold every year. Not so with horses. Valuation is either a WAG or SWAG. Nobody will insure a WAG (unless it’s someplace like Lloyds and then be sitting down when they tell you the premium). Lots will insure a SWAG but then will put a lot of conditions on the coverage to discourage “moral losses.”

If the owner wants the coverage let them buy it and you pay the premium as part of your lease payment.

G.

[moonlightsonata]

i agree with this, as someone who cant afford a nice horse, this has been an issue for me before.

[OveroHunter]

I had this problem when I leased out my mare. I got her basically for free as an unbroke 4 year old, but then put a lot of time and money into getting her professionally trained and she turned into a super nice horse… All the insurance company saw was a BOS for $1 3 years prior and wouldn’t insure her for the $10k we were asking for.

The girl who leased her from me was basically facing the same struggle you are. I think what we had to do was get her appraised by a trainer and I had to send some sort of letter on all the money I had spent getting her trained to prove money had been put into her. It was a major PITA, but we got it worked out.

[thealterofmemyself_i]

Thanks, all! After I posted my lament, it took 40 minutes from submission to XL to approval! For the owner’s full asking value of 12k. To say that I’m stunned is an understatement. Thrilled, yes, because I’m just ready to have a plan and bring the mare home. But definitely surprised.

If anyone has insured through XL (via Blue Bridle), please chime in with your experiences.

[Daventry]

I am a Senior Equine Appraiser and get asked to do quite a few appraisers for scenarios just like this one. If the horse is truly worth what you want to insure it for, hire and Equine Appraiser, get a detailed appraisal report done and submit it to the insurance company. I have yet to have a client get denied coverage after giving them an appraisal report.

[IronwoodFarm]

Blue Bridle is the agent. XL Catlin is the insurer. http://xlcatlin.com/insurance/about-us/our-companies

Depending on the paper the contracted is written on, it could be an admitted or non-admitted carrier. Not sure what other coverages they are offering that other carriers do not, but I’d have to read their policy first.

If you have a mortality claim, you are going to deal with Blue Bridle anyway. I’ve found BB to be professional and pleasant.

[thealterofmemyself_i]

Just wanted to say thanks to all. I was able to work with several fabulous agents and the mare is squared away with an AEIG policy.

I will say that Blue Bridle was lovely to deal with, but I ended up going with this agency. Ryan was great to work with. I have no doubt that Emma at Blue Bridle would have been great too, but EIC came through with a policy that checked all the boxes.

[kcmel]

Glad you got it sorted out! I had trouble with XL getting my young horse’s insurance value up to close of his actual worth. He has only done schooling shows and he is unregistered. Even though he was winning most of his classes and getting 8s on his gaits, loads of professional training, etc., they were still pretty stingy, and I couldn’t get a horse of similar quality for twice his insured value. I didn’t have any trouble increasing the value on my older horse, who is more experienced but less fancy, probably because of his fox-hunting experience.