Equine insurance - truly necessary? Your opinions?

Question

What factors do you take into consideration when determining if you are going to insure a horse? What is your determining factors?

Answer 1

My horses aren't worth enough to make it worthwhile.  They are all registered, but they aren't anything particularly special (according to the horse world).  I love them dearly but I don't think the insurance is worth it.  I wouldn't say they are replaceable, because that's like trying to replace one of your children, but they aren't superstars either.

The only horse I would even consider insuring is an impeccable breeding horse.  Even a great show horse with lots of titles isn't worth insuring if it can't be bred.  And I'd insure a horse if I rode for a living (like the Olympic riders) but that's about it.

Answer 2

I used to carry mortality on my mares, but with the current horse market, it's hardly worth it.  One thing I have considered though, is a sort of insurance offered by Pfizer in their preventicare program.  There are some hoops to jump through, but if you meet the guidelines, ie...have your horse vaccinated by a participating veterinarian, deworm twice a year with pfizer ivermectin products, and purchase strongid C daily dewormer from the participating veterinarian, if your horse winds up needing colic surgery, Pfizer covers up to $5K of the expense.  Since it's a decent deworming program anyway, the "insurance" is an added plus.

Answer 3

I personally have insurance on my horses because they're not nessesaraly "cheap" horses. But I have friends who don't and they're just fine. It just depends on how secure you want to feel about it and if your horses are expensive or not.

Answer 4

How much I paid for that horse; what his job will be when I own him and how much will it cost to replace him......I'll spring for mortality insurance.....we already have liability insurance.

Is the horse uniquely talented?  Are there others out there with similar talents....all of these answers are subjective.  And it makes it tough to place an accurate value on a horse.

Edit:  There's a troll running amok on this question....no doubt no one will insure that knuckledragger.......

Answer 5

I do mounted patrol, and I have insurance.

Most insurance will help with colic, call your vet and price what it will cost for colic then see if the insurance will cover it. Trust me IT IS WORTH IT!!!

Answer 6

well, when i bought my horse one of our first thoughts was to get insurance because if he colic ed and needed surgery or got permanently injured there was NO WAY we could afford it (i know i know, people are going to say i shouldn't have bought him in that case... blah blah blah)  

So solely for that reason we wanted it, but it turns out we would loose the coverage once he turned 16 or 17 (can't remember.. ) (we thought he was 14 at that point also..) since they are too big of a risk at that point.. It turns out its a good thing we never got it because he was in fact 17 at that point and we would have gotten in trouble..

but anyways, I'm rambling..

We wanted it for the extra "help" if anything ever happened... but not really because my horse was any great money..

i know that if i put alot of money in a horse (10,000 or over) then i would get it insured because THAT is alot of money to loose, while the $3500 i spent isn't as painful.

Answer 7

Good question!.... There are a few key points to consider when determining whether insuring would be beneficial; How much you paid for the horse, what your future/current plans are, Their breeding potential, show potential, bloodlines.... LOTS to think about.

For me it wouldn't prove to be worth while, as all my horses are simple trail/pleasure horses, some aren't even papered. If I had a horse that I had BIG plans for, I may take it into consideration.

Answer 8

I would ask myself:

Is my horse worth a lot?

Is it likely to hurt someone?

Is it likely to hurt someone elses property?

If the answer is yes, then I would get insurance on it?

Answer 9

Cost of the horse.

Conditions of where it's going to be kept - ie what happens if it gets out of the field - does it go onto a road or next door's field ?

What I'm going to be doing with it.

Any health or behavioral "issues" that may result in claims.

Out of my 4 horses 2 are insured and 2 are not. In the last 4 years I have made one claim.

Answer 10

The answer to your question is based on several different factors.

Age of horse, fair market value (a BIG consideration in today market).

If your horse is a home bred or purchased some time ago with extensive training etc. All these things will determine what you would want to insure for or if you do at all.

The basic formula used for home bred horses is three times their sire's stud fee.

Fair market value would be the amount you could expect to receive if you sold your horse right now, therefore, with a recently purchased horse, the purchase price would be considered fair market value.

If your horse was purchased several years ago and you have invested time and training then would be more than his purchase price, you would need to provide substantiation for the increase in value. Generally your insurer will provide to you appropriate form to fill which will help you list the horse's competition record, professional training fees paid, and other relevant information.

If your horse should become Ill or injured (as they often do) and If your horse is between the age of 31 days and 15 years, you might consider adding Major Medical/Surgical coverage to your mortality policy. This coverage will reimburse you for covered veterinary costs (both medical and surgical) in the event your horse has an injury, illness, accident or disease.

Remember, while your mortality policy provides coverage for humane destruction, it does not cover economic destruction.

This means, If your horse develops a serious condition that requires costly medical or surgical care, and the veterinarians believe that treatment is warranted, you are expected under the terms of the mortality policy to provide for that care. If you don't have the funds to pay the expected veterinary fees, and instead choose to put your horse down, the mortality coverage would not apply.

There are many tricky ins and outs. You can do some research on line or call to discuss options with an agent. I use Blue Bridle http://www.bluebridle.com/index.html

Feel free to email me if you want other information.  

Answer 11

By all means it is a very good thing to have. Whether he has a tendency to get injured/sick or wander out of his stall into harms way. If I EVER made the financial choice of owning a horse, I would definatly get insurance just because of all the money that goes into a horse.

Answer 12

I have only insured a horse once, and that was when I bought my first expensive trained show mare, and she was being delivered by the previous owner.  By having her insured I knew that if something happened along the way I would have a chance to get my money back even if something happened to the horse.

But I did not insure her the next year.

Why not?  Because in my opinion my horse is much less likely to die than to be seriously injured or lame.  There is no insurance paid out for damaged or lame horses unless they need to be put down due to severe pain.  So I think very few people actually benefit from life insurance.  I did not pay colic insurance either, it is very costly.  Where I live in rural Alberta there is little chance of my horse qualifying for surgery.  Either they would resolve with initial treatment by my local vet, or they would have to be put down as I live 4 hours from the nearest specialist horse vet.

I would insure a extremely expensive horse (say if I paid $25,000 or so) because I could not afford to replace him if he died.  But with my $5,000 to $10,000 horses I'll just take the chance and keep my fingers crossed.

Last year, when my horse was insured, she hit a piece of brittle broken PVC pipe, punctured her joint capsule, and cost me $3000 in vet bills to get her back to being totally sound.  I didn't collect a penny from my insurance.  It would have only paid me if she's died or had to be put humanely down.

Answer 13

It is only neccassiary if you...

1. Paid alot for the horse.

2.Plan on showing the horse (more than local)

OR

3. The horse has medical issues

We insured my QH because I show him alot and we also paid enough it would hurt a little if he were to have medical issues. It will help, because if he has medical problems they will pay most of it...they will also pay whatever you paied for the horse if he/she died. You can also (if you can prove it) get what he/she is worth (like we bought my horse for $5,000 but he is insured for $10,000 becuase of his showing and trainging)

Then again my Arabian isn't insured because he doesn't show or anything.

It used to be easy to insure a horse, but some crazy lady in FL (lol) bought a cheap horse insured it then killed it to get the money. (I am sure that isn't the only reason) but know it is harder. We had to fill out alot of paper work on his showing and training within a certain time frame xP

I know that was more than what you asked, but it might be helpful in your decision :) Good Luck.

Answer 14

What are you going to be doing with the horse, will your livelihood be affected if the horse is injured or dies, do you travel to shows frequently, do you own your horse fully or do you owe money for him/her.

If you're just going to have a horse at a local barn and stick to local shows with just stadium jumping and flat work I wouldn't worry about it.

Answer 15

I have a liability umbrella on my home insurance.  My two are 21 and 22....mortality insurance wouldn't make much sense in my situation.

Answer 16

I have insurance on 3 of my horses, because I cannot replace them.  One we paid $25000 for and he is a 7 time international champ, 3 time national champ, and I cannot replace him.  at 17 years of age he is also one of the oldest SHOWING paso fino's.  I love this horse, and he makes my mother happier than anything else.  So basically if you can afford to replace it, no, but if you can't because it is either too good, or has too much training, or like this horse you will never see another horse that is capable of changing his breed, insure him.

Chris