Horse Insurance: Coverages

I work for an insurance company. My daily eight-to-five is insurance, so it shouldn't be surprising that the first thing I do when I buy a horse, before I even put them on a trailer to come home, is purchase insurance. Depending on the kind of horse you have, or what you're doing with them, it's a no-brainer.

There are a bunch of different reasons it's a good idea. If you have a high-level competition animal or  an accident prone idiot, you should probably buy insurance. Maybe you're also neurotic and paranoid and like the peace of mind it gives you.

Or, you know, you could be me. Buy a Thoroughbred and select option D 'all of the above'.

Don't even get me started.

In talking to people I've realized most of them don't understand insurance, which leads to people getting shafted by insurance companies and occasionally accidentally shafting themselves. Don't shaft yourself. That's bad. So I decided to do the world a favor and share my experiences, both from work and from having accident prone idiots as horse children.

Buckle up. These are the three major types of coverages you can get for your horse:

1. Major Medical

This is the most common type of insurance, and the kind I think everyone should have. Typically you can pick what limit you want and you'll have a deductible. When your horse, say, gets diagnosed with ulcers, or pops a splint, or needs to be rushed to the horsey-ER, this is the one that will prevent you from going "okay, so Indy has the Gastroguard he needs, and now I need to dig out of the trash for food". It help you treat your horse with the very best you can, and it's also not as expensive as you might think.

2. Mortality/Loss of Use

These two are sort of similar so I'm lumping them together. In the event the unthinkable happens, this is your safety net. I'd recommend this for any horse you spend a large sum of money purchasing or that's worth a lot of money to replace. Mortality is in case the horse dies, loss of use is if your horse gets a career ending injury that precludes him from being used for his original purpose. This insurance can be more expensive than major medical, because if your horse does die they will have to pay out a huge sum of money in one go.

3. Third Party Liability Insurance

This is a much less common type of insurance, but one I'm starting to see offered more and more. This insurance will pay for any damages your horse causes to other people. Let's say your idiot horse jumps out of its paddock. He has a bit of a romp and then runs out to the road and gets hit by a car, severely injuring the person inside. The injured driver can sue you, the horse owner, because it was your horse running willy-nilly out in the street that made them a quadriplegic.  

[AUTHOR'S EDIT: I incorrectly stated you could buy any combination of these, but on further examination the major medical is only an endorsement to the mortality policy, meaning you have to get both if you want major medical, but you can buy mortality on it's own. Sorry for the confusion!] You don't have to purchase third party liability on your horse, and if you have a very expensive broodmare and want to have coverage in the event she can no longer pop babies out, you can do that too.

There you have it: the three basic coverages offered by most insurance companies. Stay tuned next week for shopping tips, and then we'll enter the exciting world of limits!!!

I can hardly wait, you guys!!!!