Re: insurance

[CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com]

In a message dated 98-08-21 22:18:23 EDT, cookieh@trib.com writes:

<< You may find that insuring the endurance horse will not be easy!  I have
 not been able to find a company that will write a ,mortality, or a major
 medical policy on my horses.
  >>

I think a lot of this is because most of the insurance policies are written on
expensive show horses.  They have far more major medical problems than ours
do, but most of the insurance people are horse show people themselves and
think that they are really pampering their horses and taking wonderful care of
them.  It is a matter of educating the insurance industry, which is tough
because we are a small segment of the equine population.  I have tried to do
my part by getting to know the folks at the insurance agencies that many of my
clients use for their show horses, and I just visit with them every time I
call in a binder on a new policy or a change on an old one.  I have not tried
to get them to write a major medical policy for an endurance horse yet, but at
least I know a couple of them that now are at least conversational about our
sport, so hopefully it will be worth the time spent.  I know it is tough to
get them to write mortality insurance for teen-aged horses--in my experience,
a fit Arab usually lasts well into his 20's, but the expensive barn-pampered,
obese horses that they write policies on have a bad habit of keeling over in
their late teens.  Those are the only stats they have to work with, so they
are naturally leery.  I got caught a couple of years ago in my own oversight
in a contract that specified that a mare we had leased be insured--she died,
and the insurance paperwork I had so carefully filled out was still sitting in
her file, unsent, so I had to pay for her.  Later I found out that it would
have been impossible to insure her anyway--tried to insure one this summer
that was even younger than she was, and was just about laughed at by every
agent I talked to.  They would only insure older horses for death from
specific perils--like lightning and trailer wrecks and such.

Heidi Smith, DVM