Owning a horse can be an expensive venture. Although it might be hard to think of your horse as an investment, it is one. And like assets such as vehicles and boats, you need insurance to protect your investment.
Just like you have medical insurance to help pay the bills if you get sick or injured, you should have a similar policy for your horse. Here are a few things to know when shopping for horse medical insurance:
Factors Affecting Your Policy
An insurance company will look at several factors when writing up a policy to cover your horse. Besides the horse’s age, sex and breed, they may also consider the horse’s bloodline, training and purchase price.
If Your Horse Gets Sick
You never want to think about your horse getting ill or injured, but you could be faced with expensive veterinarian bills if that happens. A medical coverage insurance policy can help with vet bills and medications.
If your horse becomes seriously ill and you can’t use it like you usually do, a loss of use policy will reimburse you a percentage of the horse’s insured value.
For serious injuries that require surgery, you’ll need a major medical or surgical endorsement on your policy. A surgical endorsement amends your policy to include surgical expenses that may be necessary to save the horse’s life.
A major medical endorsement is used to cover veterinarian services to treat injuries from accidents, illness or disease. It is usually added as part of a mortality policy.
Traveling With Your Horse
If you often travel with your horse to shows, rodeos or other events, you should consider transient coverage. This type of coverage comes in short-term policies to cover when you are traveling to an event or year-round policies for those horse enthusiasts that attend many shows within a year.
Death of Your Horse
If the unfortunate happens and your horse dies, having mortality insurance can help cover the costs of getting a new horse. Regardless of whether you lost your horse in an accident, fire, or from natural causes, insurance can help you with the cost of replacing it when the time comes.
Insurance can’t cover the heartache of losing your trusty steed, but it can help you recover what you’ve invested so that, when you’re ready, you can get another horse.
As with any policy, deductions and exclusions may apply, so be sure that you know exactly what the insurance will and will not pay. Pre-existing conditions are usually not covered.
