Horse insurance and greed
If you are a horse fanatic then you would have no doubt heard about the expensive horses that were insured and then the owners hired a “hit man” to kill the horses. The news stories came out in the early 1990’s and were reported by Sports Illustrated. Soon the stories had spread from the horse racing industry to the show jumping world. Horses were insured for millions of dollars and often were found to be either not fertile enough for breeding or were getting too lame to perform in competition. So the owners hired someone to kill the horse so they could collect the insurance money.
I was curious enough to see it that was still going on, 20 years later. Here is what I found:
- I could find no mass scandals involving the racing industry in the last 10 years that involved insurance fraud. That is possibly due to the more stringent penalties and prison time on the books now.
- One case of possible insurance fraud involved 21 polo ponies that died mysteriously in 2009. That incident has since been cleared up as a pharmacy error in inject-able supplements given to the horses. The pharmacy mixed the wrong drugs.
- Although insurance fraud probably still goes on in the horse world, no one is bringing it out in the open, yet. That might be due to the fact that, since the 1990’s, insurance companies are stricter in their requirements in insuring a horse.
I have had one of my horses’ insured 10 years ago. I can tell you that before you go out and get horse life insurance quotes, also known as mortality insurance, your horse will have to have a vet exam and the vet must fill out the insurance policy. The horse must be in good health and you must be able to prove that the horse is worth what you want it insured for. The policy itself is reasonably priced, I paid $150 for one year for a $5K policy, thankfully I never needed it.
