You have probably noticed that I have been really pretty quiet about Scottie recently. This is purely because there hasn’t really been anything to say. He is still on field rest with daily walks with no plans of getting back on until April at the earliest. However, there has been a bit of an update.
I decided to put a Loss of Use claim in on him just before Christmas. My main reasoning being that while he may well come right, my vet isn’t convinced he will stay sound doing the job he has been doing before. I also did quite a bit of research into what horses can and can’t do after having this claim made against them and how you can insure them afterwards. And while I’m not getting a fortune back from the claim, it seemed like the most sensible thing to do.
I have since heard back from the insurance and they have accepted my claim and I am now in the process of finalising the paperwork. Scottie will be retired but this means he is still able to hack and do some low-level dressage/showing should he be able to. If he ever gets to the point where I think he can return to jumping, or compete affiliated in dressage, I will need to pay the claim money back. While I don’t think this will be the case, it is comforting to know that if he makes a full recovery, we can go back to doing what we love the most.
The end game is still to get him sound and back into work following the original plan where we will look at him again in April. If he is sound we will try bringing him back to work. If he still isn’t quite right, he will be turned away for a year before looking at him again.
So while the claim hasn’t changed anything immediately, I do feel like the pressure has been taken off a bit. While I am still working to get him right and have no plans to replace him, having that money in the bank means that if in a few years’ time we are no closer, I have options to keep him retired and think about buying/loaning something else.
The insurance we have been offered on the back of his Loss of Use I think is fantastic! While it doesn’t cover wear and tear and illness anymore. He is covered for any accidents, wounds, colic surgery plus sepsis treatment and some fracture surgeries. And it is roughly £70 a month cheaper than what I was paying. So while he won’t have the same level of cover, I am confident that the pay out plus the insurance savings should mean I can cover anything else he needs.
On another positive note, before sending off all the paperwork to make the claim, the vet came out to look at him one more time before finishing his report. Scottie looked the best he has done since he first went lame. He was perfectly sound on the straight and the soft. Due to lack of space, we looked at him on a very small circle on the hard. As usual he was sound on the left rein and very almost sound on the right. Due to not him doing a perfect circle, he was only occasionally lame on a tighter part of the circle. So I am hoping that this is a sign that with more time he will be able to return to some form of work, even if it is just hacking and the occasional fun in hand show!
For now Scottie is going to continue his in hand walking and field rest. At some point around April I will get the vet back out for another look and an opinion as to whether it is worth bringing him back into work or turning him away for a year. But either way, once it’s warmer I will be spending more time out and about so will hopefully have more to talk to you about anyway!
Last Updated on 14/01/2022
