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Insurance

     Liability Insurance 

     Property & Casualty Insurance 

     Care Custody and Control Insurance 

     Summer Camp Insurance

     Workers Compensation, Critical Illness, Disability, or Key Man Insurance and Pet Trusts

Safety, Emergency, and Disaster Planning

Other Resources 

Other Pages in This Section

Equine Business Resources Main Page (Index)

Equine Business - Start Up Resources

Human Resources Staffing and Management

Horse Business Advertising and Marketing

How This Horse Business Resource Section Works   (Top of Page)

The focus of the site is to be rich in content, and easy to read onscreen.  A majority of small horse businesses are on slow dial-up connections (cannot afford cable or DSL, or it is not available in their rural area) and using older versions of operating systems and browsers on older computer platforms (usually acquired from people who upgraded to newer technology.)  Therefore, you won't see tons of frames, flash, page transitions, and multimedia effects here.  We avoid colored text on dark backgrounds, which can be nearly impossible to read on a monitor.  We even keep the pictures small and to a minimum to facilitate page loading. So if the visual effects are bland, you now know why!  We don't want our visitors to give up due to long page-loads and hard to read color combinations and time-consuming bells and whistles - they just don't have that kind of time.

Horse Business Insurance                  (Top of Page)

Liability Insurance

Incorporation helps to protect your personal assets and credit from losses incurred by your equine program, up to a point.  This protection is called the corporate "veil."  However, it is possible for individuals and companies to take legal action against your business to seek, and possibly be awarded, monetary damages for mistakes made or harm done to horses, property, or people.  In America today, civil lawsuits are one of the major factors driving up the costs of just about everything, healthcare being one of the most publicized.  Sports and education are not much further down the list of lawsuit targets.  If you open your doors to the public, you are vulnerable, and if the officers or Board of Directors can be found to have mismanaged or failed to perform their duty, the "corporate veil" can be pierced.  That means they can be held personally liable.  Consequently, you owe it to your family and horses to obtain equine liability insurance for the type of operation you have, whether boarding, training, lessons, children's riding camp, trail rides, dude ranch, carriage rides or therapeutic riding lessons and hippotherapy.  Being wiped out financially by a lawsuit, no matter how frivolous, even if you finally are vindicated, can leave them stranded. 

If you offer trail rides or tourist carriage rides as a "concession" in a township or on public lands, the public agency that grants the concession will likely require you to provide proof of such insurance, with the public body named as an additional insured party.  If you visit other establishments with your horses, such as a school or a senior center, the management may wish to see a "certificate of insurance" as proof that you have coverage when booking your appearance.  Hotels and convention planners who schedule events at your location are also likely to ask for a "certificate of insurance" as part of their due diligence in booking your facility for an event.

Sometimes liability insurance is available at a reduced rate if you belong to a professional association.  For example, therapeutic riding centers that belong to NARHA are eligible for discounted insurance through the major equine underwriter, Markel Insurance, because they receive educational materials and standards as members that improves the likelihood they will operate in a manner that lowers the risk to the insurance company.  For some businesses, the reduced premiums of general liability insurance is one of the major benefits of their annual dues.  AQHA, USEF, USDF and other breed or competition associations arrange discounts for their members from sponsor insurance companies in exchange for advertising and co-branding preferences.

Horsemen's United Association, Inc. general liability insurance for horse shows, clinics, rodeos, trail rides, events, etc. 

Markel Insurance Company Liability Insurance for Independent Trainer/Instructor, Farm Package & Liability Only, Excess/Umbrella Liability.

For Director and Officer Liability Insurance, visit our Horse Non-Profit Resources page.

Property & Casualty Insurance                                             (Top of Page)

If your home, car, and other valuables are insured against loss or damage, so too must be the assets of your equine  operation.  If you are using your personal property at home on your private farm or ranch to get started, check with your insurance agent or read your policy to see if any of the equipment or supplies of the business are covered.  There's a very good chance they are not, and you will need separate insurance for the business property, with an appropriate deductible.  While the recent Farm Bill that passed in Congress provides disaster relief grants and low-interest loans to horse breeders in addition to FEMA assistance available to homeowners and small businesses, horse businesses do not qualify for any of the extra special taxpayer funded help given to livestock producers and racetracks.  Not only would you stand in line for emergency assistance with other homeowners and small businesses after a disaster, but none of these government disaster relief programs help in the case of a single barn fire, or tack room theft.  Can you afford to be wiped out of the equipment and feed you have stored, or pay to board elsewhere while repairs are made?  

Once you have insurance in case of fire, theft, vandalism or storm (or in some areas, flood) you need to document your business property and keep these records in a secure off-site location.  Don't forget to update them at least annually.  Most businesses do this automatically as they prepare their taxes to account for capital improvements and depreciate assets over time.

Care Custody and Control Insurance                                  (Top of Page)

If you board or care for any horses other than your own, you may need care, custody and control insurance to protect you if something happens to the horse.  Check with your equine insurance agent, if you cannot tell from reading your general liability policy. 

Summer Camp Insurance                                                       (Top of Page)

If you have equine facility or event general liability insurance for board and care, training, or riding lessons or some other equine activity such as carriage rides, you do not necessarily have insurance for operating a summer camp for adults or children, whether a day camp or overnight one.  Check your policy and contact your agent.  Virtually every company requires you to answer a Camp Supplement Questionnaire to deal with such issues as food service, sanitation, risky side activities such as trampolines or swimming, and how you ensure children are not collected by unauthorized people at the end of the session.  Based on the number of days or weeks you offer the camp, the number of participants, the activities, the food or snacks, and the training and experience of the personnel conducting the camp, a "rider" to your regular policy can be issued for an extra premium to cover your camp operations.  It is extremely helpful if the counselors and instructors who conduct the camp also work with your horses at your facility the rest of the year, as opposed to hiring someone just for the season who must get up to speed.

Workers Compensation, Critical Illness, Disability, or Key Man Insurance and Pet Trusts

When you start a business that involves horsekeeping, you absolutely must have a funded plan for continuing daily operations for months if something happens to the key personnel.  Some of the worst horse neglect cases we have seen in recent years involving multiple horses were the result of a stable operator becoming sick, injured, or unable to work due to a disaster.  With no income, hay could not be purchased, hooves could not be trimmed, necessary veterinary care could not be given, utilities were cut off.  With no money to hire a stable hand to do chores, or a temporary trainer to work horses and give lessons, income further plummeted, the horse trailer was repossessed, and the mortgage was often foreclosed.  The result, abandoned horses without food and water.  Ninety-six percent (96%) of households in the U.S. would not survive 6 weeks financially if the primary wage earner was sick and unable to work.  Serious illnesses such as heart attack, stroke, and cancer strike people as young as 30, men and women alike.  These illnesses not only require medical bills to be paid, which most people buy health insurance to cover, but they normally require the person to be off the job for three to six months.  In other words, even if their medical bills are paid, their emergency fund or savings will not support their household budget for half their minimum recovery period.  If your business does not have three to six months worth of operating expenses available in liquid assets or a line of credit, you need some kind of catastrophic coverage.

Check with your attorney or insurance agent:  in many states, if you have employees, you MUST carry Workers Compensation Insurance, or prove self-insurance to the appropriate state oversight commission/agency.  You can incur severe penalties in some states if you do not have coverage and a person working in your employ is injured and seeks medical care.

Workers Compensation and Disability Insurance will cover up to 60% of the employee's after-tax earnings.  If the business operator is not paid a salary, or not paid a salary sufficient to cover his household budget (as is often the case with start-up small businesses) you may need Critical Illness or Key Man Insurance.  Further, Workers Compensation and Disability Insurance do nothing to protect the necessary operational expenses for the horses.

Investigate the costs of various types of coverage.  Budget for three to six months worth of expenses in the event all other sources of funding dry up or a natural disaster strikes, causing you to pay board for your horses relocated elsewhere while you apply for assistance and rebuild.  Then include the cost of appropriate necessary coverage in your annual budget. 

NOTE:  If you are a livestock producer (breeder), or engaged in other farming or ranching, you can get disaster insurance through the USDA.  There are many other advantages to including another farming or ranching activity on your horse ranch as an additional profit center.  Contact us for more information.

Obtaining coverage will also demonstrate your prudence and good business practices and proper responsibility to the horses entrusted to your care, for any entity considering contracting with you for services, or providing grant monies. 

Critical Illness Insurance is one company offering this coverage option, explained in a simple article.

Pet Trusts Del Camino Quarterly Tip - Establishing a Pet Trust  can ensure that if something happens to you, your horses will be taken care of properly until a new manager can be obtained, or, if the business will be dissolved, until they can all be placed in new homes.

Horse Record Keeping Tools                                                   (Top of Page)

Most of the equine record software packages or print forms on the market are designed for single horse owners, breeding farms, or show training stables.  While most do a decent job of tracking vaccinations, worming, and shoeing, they usually include pedigree, breeding, showing, or billing features you don't need at a boarding stable, retirement or lay-up facility, carriage business, event management business, lesson academy, riding camp, equine studies program, or for-profit equine-assisted activities center.  If you purchase one, you are likely to be disappointed that you cannot track information you need about a school, therapy, or working horse, or a client's horse you are rehabilitating or a project horse you intend to rehome. 

If you purchase the software simply to track horse care and maintenance, most will do the job.  The majority are too rudimentary on the billing and collection side for accounting purposes.  Either they are not robust accounts receivable packages, or they do not interface smoothly with complete accounting packages like QuickBooks, or they do not offer PayPal or credit card or e-mail interfaces so that you must print paper invoices.  Some are deficient in all three areas.  These are actually better for pure animal care tracking, because they do not include extra incomplete features you will handle in good accounting software instead.

Here's an easy online calendar from Intervet for tracking health records.  It can be an excellent tool to collaborate with absentee owners, a good link to include in a packet for new horse owners, and is certainly a cost-free way to get started with good records on your horses from the beginning. Foal Care

Either way, if you intend to care for even a few horses, or have several clients, or plan to be in business more than a year, you need records.  Further, those records need to be accessible and easy to maintain.  For help setting up a simple but useful system that tracks your horses, and ensures you get paid for services rendered, contact us.

Safety, Emergency, and Disaster Planning                             (Top of Page)

September is National Emergency Preparedness Month each year.  The prestige and credibility of your equine business can be enhanced by providing community service as a partner with the Department of Homeland Security.  Using materials conveniently available through Ready.gov, you can distribute information and tools for large animal emergency planning, or coordinate local large stables, fairgrounds, racetracks, horse show venues, rodeo or roping arenas as temporary shelters in the event of an emergency. 

TIP: If your business works with the special needs population, consider a link on your website to: Disabilities/911, the disaster preparedness website for persons with disabilities.

As you develop your equine business' own safety, emergency, and disaster plans, don't forget to maintain good regular backups of your computer software and data, from email address books to online accounts to actual accounting data, contact databases, and horse records.  The first thing you may need to access following an evacuation may be your lists of clients and vendors.  No backups should be more than a week old, and if you need to subscribe to an automatic online service to get this peace of mind, you only need to use it once when a computer's hard disk crashes to realize it is worth every penny.

Cost-Savings

Visit our Quarterly Tips, Forums, Blog, or Products for Horse Businesses and Senior Horse Resources section for ways to save money.

Other Resources                                             (Top of Page)

The Del Camino Horse Owner Products and Services catalog offers some horse products of interest to owners of senior horses, and horses being retrained or rehabilitated.

The Del Camino Stable Manager's Product and Services catalog offers products and services of interest to those operating a horse facility.

The Del Camino forums provide a place to network with other horse non-profits, and the blog covers related timely topics.

Horse Welfare Statistics

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