Horse Rental Insurance

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If you provide Horse Rental and Guided Trail Rides as a part of your business, you are most likely having trouble finding companies that will cover your horse business. When owning this type of business, you need to be protected with the right horse business liability insurance. You can speak with one of our representatives regarding which kind of horse insurance has the coverage you need to ensure your business is protected.

The purpose of the trip or trail ride is recreational riding of horses that is combined with a tour to view regional features and scenery, to fish, or to take guests into a remote setting to camp or visit a resort.   Ride duration is often from one hour to four hours in duration.  Guides & Outfitter Services provide longer rides that last for several days and maybe overnight in remote areas.  Most run for a season of six months, but some may run year-round.  Operators must have access to trails.  Some have on property they own or lease, and many operate at local, regional, state, or national parks and on other public lands by agreement.

This is one the highest risk categories of all horse activities to insure.  It must be properly underwritten, managed, and priced. We have been insuring Trail Rides for over 35 years and have developed risk reduction standards that have been tried and tested, keeping our program successful long-term while most others are not.  Ark Agency is proud of this record. When applying for insurance you’ll be asked to review the risk reduction program and confirm that you’ll be able to comply with management requirements. Most of the standards are now well-established in the industry.

As an operator of these services, you worry that you may be sued or otherwise have a claim made against you for bodily injury or property damage by a customer, guest or someone else who comes in contact with you or your property. If sued, you will need to hire a lawyer to defend you and you wonder how you would go about doing this.  If found negligent or responsible, you would likely have to pay for either a court-ordered or agreed-upon settlement to the injured party.  Fortunately, much concern can be relieved when you buy a Commercial General Liability Policy [GL] to insure Horse Rental & Guided Trail Ride Services.

Commercial General Liability Insurance protects you from financial loss should a customer, visitor, or a trespasser become injured [Bodily Injury] or their property is damaged [Property Damage] in relation to your operations, and they make a claim or file a lawsuit against you for damages.

How Risky are Horse Rental & Guided Trail Ride Services? High Risk.

Because riders are mostly novices and ride horses in natural area, open-spaces, this is one the highest liability risk categories of all horse activities. Even though rides are generally controlled well, and the horses are novice-trained, riders may not have the best balance and fall or jump off if a horse moves anyway but straight ahead.  This is one of the most common reasons for incidents occurring that result in injury to a rider.  Riders sometimes over-cue the horse, or try to make a horse go faster than is allowed by holding a horse back so it will run ahead. Doing this may irritate or scare the most docile of horses.

Today, most operators provide pre-ride training and warnings, do saddle checks prior to riding out, have riders wear or sign off on ASTM helmet use, and use other other means to keep rides as safe as possible.  Most rides are provided in a safe and enjoyable manner.

Horse activities are reasonably safe compared to many other activities people participate in.  Yet, horse-human activities do carry inherent risks.  Accidents do happen when people at different stages of capability attempt to touch, handle, train, ride, drive and control large animals that are unpredictable even when well trained.  And some horse-human accidents are serious.  Even with the best of intentions and management practices anyone can have a claim made against them and be sued.

Learn how to plan ahead with our Five-Pronged Strategy.

If You Rent the Property Your Business Occupies, We Can Also Insure Your Tack, Equipment, and Machinery for Loss or Damage

As a stable property renter, you may not have access to property insurance for tack, equipment and machinery you use in your business. Ark Agency can insure these items by adding a Property Coverage Endorsement to the General Liability Policy. Additional premium is charged for this endorsement and the items and values must be declared in the application process.

General Liability Coverage & Limits

The General Liability Policy includes specified maximum limits or amounts of liability insurance for:

Medical Expense: Pays for low-cost medical expense with no questions asked about your liability or responsibility in the matter.

Legal Defense Costs: Today court costs and hiring of a lawyer can quickly mount to $50,000 or more, an expense you do not want to come out of your pocket if you are sued and have to hire a lawyer.  If sued in relation to this activity, the policy provides legal defense whether the case has merit or not.

Settlement or Claim Costs: For bodily injury and property damages for which you are responsible and held negligent and liable.

Common Liability Claim Examples

The four most common claim incidents for Horse Rental & Guided Trail Rides are:

1. A guest rider becomes injured by falling or jumping from a horse when either the rider or the horse gets scared.

2. A guest rider or horse is bitten by an insect or swarm of insects.

3. A guest rider is injured during a sudden rain and thunderstorm; a horse may slip on soggy footing or lightening may strike nearby.

4. An injured guest rider requires more care than the resident medical care staff can provide, resulting in a medical crisis.

Where to Begin

Your individual insurance needs are unique to your specific situation, which is why we offer a person to person service to our clients. You can reach out to one of our representatives by phone or email for an estimated premium, policy and company details, and information on our qualification requirements. Since we work with several insurance companies, rates and coverage conditions will vary. Our team will help you determine which policy has the ideal coverage for your particular circumstance. Give us a call at 1-800-328-8894 for your personalized horse insurance quote.

*General information is provided on this insurance topic. Acting on our coverage recommendations does not guarantee coverage if you have a loss or claim.

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