Equine Ownership Costs
Financial strain often shapes horse owners’ veterinary decisions, University of Kentucky study finds.
A significant factor influencing how owners interact with veterinarians is their financial capacity, according to a recent study of how horse owners engage with veterinary care.
While costs for routine services like vaccinations and lameness exams align with expectations, emergency procedures such as colic surgery often exceed anticipated expenses. Over 60% of owners indicated they would pay $5,000 or less for emergency colic surgery, whereas actual costs can be substantially higher. Additionally, only about 14% of respondents maintain a dedicated savings account for medical emergencies, and nearly 80% do not insure their horses.
The University of Kentucky study titled “Descriptive Analysis of the Use of and Preferences for Equine Veterinary Services” was conducted by researchers from the Department of Agricultural Economics and the Department of Veterinary Science at the Maxwell H. Gluck Equine Research Center, the study surveyed 4,915 horse owners across all 50 U.S. states.
C. Jill Stowe, Ph.D., professor, and director of Undergraduate Studies, Equine Science and Management, Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Kentucky, said the study was motivated by frequent references to challenges in keeping equine practitioners in the profession.
“The main goal was to describe how horse owners currently utilize equine veterinary services and how willing they might be to adapt to changes in the delivery of services,” she said.
Additional objectives included estimating how sensitive horse owners are to changes in prices for different types of equine veterinary services along with how willingness-to-pay for those services varies according to horse owner attributes. These latter two objectives are the subjects of two additional papers, one which was published in JAVMA and one which is under revision in an Ag Econ journal.
Adapting to change
For many horse owners, their current level of financial preparedness for unexpected medical expenses will limit their ability to provide the desired level of care for their horses. Researchers hope the findings encourage owners to consider financial strategies, such as savings or insurance, to better manage unexpected veterinary costs and ensure timely care for their horses. Dr. Stowe said approaches to addressing this limitation include establishing a dedicated savings account or investigating whether equine health insurance (with or without a mortality policy) might be beneficial.
“In general, horse owners were willing to adapt to changes in the delivery of equine veterinary services, such as paying at the time that services are delivered, leaving a credit card on file with the clinic, and seeing the veterinary on call rather than their primary veterinarian,” she said.
Finally, many respondents were willing to utilize telemedicine consultations for non-emergency situations, provided a veterinary-client-patient relationship established. “While there are multiple challenges in implementing this modality for the delivery of veterinary services, at the very least it might serve as a way to make equine veterinary care more accessible in rural areas.”
There are two main challenges posed by financial constraints, Dr. Stowe said. First, financial constraints limit the ability of horse owners to pursue some treatments for their horses. “This might result in horses receiving suboptimal care and/or may limit horses’ performance.”
Second, and often related, is that financial constraints often result in very emotionally difficult decisions that must be made by horse owners.
Equine insurance
What about insurance to help cover the cost of care? Traditional equine insurance includes mortality policies with optional additional coverages, such a surgical and/or medical expenses. But nearly 80% of horse owners do not insure their horses.
“Previous research that I have done (Stowe, Kibler and Barrowclough, Journal of Equine Veterinary Science, 2022) suggests that the cost of traditional insurance is a leading factor in why horse owners do not insure their horses,” Dr. Stowe said. “There are many instances where insurance can help defray equine medical expenses, but of course, insurance isn’t a perfect risk management tool. Companies providing coverage for equines are, like any insurance company, profit-maximizers. They do not exist to subsidize the cost of horse ownership, and they may choose to not cover certain types of activities or exclude certain conditions from coverage.”
Some respondents reported that they did not purchase insurance because the market value of the horse was too low. “However, there are some new health insurance-only places (which don’t require the purchase of a mortality policy) that might be worth considering.”
Planning and price transparency
Dr. Stowe said she hopes through the study findings that horse owners will think intentionally about their ability to financially care for their horses and to establish a dedicated savings account or think carefully about whether insurance coverage would be beneficial for them.
“I also hope that the results from this study will encourage veterinarians to be transparent about the costs of treatment and willing to have an open discussion about that costs and benefits of different types of treatment, if they are not doing so already,” she said. “Moreover, the majority of horse owners are willing to be flexible and adapt to changes that help make the equine veterinary profession a more sustainable one.”
Difficult decisions
One of the primary surprises from the findings was that nearly 50% of respondents reported being able accommodate unexpected medical expenses of $5,000 or less, Dr. Stowe said. “For many emergency services, these costs can be rapidly exceeded, leaving horse owners faced with making difficult decisions.”
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