How to insure your horse

The results of a court case last year should have been followed by horse owners across the country. Ashleigh Harris successfully sued her ex-boyfriend's mother, Rachel Miller, for £3m in compensation to cover Harris's lifetime of care after she was thrown from Miller's horse and paralysed. The case highlights the importance of making sure you have the right insurance if you own a horse. Miller didn't, and so she is sadly now personally liable for the bulk of the compensation payment.

So if you have a horse, what insurance should you have? Many horse owners do not have specialist insurance and rely instead on the third-party liability insurance included in their household policy, Caroline Bowler of law firm Actons tells Barbara Davies in the Daily Mail. But this may not cover potential compensation amounts.

Public liability insurance is "imperative", says Natasha Eastwood of the British Horse Society. This should cover you in the event that your horse causes damage to someone else's property, but also offers cover in case someone is injured by your horse, whether through riding or as a bystander. A policy could cost as little as £15 a year, but protect you for costs of up to £20m.

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You may also want to make sure you are covered for vets' fees. "We insure all our valuables in life... this is just the same," says Eastwood. "Horses can become ill or in extreme cases have accidents and it's important for the welfare of the horse that you can afford to look after it." Vets' fees can easily run into the thousands. A kick injury could cost around £5,000, according to EquineCompare.co.uk. By contrast, the annual premiums on a policy should be around £200 to £600 a year, depending on the value of your horse and what you use it for.

Take out a specialist horse insurance policy and you should be able to get cover for both public liability and vets' fees, plus cover in the case of the theft of your horse or your riding equipment. Unfortunately, when it comes to buying a policy, most comparison sites don't cover this kind of specialist insurance. Instead, you'll need to do the legwork and shop around a few providers such as Animal Friends, British Horse Society, Petplan and KBIS.

Why all horse lovers should think about cover

It isn't just horse owners who need to consider the risks associated with being around large beasts with minds, and quirks, of their own. Anyone who is riding a horse, whether you own it, loan it, or are simply hopping on a friend's steed, needs to consider what would happen in the case of an accident.

If you are using horses at a riding school, then you should be covered by their insurance. All riding schools are required by law to have public liability insurance that should cover you while riding their horses. To make sure, you may want to ask to see a riding school's insurance certificate before you ride any of their horses.

But if you loan a horse, or ride your friend's, it is worth considering taking out your own horse rider insurance policy. This should cover you for personal accident, public liability, and dental cover. In addition, any riding equipment you own should be insured against loss or theft, and policies can even cover the cost of lessons missed because of a riding injury. Make sure the one you choose also covers emergency vets' fees if a horse is injured in your care, and includes custodial liability, which covers you for compensating the owner in the event of a horse being seriously injured or dying while you're looking after it.

Horse rider insurance policies generally cost around £60 a year. As with all insurance policies, don't automatically pick the cheapest. Check what you will be covered for and how much cover you will receive in those situations. For example, some policies cap their payouts at around £10,000, while others offer personal liability cover of up to £10m.

In the news this week...

This year will be costly for car owners in several ways, especially those buying new cars, says Rob Hull on ThisIsMoney.co.uk. Car prices are expected to rise 2%-3% in the first quarter of the year due to the drop in sterling, warns the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. If Brexit leads to new tariffs, buyers could also face having to pay an extra £1,500 for imported cars. Then there's the rise in car tax. Seven in ten new car buyers will pay more tax when Vehicle Excise Duty bands change in April, according to consumer website HonestJohn.co.uk.

Buyers of models worth £40,000 or more will face the double whammy of a £310 annual surcharge for five years after the first year of ownership, even if the car is a zero-emissions electric model (the only type exempt from car tax). Since that £40,000 figure includes the cost of options, make sure you don't choose a special finish that will push you over the threshold. Finally, car insurance premiums are going up (they averaged £767 last year), largely due to the recent hike in Insurance Premium Tax from 10% to 12%. It's a perfect storm.

If you still haven't done your tax return for this year, you'd better get your skates on, says Faith Archer in The Times. Here are five tips to make it easier next time:

1) Set up a tax file (whether electronic or a carrier bag). When anything relevant shows up, "shove it in", along with this year's return.

2) Download some useful apps. The self-employed, for instance, can photograph and store receipts using HMRC's free app 1Tap Receipts. You can also email digital invoices to the app for processing.

3) If you are on the pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) system, you can spread the cost of a tax bill that is under £3,000 by filing your return online by30 December (or 31 October if you still file paper returns).

4) Make sure you make full use of new tax allowances, which include £1,000 of tax-free interest on savings for basic-rate earners and £5,000 of tax-free dividends on shares for all taxpayers.

5) Landlords must remember that since April 2016 you can only claim the cost of wear and tear if improvements have taken place (and you have receipts). And brace yourself for more tax changes this April (see page 29).