British Carriagedriving

Members' insurance update

18 July 2023

As of 1st July 2023 there are some changes to the British Carriagedriving Members third party liability insurance policy.

A new policy wording has been provided by our insurers which aims to provide clarity on the insurance cover provided for all membership categories of British Carriagedriving and members of British Carriagedriving Affiliated Clubs.

Our insurance microsite has been updated to reflect these changes.

Summary of the main changes to your insurance cover:

• With effect from 1st July 2023, a new policy wording applies. The Liberty British Carriagedriving Members Wording is bespoke for members of BC and each different membership type has a separate section clearly laying out the cover provided. This includes: Associate members, Full Members, International members and Affiliated Club members.

• There is also a separate section for ‘Young Drivers’ which are defined in the insurance policy as members of British Carriagedriving aged between 6 and 12 (Any driver aged 13 and upwards will have cover in line with the normal Associate, Full or International membership category). Young Drivers only have third party liability insurance at a British Young Drivers training camp or British Young Drivers competition.

• Drivers aged between 6 and 12 who are members of a BC Affiliated Club will have cover in line with any other Affiliated Club member, which provides liability cover at Affiliated Club events.

• The British Carriagedriving Members policy previously had an extension to provide cover to any person authorised to use your horse with your permission. This extension is now limited to only cover authorised users whilst in the presence of the member. We therefore recommend that if anyone if riding or driving your horse when you are not present, you should check that they have their own third party liability cover for these activities.

• The grooms extension previously provided cover for any person providing grooming services for you (in this context ‘groom’ means someone looking after your horse rather than a backstep). The grooms extension is now called the Horse Grooms extension and this will still provide cover for any groom looking after your horse but it excludes any riding/driving activity that the groom may undertake. We therefore recommend that if any groom is riding or driving your horse, you should check that they have their own third party liability cover for these activities.

• The Horse Grooms extension also excludes the activity of any professional groom. Any person looking after horses as their occupation should have their own commercial insurance in place.

• The Backstepper and Helper extension provides cover for anyone helping you at a British Carriagedriving or British Carriagedriving Affiliated Club event. This extension will provide cover for persons who ride/drive your horse at an event but the extension now makes clear that this does not apply to Professional Grooms who should have their own cover in place.

The above changes mainly relate to when other people are covered on your British Carriagedriving members policy and therefore we do not feel that the changes significantly affect the insurance benefits that our member’s automatically receive as part of their membership fee.

We recommend that any person who regularly has contact with horses should have their own third party liability insurance in place.

All insurance information, accident reports and claims can be accessed through the Howden BC Insurance Centre

If you have any queries regarding the insurance cover provided as part of your membership, please contact bcinsurance@howdengroup.com