Cost of sending a horse abroad - Canada

dappyness

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Hi

I am hoping that one of you lovely people have had some experience of sending a horse to Canada, Ontario to be precise.

My aunty moved there just over 2 years ago and gave me her horse to look after. Sadly I have slightly more ambitions than this lovely neddy has and I want to move on. We have two options. She trusts me enough to loan Birdy out or she gets her 'shipped' over there.
Is there a company that would actually pick her up from Devon and organise the whole thing and pop her in her stable out there? What are the rough costs for a 16hh mare to take a trip of a life time?
Thanks in advance
 
I checked out prices from America a cpl years back as was interested in shipping some champagne horses over and breeding but the quotes i got back where 6k+ and sadly i wasnt that rich!

Not sure if they would pick up straight from the yard and take to the plane, i know the gillies have transported horses to the airport.
 
There are lots of companies that would do that for you, literally door to door. Some of them will even arrange quarantine and the inspection and paperwork for you - for a cost of course.

Cost, yeah. I don't know what the most current costs are (I've only personally shipped to here, which is slightly cheaper, and we did everything as inexpensively as possible) but it could run you considerably more than £5k door to door without too much trouble. Depending on where the horse has to go, what route you fly, how flexible you can be with your travel (remembering you have to factor in quarantine) it could be closer to £10k. Mares are slightly more expensive because they need a more complicated quarantine.

Also, while horses fly back and forth successfully all the time, don't underestimate the acclimatisation process. Show/race horses going for short terms actually experience little or no disruption - competitions are pretty similar the world over - but horses going to live in a new country can struggle a bit more. Of course many don't have any problems but be aware that climate, care etc are surprisingly different even if they look similar on the surface.
 
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