moving horse from UK to USA - how hard (on the horse)

show_jumper

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hey.

so i'm based out in California and am trying to work out a way to bring my show jumper over from the uk (if i can also work out how to get the funds together!) and was wondering..

has anyone done this move?

how hard is it on the horse? i mean the flight - and the general way of living - its hotter and dustier out here- and although the horses out here are fine with it- im wondering how my guy would adapt? and if anyone had any advice or experience in this sort of move/change - it would be most appreciated.....

thank you...
 

JustMe22

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No experience of this move, but all I can say is that I live in a very dry, dusty and hot area, in Africaaaaa :D Last year I stabled at a yard that consisted almost entirely of imported Warmbloods from Holland and Belgium :) The horses all seemed to have adjusted fine, and were out competing at fairly high levels quite happily :) It's fairly common here for a lot of our top horses to have been imported from Europe, and I'd imagine the climate change is somewhat similar?
 

thundermacd

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I did this several times, and they all coped really well. Mine went to Phoenix so it was super hot and no grass, which was a bit of a shock to the Irish ones in particular! One had a real problem with cacti, thought they were really scary, not too keen on rattlesnakes either! I think they found being trucked from California to AZ the hardest part. On the whole tho they were all fine, and not too bothered by the whole experience.
 

Booboos

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I've only moved UK to south of France so not quite the same thing, but I did a bit of research on horsey moves beforehand. Seems that a lot of horses have no problems with air travel and it is surprisingly more straight-forwards than days in a lorry. Grass to no grass is less of a problem, but if you go from dry, no grass, to lush UK grass you need to be very careful about the change in diet.
 

RW1

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I had a quote to ship my horse back home to Australia this year it was £14k the transport lady said they cope very well. I havent moved back as yet.

I know horses that have been shipped to Canada they seem to have coped well, it a long journey though and most have a road trip after they have flown so need some recovery time and to get used to different feeds, grazing etc.
 

TarrSteps

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It depends a lot on the horse and how it's been kept. My experience is working competition horses from "professional" set ups seem to cope the most easily as management on that sort of yard tends to be quite similar the world over. That's not a shot at anyone, I mean horses from big competition yards are usually on hard feed, limited turn out etc and most often bought/moved to continue in a similar job in a similar set up.

Also, obviously, some horses do better than others. The horse I moved here is a sensitive soul and he's struggled for ages, reacting to a lot, finding it difficult to adjust to different management practices etc. But then, he was like that when he moved in Canada, too. :)

I do find they're usually perfectly fine first thing, then, if they're going to have problems, they come up after a few months, especially with regards to local irritants and similar.

The journey part doesn't really seem to be a problem. In fact most horses seem to cope better than when shipped long distances by road. I think it's a lot more stressful for the people involved, to be honest, as once the horse is travelling it's out of your hands, so to speak. But the big shippers move hundreds if not thousands of horses a year with surprisingly little trouble.

Adjustments to climate also don't seem to be a massive problem. You might have to adjust depending on the time of year, particularly if the horse will be arriving during a particularly hot time, but clipping in advance and carefully monitoring water intake etc.
 
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Rafferoo

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No experience of it myself but my little ex-racehorse has more air miles than most people I know! He was bred in the US, then raced in Dubai before moving to France and latterly GB where he eventually made his way to me! Can't vouch for how he coped with his moves but he is still alive and kicking : )
 
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