Shipping a horse abroad (Canada)

E

_EddiesMum_

Member
Joined
5 September 2012
Messages
17
Visit site
So my partner and I are looking into moving to Canada, Vancouver in particular. It will not be for a couple of years at least as I need to requalify in Canadian law and my partner needs to finish his Phd. One of the big question marks is my horse. Basically there's no way I can sell him. I would leave him with a friend who knows him as a last ditch effort but there is no possibility he can be sold. My concern is ideally I'd love to take him with me but he is 19 now, 20 in Feb next year so would be pushing 22 by the time we went. Would it be possible to ship him at that age? Does anyone have any experience of this? Any experience people have of flying horses generally would be useful but particularly older horses? If we cant ship then we simply cant go until he's no longer around. There is of course the harsh reality that it may not need considering as he may not be around when we eventually go, but he's a resilient old bug**r so should probably count on him being around :PAny advice anyone has on this area would be really great thanks. I owe this boy big time and vowed he would see out his days with me and I intend to keep that promise :)
 
Your horse will undergo tests for the usual suspects and quarantine and during this time you will not be able to visit. Sometimes its best to send your horse ahead of you so that you are not waiting at the other end!!!

http://www.bbashipping.com/USA.asp

Others to contact are

http://www.irt.com/

http://www.lgbloodstock.com/team.php

Good luck

Certainly we've transported lots of oldies abroad by road eldest was 49 and lived another 3 years in his new residence!

Air transport is even easier!
 
Thanks for the reply! I have just sent an email to IRT actually asking for a provisional quote. I'll have a look at the others as well. That's encouraging about shipping oldies! Just need to save in case it costs a fortune :P
 
I had the same dilemma when moving to Florida and in the end settled for retiring Dan in the UK (he hates the heat!) He has been in retirement for ten years now and at the age of 29 is still enjoying it. Let me know if you want the name of the yard - I cannot recommend them highly enough, so much so that even though I have moved back home, Dan is still living his life of retired luxury !
 
HHO members Tarrsteps, Spring Feather and True Colours in particular are all well up on shipping horses to and from Canada. Message them perhaps.

7 years ago I was looking at about $10,000 to ship one horse over.

Re re-qualifying, pain in the butt isn't it?
 
As Enfys says, I shipped a horse to Canada from the UK. It is quite expensive to do. The horses are well taken care of and most fly with no problems at all. All of the horses I import these days come directly from the US and it's easy to import horses from the States. Always has been much easier doing it that way which is why when I imported ours from England I actually chose to import to the US first and then had her shipped up to Canada after her quarantine. If I were you this is the route I'd take. It's the route most of the people I know who import from Europe take as it's by far the easiest and simplest way to bring a horse to Canada.

Your horse would be flown into LAX and would do his quarantine at a nearby USDA approved facility. For a gelding it's only a few days quarantine. Then you'd have the horse land shipped up to Vancouver. Here is the US import website.

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/import_export/animals/animal_import/equine/equine_import_quarantine.shtml

I used Peden Bloodstock to bring my girl over and then once she arrived in the US, a company called Mersant took over.
http://www.mersant.com/horse_services.html
My mare went to Cornell University to do her quarantine/isolation and they were great at phoning me daily to let me know how she was doing. Once she was cleared to leave I then had her land shipped up to Canada. It was a no-brainer tbh. The companies I dealt with do this all the time and were very competent and at no time was I concerned about the mare in their care.

If you want to import directly to Canada you will have to go down the isolation route in the UK prior to flying her out here. It's not quarantine as such and can be done at home providing you have federal approval (sorry I don't know the name of the body in the UK, would it be Defra?) and your vet applies for this approval on your behalf. The isolation period once the horse is in Canada can also be done at home, once again you would need a federal vet to apply for approval for you. Here is the Canadian website for the CFIA http://www.inspection.gc.ca/animals/eng/1299155513713/1299155693492
 
_EddiesMum_ said:
So my partner and I are looking into moving to Canada, Vancouver in particular. It will not be for a couple of years at least as I need to requalify in Canadian law and my partner needs to finish his Phd. One of the big question marks is my horse. Basically there's no way I can sell him. I would leave him with a friend who knows him as a last ditch effort but there is no possibility he can be sold. My concern is ideally I'd love to take him with me but he is 19 now, 20 in Feb next year so would be pushing 22 by the time we went. Would it be possible to ship him at that age? Does anyone have any experience of this? Any experience people have of flying horses generally would be useful but particularly older horses? If we cant ship then we simply cant go until he's no longer around. There is of course the harsh reality that it may not need considering as he may not be around when we eventually go, but he's a resilient old bug**r so should probably count on him being around :PAny advice anyone has on this area would be really great thanks. I owe this boy big time and vowed he would see out his days with me and I intend to keep that promise :)
Click to expand...

Another good company to use are Parkes International Horse Transport- all the paper work, quarantine, bloods etc etc are taken care of. Good luck- I don't envy you ;p
 
We did it the other way around and imported from Canada. Ours came from Quebec. He was taken by road to New York and rather than come to UK directly went to Paris, and then came to us by road again. By going with shared loads on a regular route the cost was only about $2500. ( This was 5 years ago.) We used John Parker International.
 
Enfys said:
Re re-qualifying, pain in the butt isn't it?
Click to expand...

Yup! It is but I'm not long qualified over here and another few years of self study while working isn't the biggest deal in the world! My partner and I have lived in Canada before, before uni, so we know if we went it would be permanent so worth it in the long haul.
 
JohnParfit said:
We did it the other way around and imported from Canada. Ours came from Quebec. He was taken by road to New York and rather than come to UK directly went to Paris, and then came to us by road again. By going with shared loads on a regular route the cost was only about $2500. ( This was 5 years ago.) We used John Parker International.
Click to expand...

This is a great idea and something worth looking into!
 
Spring Feather said:
As Enfys says, I shipped a horse to Canada from the UK. It is quite expensive to do. The horses are well taken care of and most fly with no problems at all. All of the horses I import these days come directly from the US and it's easy to import horses from the States. Always has been much easier doing it that way which is why when I imported ours from England I actually chose to import to the US first and then had her shipped up to Canada after her quarantine. If I were you this is the route I'd take. It's the route most of the people I know who import from Europe take as it's by far the easiest and simplest way to bring a horse to Canada.

Your horse would be flown into LAX and would do his quarantine at a nearby USDA approved facility. For a gelding it's only a few days quarantine. Then you'd have the horse land shipped up to Vancouver. Here is the US import website.

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/import_export/animals/animal_import/equine/equine_import_quarantine.shtml

I used Peden Bloodstock to bring my girl over and then once she arrived in the US, a company called Mersant took over.
http://www.mersant.com/horse_services.html
My mare went to Cornell University to do her quarantine/isolation and they were great at phoning me daily to let me know how she was doing. Once she was cleared to leave I then had her land shipped up to Canada. It was a no-brainer tbh. The companies I dealt with do this all the time and were very competent and at no time was I concerned about the mare in their care.

If you want to import directly to Canada you will have to go down the isolation route in the UK prior to flying her out here. It's not quarantine as such and can be done at home providing you have federal approval (sorry I don't know the name of the body in the UK, would it be Defra?) and your vet applies for this approval on your behalf. The isolation period once the horse is in Canada can also be done at home, once again you would need a federal vet to apply for approval for you. Here is the Canadian website for the CFIA http://www.inspection.gc.ca/animals/eng/1299155513713/1299155693492
Click to expand...

This is all very interesting thank you and definitely worth considering the US option I think. Strange the US would be less stringent than Canada re quarantine, you'd expect it to be the other way.
 
fluffcat said:
I had the same dilemma when moving to Florida and in the end settled for retiring Dan in the UK (he hates the heat!) He has been in retirement for ten years now and at the age of 29 is still enjoying it. Let me know if you want the name of the yard - I cannot recommend them highly enough, so much so that even though I have moved back home, Dan is still living his life of retired luxury !
Click to expand...

This is something I had really considered. If you could give me the details of where you sent him that'd be great. The other option is leaving him with my parents who love him just as much as I do and know his funny ways! (he can be a grumpy old man when it suits him!) but I would feel like I was imposing on them if I were to do that. That's amazing that he is still loving it 10 years later! How lovely for him and you to know he is so happy :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top