shipping horse to the US

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Biscuit

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Does anyone have a vague idea how much it costs to ship a horse from the South East of the UK to the US (Illinois)?

- the actual transport
- vaccines, vet bills?
- quarantine?
- any customs duty or other costs?

Thanks!
 
Well we were given a rough price of £5000 for mare from dorset to kansas and decided not to go into details. it was less for geldings as they don't need to be swabbed etc and have less time in quarantine.
 
Wait for Tia on this one
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LOL!!
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Shipping for our mare back in 2004 cost us over £6,000 and that was for door to door service. It's true that geldings are cheaper to ship as they only have to stay in quarantine for 3 or 4 days, whereas mares have to stay there for around 14 days.

I would advise going for door to door delivery though as there can be hiccups along the way - because of the time of year we shipped our mare, she never actually made it to us until 30 days after export - if we had been paying the quarantine charges for all of this time it would have bumped the price up significantly. You will have land-shipping charges aswell, so if you can get an "all-in" price then you know exactly how much to budget for.

I used Peden Bloodstock and cannot rave about them enough! They were absolutely terrific.
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I do have the papers all stored away somewhere but would take me a while to find them. I don't remember whether each part of the journey was itemised though - I'll have a look for you later.

I do know that the vet costs at the UK end were not included in this price though, however they were only a couple of hundred pounds.
 
thanks :-) I reckon it would be too expensive to bring one of my horses when I am relocating to Ilinois, but it feels better to have checked.
 
Okay I have just found the invoice and it is itemised. It covered all vet fees and swabs etc in the States but not the blood work and vet fees in the UK.

The quarantine price, including all Arrival Charges and land-shipment was £3,100.

The flight itself was £2,150.

The rest was vet fees in the US, transport to the UK airport, all DEFRA and export papers, insurance and aviation fuel surcharges.
 
You have to have blood tests done for things that they don't worry about in this country. I can't remember what they are called but I know a horse a friend was selling to America couldn't go because it had one of these things.
 
One of the tests required by US vet authorities for importing a horse onto the territory is Piroplasmosis as there isn't any over there and plenty of it over here
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And not all labs are accredited by the US to get this done. had to send the blood samples to a lab in Germany for testing
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Which actually, wasn't the most expensive part ( € 135)
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