Transport from France to UK

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jokadoka

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Morning all!
As above really. Am moving my horses back to England around the 20th of June. North East France (Alsace) to East Yorkshire. 18 year old 10 hh pony and 24 year old 16.1 hh thoroughbred. The tb is not always an easy loader so sympathetic handlers to loading essential. I know there have been lots of threads on this in the past but was wondering if there are any new experiences from people?
Thanks for reading.
 
John Parker and Eric Gillies. They work together, deal with all the documentation, and are very professional. All they need is the horse with head collar and lead rope, passport, note of destination, and paying!
 
We have at different times had disappointing experiences with all of the above.

Mare transported from Cheshire to Scotland needed an overnight stay for a 5 hour journey. Skinned her backside driver said, "previous driver threw her around a bit".

Stallion and i/f mare who should have come to us direct from Calais were overnight in Normandy where there had been an out break of EHV. We were told 30 mins before they should have arrived that they would be delivered the next day.

A mare sent back to the UK finished up stabled in Calais as the driver ran out of driving hours. If we had taken her ourselves, it would have been 4 hours to the port and 4 hours channel crossing. We planned to take her ourselves but my o/h broke an ankle and could not drive.

Another transporter booked rang be the day before to say they would not be coming to France after all and so could not bring two horses already booked to be collected at 10.00am the following morning.

If you can I would do it yourself. If you don't have a trailer consider renting a two horse box, we did for an endurance event, it was very in expensive.
 
I used Veronica Shilton of Yew Tree Transport from France to UK after being let down by LOC. I cannot recommend her highly enough. She is smaller that other companies mentioned, and doesnt have a fancy, totally top of the range lorry, but she undercut the others by a long way, and delivered a very happy horse to me after a 13 hour journey. She came off the lorry fresh as a daisy and perfectly happy. If you want a no frills, but very reliable and professional service, get in touch with her. And its nice to support smaller companies TBH. (people always automatically seem to go for the larger companies with fancy lorries)
Heres her website http://www.horsetransport.uk.net/
and shes registered with all the relevent agencies etc etc . Ive just had a peek at her website and shes doing 2 runs, one early April and one end June which you could prob get a shared load with which is very cost effective. A thoroughly nice lady who I would use over and over again :-)
 
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I used Dave Ovenden horse transport to take nutty tb bad loader from Devon to Surrey, he was great and very patient with him. Has a fab lorry to and a very good price. HE does uk and European transport and is very experienced :) good luck!
 
Thank you everybody for replying. Rolling, would you PM me with some more details please?
Interesting to see somebody else not happy with LOC....will follow up the recommendations.
I am not confident enough to hire a box and do the trip myself, doing the trip in the car is bad enough, let alone a lorry with livestock in the back! But thank you for the idea.
As shipping them over here 9 years ago was not a good experience I am very concerned to hire the best I can, am not that bothered about the cost. The lady with the smaller company does sound appealing so will definitely have a conversation with her!
 
jokadoka said:
Thank you everybody for replying. Rolling, would you PM me with some more details please?
Interesting to see somebody else not happy with LOC....will follow up the recommendations.
I am not confident enough to hire a box and do the trip myself, doing the trip in the car is bad enough, let alone a lorry with livestock in the back! But thank you for the idea.
As shipping them over here 9 years ago was not a good experience I am very concerned to hire the best I can, am not that bothered about the cost. The lady with the smaller company does sound appealing so will definitely have a conversation with her!
Click to expand...

Yes shes definitely worth getting in touch with. Her website gives you a good idea of the sort of person she is. I was so thrilled with how totally straightforward things were for us that the least I can do is recommend her, and I'm also a big fan of supporting smaller businesses.
 
I've used Veronica Shilton and would highly recommend her, lovely lady and very patient, despite me running around like a lunatic when she arrived as our cat had disappeared just hours before we were due to leave the UK. She brought a load of 5 over to France for me a few years ago.

I have also used Adam Gibson a couple of times, ponies arrived fresh, calm and happy both times. http://www.aghorsetransport.co.uk/

I have had incredibly bad experiences with two transporters but I believe they are no longer in existence.
 
Notimetoride said:
I used Veronica Shilton of Yew Tree Transport from France to UK after being let down by LOC. I cannot recommend her highly enough. She is smaller that other companies mentioned, and doesnt have a fancy, totally top of the range lorry, but she undercut the others by a long way, and delivered a very happy horse to me after a 13 hour journey. She came off the lorry fresh as a daisy and perfectly happy. If you want a no frills, but very reliable and professional service, get in touch with her. And its nice to support smaller companies TBH. (people always automatically seem to go for the larger companies with fancy lorries)
Heres her website http://www.horsetransport.uk.net/
and shes registered with all the relevent agencies etc etc . Ive just had a peek at her website and shes doing 2 runs, one early April and one end June which you could prob get a shared load with which is very cost effective. A thoroughly nice lady who I would use over and over again :-)
Click to expand...

Unfortunately her web page won't open, do you have a phone number by any chance?
 
Another question for those in the know...when we came over to France in 2007 all we had to do was provide the passports and an ok from the vet. Is this the same for traveling France to UK? I have read some very confusing and contradictory stuff so would like some inside info? Will also contact my horse vet about this, but not sure if she would necessarily know.
Thanks for reading
 
jokadoka said:
Another question for those in the know...when we came over to France in 2007 all we had to do was provide the passports and an ok from the vet. Is this the same for traveling France to UK? I have read some very confusing and contradictory stuff so would like some inside info? Will also contact my horse vet about this, but not sure if she would necessarily know.
Thanks for reading
Click to expand...

Well, I wouldn't be looking for yet more confusing advice from a public forum! I exported my own gundogs world-wide for 30 years and my motto was "If it can go wrong, it will go wrong". For goodness sake, leave it to the experts who transport horses worth hundreds of thousands of £s world-wide on a regular basis! How much is peace of mind worth?
 
jokadoka said:
Another question for those in the know...when we came over to France in 2007 all we had to do was provide the passports and an ok from the vet. Is this the same for traveling France to UK? I have read some very confusing and contradictory stuff so would like some inside info? Will also contact my horse vet about this, but not sure if she would necessarily know.
Thanks for reading
Click to expand...

You can freely move horses within UK southern ireland and France with just a passport! and a health certificate as its not within the terms TPA(tri partite agreement)
 
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Dry Rot said:
Well, I wouldn't be looking for yet more confusing advice from a public forum! I exported my own gundogs world-wide for 30 years and my motto was "If it can go wrong, it will go wrong". For goodness sake, leave it to the experts who transport horses worth hundreds of thousands of £s world-wide on a regular basis! How much is peace of mind worth?
Click to expand...

I fully appreciate your sentiments, and agree full heartidly.
However, I don't know whether the UK based transport companies can do the french paperwork or if I have to do so at this end.
Have just had a conversation with my vet who tells me it is quite complicated these days but is happy to help so that's a step in the right direction.
I have also contacted 4 transport companies in the UK and am awaiting their reply.

I am not sure I deserve such a stroppy reply, but thank you for your time and input
 
The tri-partate agreement is no longer exists.

You need to get a form off the DDPE website in France, it is difficult to find so ask your vet to help.

This says your horse is fit and healthy, we then had to take it into the Ministry of Agriculture in our case 40 mins away and wait for the paperwork to be done. This was a year ago and we found then that the French Ministry were not up to speed with the new rules. You will find it better explained on the DEFRA website. Bringing our horse back to France was easier as the UK vet knew what to do and did it was almost instant. Downside the UK vet cost a fortune our vet in France did the paperwork for nothing.

My joke with French friends "Why did you chop the heads of your Royals yet put up with your Civil Servants?"
 
Rollin said:
The tri-partate agreement is no longer exists.

You need to get a form off the DDPE website in France, it is difficult to find so ask your vet to help.

This says your horse is fit and healthy, we then had to take it into the Ministry of Agriculture in our case 40 mins away and wait for the paperwork to be done. This was a year ago and we found then that the French Ministry were not up to speed with the new rules. You will find it better explained on the DEFRA website. Bringing our horse back to France was easier as the UK vet knew what to do and did it was almost instant. Downside the UK vet cost a fortune our vet in France did the paperwork for nothing.

My joke with French friends "Why did you chop the heads of your Royals yet put up with your Civil Servants?"
Click to expand...

The original TPA was revoked however another was put in place which indeed does not cover this type of movement. Competition and race horses can move between the 3 countries on the Docom system for up to 10 days
 
jokadoka said:
I am not sure I deserve such a stroppy reply, but thank you for your time and input
Click to expand...

Never look a gift horse in the mouth. You've had good advice, which cost you nothing, but you appear to want a consensus. I'm afraid I couldn't give two hoots for your wounded pride, but I do care about the welfare of the horse.
 
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