Costs for transporting a horse from USA or Europe?

[Tow Vehicle Rqrd]

I'm moving out of London soon, and probably off to the States for a bit to add a bit of cash to the "life-goal" fund, which includes the ownership of a horse. Googling "horses for sale" has of course, yet again, brought up the ugly subject of "rip-off-Britain"... America seems to be the place to find really amazing horses. (I'm looking for an Arabian stallion, trained to ride - childhood dream).

Help! If I fall in love with a horse out in say Nevada, for example, does anyone on here know the real cost of bringing said creature back to the UK? I've tried googling, and just get DEFRA referrals with a telephone number, and the useless links to BA cargo etc.

Has anyone on PH (or in PHers orbit) imported a horse from abroad (looking at the States as a real example), and what real costs are involved?

[sherman]

After a quick google it would appear to be between £2000 and £15000 depending on where you are shipping from and also what time of year you are shipping at from these places. Horse and hound seem to have a lot of adverts offering this service.

All my info is from this google search
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=cost+to+import+a+...

Edited by sherman on Tuesday 5th October 03:41

[Tow Vehicle Rqrd]

Jeeeez, I'll stick to "boring hacks" then! I was looking into buying "something spirited" over there in the last month of my stay, and riding him back, cross-country, getting to know each other and all that, then shipping him back to the UK.

[Tow Vehicle Rqrd]

Late January / early Feb if that helps?

[jeff m]

Argentina to New Jersey is $5,000 min.
I'm not sure if that's any help.
Try the UK polo mags

[The jiffle king]

There was an article on BBC sport last week on this topic which talked about 4k to 15k which is what you have alreay been told. Obviously this was for air travel. I think it said 15k was business class for a single box.

[base]

thoroughbred Stallions are shipped around the world on a regular basis they do "a season" covering mares here, then ship them off to places like Oz for a Season there, but these are creatures that are worth a great deal of money and are from what i have seen are kept like royalty in horse terms, i dont know what costs would be involved, but if it helps it cost about 3.5k to send a staffordshire bull terrier to Oz (that was the most expensive option i may ad)

[Le TVR]

A few years back I was quoted aprox $12,000 + state taxes for shipping our two horses CDG-JFK (Paris - New York) based on 1050kg total weight. Cant remember the exact figure or what taxes were.

[GTIR]

Racehorses get moved around. A lot. It doesn't bother them on bit being in a jet aeroplane.
As has been mentioned they spend a season in UK then off to sunny, dusty, hot Dubai. Or USA and Europe.

OP. Its Tattersals sales in Newmarket this week - The home of horse breeding - so I'm sure there will be a cheap nag going!

Why not get a show jumper horse?

[GTIR]

inkiboo said:

With the greatest of respect, it appears you know very little about horses.

Even with my limited knowledge, horses do not like moving. For instance, their stomachs will get used to eating a certain type of grass and the USA and the UK generally have very different types.

Also, climate is a big issue. You can't easily move a horse from a sunny, dusty climate to the UK and vice versa.

You're joking right?

So studs moving 200 horses from UK to Dubai for six months are all doing it wrong?



FYI Racehorses do not eat grass as a staple diet.

[GTIR]

inkiboo said:

I'm going to hazard a guess that the OP is not buying a world class racehorse. You are right, those studs will not be on a diet of grass. For "normal" horses, grass is most of their diet.

OP is talking about a stallion and "normal" horses are still horses, just calmer and less "norfolkised".
They're not cats and will eat anything Grass is grass.

You know the only reason these horse boxes drive so slowly is not because the horse might get injured it's because the horse get really pissed off and can kick rather large holes in the expensive box!

[Granville]

base said:

thoroughbred Stallions are shipped around the world on a regular basis they do "a season" covering mares here, then ship them off to places like Oz for a Season there, but these are creatures that are worth a great deal of money and are from what i have seen are kept like royalty in horse terms, i dont know what costs would be involved, but if it helps it cost about 3.5k to send a staffordshire bull terrier to Oz (that was the most expensive option i may ad)

I think you will probably find that the really top stallions do not get shipped around. You no longer need to do this or send a mare to any stud to be covered. The world of AI (artificial insemination) is widely practised now, especially for Stallions that reside in a diffent location to the mare.

[Granville]

Tow Vehicle Rqrd said:

(I'm looking for an Arabian stallion, trained to ride - childhood dream).

(looking at the States as a real example)

Is there any reason why it has to be Stallion and apart from the cost, from abroad? I'm guessing you have experience of horses and especially Stallions to be contemplating one?

I've had a quick gander on interweb and if you look on the Arabian Lines website there are plenty of Stallions, geldings and mares from as little as £900.00. It's worth a look if you find something suitable and saves on the shipping costs.

[Freddie328]

Granville said:

base said:

thoroughbred Stallions are shipped around the world on a regular basis they do "a season" covering mares here, then ship them off to places like Oz for a Season there, but these are creatures that are worth a great deal of money and are from what i have seen are kept like royalty in horse terms, i dont know what costs would be involved, but if it helps it cost about 3.5k to send a staffordshire bull terrier to Oz (that was the most expensive option i may ad)

I think you will probably find that the really top stallions do not get shipped around. You no longer need to do this or send a mare to any stud to be covered. The world of AI (artificial insemination) is widely practised now, especially for Stallions that reside in a diffent location to the mare.

Not in the breeding of racehorses, the mare has to be covered naturally, AI is not allowed.

[Silent1]

America for horses
If you want proper dressage horses go to Germany, there's a reason all the stud books are german.
But then again i might be talking bks as our horses have only made it to the olympics and are one of the very few studs to actually make a profit.

[Le TVR]

Silent1 said:

America for horses

Yes, really.

You have a far better chance of finding a horse that is well balanced than a lot of the so called 'bomb proof' offerings in the UK that turn out to be only slightly less psycho than Hannibal Lecter.

Given the time and the finance I would have chosen to do the same.

I dont think the OP is looking for a dressage or competition horse either..

[Adenauer]

Silent1 said:

America for horses
If you want proper dressage horses go to Germany, there's a reason all the stud books are german.

TVR, I have a friend who breeds Arabian (Araber) horses in Germany, believe it or not it's quite close to the Ring as well, ie. 20 minutes away

[Silent1]

Le TVR said:

Silent1 said:

America for horses

Yes, really.

You have a far better chance of finding a horse that is well balanced than a lot of the so called 'bomb proof' offerings in the UK that turn out to be only slightly less psycho than Hannibal Lecter.

Given the time and the finance I would have chosen to do the same.

I dont think the OP is looking for a dressage or competition horse either..

I think we need to know what she wants it for as I (perhaps incorrectly) thought she wanted to do dressage.
If you're wanting a hacking horse it's mental to import one though!

[BruceV8]

I moved my horse from the UK to Cyprus in 2002. It cost £1300 by road & ferry. To get him back in 2004 I had to fly him to Amsterdam, then go by road & Ferry. All in cost was about £5000. There was a possibility of me going to Canada at the time so I asked some international transport firms for quotes and not a single one replied. They must have thought I was taking the piss.

To be honest, I can't see any reason to import a horse from the USA but, as they say, its horses for courses.

[thatone1967]

I have a friend who is cargo manager for a major American Carrier... I can fire her an email if you are not already sorted?