anniepony

Hi,
This may be a shot in the dark, but has anyone taken a horse with them to Canada? I am in two minds, my head sensibly says that it would be wrong to put a horse through the journey, and it could be daft to try to settle into a new life with imediate commitments. The other side is my heart desperate not to leave her behind. I know that in the long run my head has to rule, but I would just be interested to hear of anyone elses experience.

thanks

R I C H

I owned an equestrian business here for a number of years, and horses were regularly shipped from Europe. They adapt and acclimatize fine. From a financial perspective, you may find shipping is more than the horse is worth, so you need to weigh up the pros and cons of the investment you're making. If you've somewhere to board her here initially it'll take a lot of the pressure off with everything else that'll be going on.

SamMorgan

Hi,

We're hoping to move later this year and are planning on taking our four horses. All quotes through international transport firms are for between 5 & 7k which is a bit steep, they want £1600 - £2000 just to take them to the airport!! but through alot of research I've found out that if the horses are your personal horses & not for sale / breeding then you can do it yourself. They are still subject to the same health checks and quarantine but no licence is required.
The only UK airport they can fly from is apparently Prestwick & they sugested I get in touch with Hellmann Worldwide Logistics - I haven't yet. Other option is Cargolux. Some airlines will only deal with registered transporters but these will deal direct.
Will post more when I get more info!

Where in Mid Wales are you from, we moved from Welshpool area recently & are just about to move near to Brecon until we hopefully leave.

Hope this is some help
Sam

dbd33

Something to consider, based on past posts on this topic, is that a horse crate (or whatever they call the device the horses stand in for the flight) takes three horses. Four is going to be a lot more expensive than three.

anniepony

Hi,

Thanks for the info, I knew it would be expensive.

Sam, We are in Montgomery near Welshpool, small world . Let me know how it goes, it will be interesting to see. Where abouts are you going?

d1gger

Thanks OP for posting this. My daughter was wondering how much it would cost to ship her mare to Canada, she wants to take her but of course it will come down to cost. either way she has a home for life, either with me in the UK or with daughter in Canada.

SamMorgan

I know - that's the downside of any other number than 3!! you pay for a crate no matter how many go in it

SamMorgan

We're going to Saskatchewan. What about you?
Definately taking horses no matter what as they were our inspiration to go and look at Canada in the first place
Will let you know when I find out more!!

anniepony

Oh my word!!! We are also looking at Prince Albert, Saskatchewan!

Lilipuddlian

Wow! I am no longer going to worry about what not to pack... you are taking your HORSES?! That's hard core!!

Good luck! It's nice to hear that you are that committed to your pets. The uber-wealthy fly thier horses from North America to Europe on a regular basis for competition, so I hope your horses will be fine, especially if they can see / smell each other.

Good luck!

rosspcs

We brought 2 Horses to Canada and both travelled and adjusted with no problem, but the route they took was a bit different , they travelled to Amsterdam by road and the flew from amsterdam to Toronto.
One thing to be aware of is that nothing travels with the horses

YYZlover

Horses normally travel better on planes than on roads. It's a smoother ride for them and less work for them to balance. At least according to the grooms I know who've travelled with horses to major competitions.

I'm not sure about paying per crate. I've seen the crates on planes with horses inside and I've never seen just one horse in one crate. My understanding is that if you want the entire crate for yourself, you pay for all three stalls. If you want your horse to have a wider stall then you pay more.

You can do loads yourself to cut costs however, most airlines will only accept bookings for horses through a freight agent. You may want to look in to that.

Also, if you check with jockey clubs etc, you may find that there are planes dedicated for horse transports crossing the atlantic. You might be able to blag yourself on to one of those loads and cut costs. You'd be surprised to find out how many european born race horses are sent to kentucky when growing up to grace kentucky bluegrass then shipped back to europe to start their racing career.

I talked to one of my cousins who is in to harness racing here in Sweden and he said that when the time comes I should let him know and he'll check if he can get my geegees across the atlantic a lot cheaper than going via Peden, airhorse or any other equestrian freight company.

ppaauull0

Hi
I had the same quandry when I decided to move to Canada, in the end I decided to put my horse through the journey knowing that the rest of his days would be safe with me.
I used John Parker transport and they were excellent, it cost around 5000 GBP door to door (Dorset UK, to Nova Scotia Canada).
Emotionally, I think it took my horse around 6 months to really get over the journey (although he is now better than ever), he was a fairly stressy horse anyway, physically he arrived in excellent condition and has stayed that way since.
Do I regret my decision to fly him over........... Absolutely not

Please feel free to get in touch regarding any more info. I would recommend leaving your horse with someone in the UK whilst you deal with your move, and send for your horse later, that's what I did and it worked really well.

anniepony

Hi thanks for that. I had thought about arranging for her to follow a few weeks later, a friend has offered to look after her until I am ready to move her, which is great. A couple of questions, did they stop anywhere on route or did they go straight through? Where did yours fly from, was there a choice and how long did it take to arrange? Did the transport company sort out the paperwork, and what sort of things need to be thought about vet wise etc?
I really appreciate any help and advice. Thanks

dbd33

If you search back far enough tiaribbon documented her experience in bringing horses. iirc there was some advantage to flying them to the US and trucking them from there.