[Isabella]

I currently am living in the Middle East and have had to leave my horse in Australia with relatives though it's been discussed that a new horse might might be possible becuase we don't know when we'll be going back. We've looked around and becuase of the small riding community here (though showing and breeding here is huge) , there aren't many options. I was considering importing...anyone know about how it works and positives/negatives??
Would love some advice before inquiring further

 

[White Foot]

From what I know it's very expensive, you don't really know what you're getting, and your chances of getting scammed are very high. On the flip side you could look for a dependable breeder who has alot of vouches with good experiences. Good luck keep me updated I'd love to know what you have decided.

My aunt actually shipped her mare over to a "dependable" breeder who promised he flushed the egg out and artificially inseminated it. He sent the mare back with a guarantee that she was pregnant. Anyways, long story short she came back and she wasn't, and the vet said she never had any of the procedures the guy promised he did. <--- And this was all of a guy who had alot of good things said about him. So that's an example of how you just never know.

 

[Gidji]

My only advice is to look at the horse before you consider importing it. And when I say look, I mean in person. It only takes 2 seconds to jump onto a horse sales website and you can see the scammers.

It will probably be expensive too. I paid $900 (Australian dollars) to have my horse transported from Tasmania, then all the way up to New South Wales. So if thats how much you pay just for interstate transport, I'm sure the price would be much much higher.

Also, if there's a showing community where you live now, they'd have to be a few good horses for sale somewhere. Good luck

 

[Valentina]

10 years ago I imported a 5 month old baby from Holland to the US for $5000. It's more now.

It's higher cost to import a mare or a stallion since they need to remain in quarantine longer that a horse which is too young to reproduce.

Since breeding is huge why can you not go to a local breeder and purchase a horse of riding age?

 

[kevinshorses]

There is a long tradition of horse ownership in the middle east. Some sultan or other owns more TB racehorses than any other person in the world. I'm sure if you looked around you could find a horse that was acceptable and cheaperthan importing. Also I would think it could be kind of hard on your horse as well.

 

[my2geldings]

I looked into important 2 mares about 3 years ago. I'm on the Canadian west coast, and the horse was going to be flying in from central Europe.

I would only import if you have seen the horses yourself and know that you are going to be putting this as an investment. Buying the mares themselves was the cheap part, the flying them over and the quarantine period, along with the vet checks and all the follow ups is what was expensive AND at any point they return the mares straight back to Europe if they tested positive during the regular blood work and swabs. All it tooks was 1 single test to come back negative.

I would honestly suggest taking more time to search locally rather than import(unless money is not an issue).

It's A LOT of paper work, you will have to set up a lot of things and you have to hope and pray the horses don't bring back any parasites.