[QUOTE=HER;5917562]
All horses need a health certificate for crossing state lines for ANY reason. [/QUOTE]
Absolutely. And twice I’ve been checked by folks in uniform going across long distances. And twice I’ve pulled out my current, correct Health Certificates!
Just a side note:
When I was helping a friend of mine complete travel documents for their horses from Texas to be shown at the Kentucky Horse Park, not only did they require a Health Certificate and negative Coggins, but also a certification of having tested negative for Equine Piroplasmosis (both T.equi and B.caballi) before being allowed to enter Kentucky:
Not only check CVI but feed!!
A friend of mine and I were transporting 2 horsews from WA state to northern CA. this was in 1998. We could not bring our WA hay into the state of CA. there was some outbreak and only certified free hay was allowed. We could keep a hay bag full for each horse but had to leave the rest. You should have seen the hay that was left. Always check with the states AG dept. that you are crossing thorugh!!
You guys found some great information about the eastern and southern states! Being in Ohio I hadn’t had the opportunity to know about those rules. I remembered something about the southern states permit, but not the other one. All these different rules are really very difficult for us vets too- we really want to do the right thing for our clients, and give them the best information, but apparently its all different everywhere! Go figure, that’s the government!
What I don’t understand about those permits is that it seems to negate the whole reason for having health papers in the first place, ensuring that your horse is healthy before transport. If we can just trust that people will only transport healthy horses then we shouldn’t need to write health papers for any state. Which would be a big relief for vets- I know I always stress about making sure they are correct for the state they are traveling too. Plus we’ve even filled them out according to the requirements on the website only to have them arrive at the designated state and be told they are wrong.
Ugh.
They are absolutely a PIA for vets too. I thought there had been talk about a uniform form at one point…
But regardless, it is all pretty confusing and I do wonder about the beneifit of them.
States also can have pretty excessive driving permit requirements. I know that PA does. If you are pulling a rig over a certain size or have horses that are not your own or are competiting/clinicing (increasing your horse’s worth)…there are other forms and health certificates you need for your driver! They were nailing a bunch of people in Unionville/Kennett Square one year and we all learned what you are supposed to say…"No officers, all these horses are my own. We are just heading out for a long trail ride…not a lesson or show. (at 4 am ;). It was a way to generate $$$ from the tickets. They stopped after a little while but the threat is always there!:eek:
Yes, they are definitely checking health certs at VHC.
Personally, I only get them if I am traveling a distance. If I got one every time I crossed state lines, then I would have to have one every day- my property is directly on the MD/ PA line, so my horses are in MD but I ride in PA.
I knew MD had reciprocity with VA and PA, but how would they determine where you’re coming from? In my case, I’ve got a truck and trailer tagged in Virginia, but my horse lives in Maryland. So it might look like we’re hauling from out of state to a show in MD, but really the horse is in state. And if I haul down to Virginia, we’re coming from out of state, even thought plates would make it appear otherwise 
I’m guessing that this is perhaps why the reciprocity exists? We’ve got too much too close together and people crossing state borders constantly, vets wouldn’t get anything done besides filling out health certificates. (And how would they fill one out for people hauling between states for vet visits?)
The link you posted says the self certification is only needed for an “event where multiple livestock species are present.”
this seems to be a new “enforcement” for the VHC, does anyone know why the sudden attention to this detail?
I have shipped all over the east coast without health certs, it would be very, very expensive to get one for each horse, each month. That said, I don’t want to be stuck the one time I get pulled over ( as I was in GA a few years ago when I DID have health certs) without the paperwork that suddenly seems to be generating income on both sides of the table.
[QUOTE=JenEM;5918509]
I knew MD had reciprocity with VA and PA, but how would they determine where you’re coming from? In my case, I’ve got a truck and trailer tagged in Virginia, but my horse lives in Maryland. So it might look like we’re hauling from out of state to a show in MD, but really the horse is in state. And if I haul down to Virginia, we’re coming from out of state, even thought plates would make it appear otherwise
I’m guessing that this is perhaps why the reciprocity exists? We’ve got too much too close together and people crossing state borders constantly, vets wouldn’t get anything done besides filling out health certificates. (And how would they fill one out for people hauling between states for vet visits?)[/QUOTE]
I agree.
Perhaps because people don’t live in this area, they don’t quite comprehend how intermingled we all are (especially the MD/VA peeps). Seriously…my horse is going for his second vet visit in a month (3rd in six weeks) tomorrow…he lives in MD but the vet is in VA. The hospital is VA…would my sickly horse this winter have needed a health cert for the 30 minute trailer ride to the hospital (he certainly wasn’t healthy!)? We have trailer ins on a regular basis from VA and WV. We drive 30 minutes to events in VA. We haul to schooling venues and coaches in VA.
Basically, as much as we cross state lines around here, we wouldn’t be able to feed our horses because we’d constantly be paying for new health certs. And our poor vets would get NOTHING done! 
I keep a book of current coggins for everyone in the tow vehicle, but don’t do health certs for EVERY time we cross state lines.
I can see why they would need to have something in place for those states for those reasons. We are about 35 min from WV though and we don’t have reciprocity- and we run into people thinking its ok to go trail ride in WV for the day, and as far as I understand, they would need a health paper for that.
Lucky for me I can write my own health papers (yes I did check with the usda about that) so I just write one whenever I leave the state. But I have had clients pulled over in KY and in FL. Not WV yet that I’ve heard about.
Helen
Even fifteen or twenty years (I am so OLD) we used to need health certificates for the VA Horse Center, I think. The vet used to stop by pony club games practice and write 8-10 of them without getting out of his truck-- so they were definitely not worth the paper they were written on.
Resurrecting this Zombie to ask an Ethics question.
I have always taken my horses to the vet to get a CVI - sometimes on the way to an event.
Just pull in, vet does a cursory exam on loaded horse(s), takes temp, fills out the CVI & off we go.
Recently 2 friends with 2 different vets have told me their vets just send them completed forms w/o examining the horse.
Is this legal?
As much as I’d prefer to not spend on a visit to the clinic, it seems to me this is cheating the system.
Not to mention, what if HO misses a symptom vet might notice & whatever infection/illness is carried into another state.
Am I too Goody 2 Shoes on this?
No…you are being nice to your vets. That said, I’ve had vets write me a health certificate without coming out many times…but they had been to my farm recently and seen my horse recently (as in that week). My vet is at my farm almost weekly and knows me and my horses very well. They look at my horses not just when sick or lame but we jog and evaluate them throughout the course of the competition season. They also know I would not miss symptoms of a sick horse…at least I would spot something with one of my horses likely before them and I’m not the type to take the risk and stick them on the trailer if I have a question. But if they hadn’t been to the farm recently or looked at the horse recently…I would NOT expect them to just write me a health certificate.
When we did the Tb horse show series at VHC they were very consistent about always checking our health certs.
Emily
@bornfreenowexpensive Makes sense to me that if vet recently examined a horse he/she might fill out a form w/clear conscience.
But friends gave the impression vet did not need to examine to complete a form no matter when the horse in question was last seen.
I would not even ask my vet to do this unless he had made a very recent - within the 10 days specified for the CVI - farm call,
@Xctrygirl the venue in question is not only asking for CVI, horse that does not present form will be denied entry.
Since competitors are coming from all over the country I am glad this is a requirement (for out-of-state entries).
I suspect your friends are wrong…they may not realize that the only reason the vet wrote them was that the vet had been at the farm fairly recently. They might get a bit of a rude awakening at some point.
It’s illegal and the vet doing it could lose their accreditation and license.
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