Menu

Stay in Touch
Sign up for ENews
Subscribe Now

Unlimited access >

Menu

Importing a horse from Europe?

Hunter/Jumper
#41

[QUOTE=Arrie;5261056]

Yeah, but the Dutch and Belgians do have the leading studbooks for a few years now. :cool: Your last sentence is spot-on though. Though, they have the clients and most people who sell their horses to them, don’t. There are only very few people in the world who can sell horses for the real top-dollar money.[/QUOTE]

HELLO! No need to smirk at the Swedish Studbook… haha…we actually have quite a heated debate right now about that. There´s strong forces that means that due to the fact that there is a lot of young people competing their SWB from the start the horses don´t get to the level they could with a pro, hence bad stats.

My view is that you all should take your coaches and come to Sweden in the summer to Falsterbo. Theres about 400 young horses (5-6 yo mostly) , most of them SWB but some invited DWB too, competing at 1,20-1,45 level depending on age and there´s a lot of gems and some of them for sale…

#42

[QUOTE=barnbum81;5261103]
Thanks for showing up Arrie!! Wow I think I’m going to go shack up with our old family friends back in our old home town in Bad Kissingen and get into the import business. Are people really not aware they are getting robbed blind by agents etc. or do they not care and rather like the status that comes with saying they paid X amount of dollars for their imports? I wish I had that money to waste.[/QUOTE]

Hi,

I think part of it is the ease. It is much easier to go to a big name barn and pay more than to go to someone smaller and pay less. And, it also has to do with status.
I also wish I had that kind of money to waste. :slight_smile:

#43

Ha, true though, there are some very well bred Swedish horses.

My view is that you all should take your coaches and come to Sweden in the summer to Falsterbo. Theres about 400 young horses (5-6 yo mostly) , most of them SWB but some invited DWB too, competing at 1,20-1,45 level depending on age and there´s a lot of gems and some of them for sale…

Ah, but that is another problem. The coaches. I have seen this happen as well, more than once, student comes with coach. Student likes horse. Coach tells commissioner, “I will let her buy that horse, but… only if you give me 10000 as well”. Another way students end up with less nice horses than they could have as the more fingers are in the 100000 dollar pie, the less remains to actually buy a horse.
That, in my eye, is rather sad.

BTW, I would love to come to Falsterbo.

#44

Just to point that the height of a course is not telling enough.
You can have 1m50 courses that require a lot more qualities from the horse to clear than some other “same height” courses that will be at the reach of more average horses.
Therefore height is not at all indicative of the horse quality, hence very different selling price.
We need to recognize that so many different parameters are going to drive the price of a horse that it is impossible to compare prices over the internet, if you want to compare horses you need to sit on them and test drive, have the PPE, know the breeding if it’s a mare or an entire, assess the “beauty”, his color of coat, his height, and on and on…
So, at the end of the day the horse will have a different value depending on what interest more the different buyers.

#45

I imported a Selle Francais gelding in the early 80s. While this was a long time ago, the experience was memorable and both fun and very stressful.

I went to a large breeding farm in Normandy. I was looking for a 2-3 yr old gelding, started or not. We literally drove into a field in the breeder’s very fancy car (this particular farm owner was dressed in a 3 piece tweed suit!) and there were dozens of horses to see. I picked out a few that I saw to watch go.

I must have looked at a bunch of young horses, but truthfully only remember the one that I bought. The cost for “Max” was $5,000.00 + 2,500.00 for the flight over to the US. He was 3 at the time, 16.2 hh, with papers.

I did not sit on him at that farm, I only saw him loose and we jumped him through a chute. He was great- jumped well, very quiet, had a good mind and a lot of bone. The dealer allowed me to take him to Paris for a few weeks on trial (we were living there temporarily as my then-husband had a work obligation). I was fortunate enough to spend time with him and knew he would be easy. In fact, he came to NY in January of 1982 and in May we showed in the low hunters at Old Salem Farm and got ribbons - He went on to be a junior jumper for someone else years later. He was very brave and fun, fun, fun to ride…

I vetted him there and sent the x rays to my vet in NY. I remember going to pay for the horse and bringing along a translator and hoping I was getting the right points across.

I also arranged for the ground and air transportation and health paperwork. A bit of a challenge as my grasp of French was poor.
He was in quarantine for 3 days at Stewart’s in Newberg, NY.

I still have pictures of him - in fact one in my office of us showing at Ox Ridge. Only recently have I had another horse as easy as this one!

#46

[QUOTE=Arrie;5261153]

Ah, but that is another problem. The coaches. I have seen this happen as well, more than once, student comes with coach. Student likes horse. Coach tells commissioner, “I will let her buy that horse, but… only if you give me 10000 as well”. Another way students end up with less nice horses than they could have as the more fingers are in the 100000 dollar pie, the less remains to actually buy a horse.
That, in my eye, is rather sad.

BTW, I would love to come to Falsterbo.[/QUOTE]

Well, come without coach then!! :cool: I live about 45 minutes away and have spareroom!

Not only a US-thing though, remember selling my juniorjumper thru my coach, the family who bought her lived some 1000 miles away and wanted me to come along with the horse to give the new rider a smooth transfer. When I got there we realized that my coach charged me AND them for selling the horse in addition to their coach charging them. The father got REALLY mad and gave me the money instead… got in some trouble with my coach after that :eek: but went to work in Germany and when I came back everyone had forgotten about that!

#47

Lots of good info so far. I will tell you what my experience has been and why I generally go to Europe first.

Of course the first issue is convenience. I can spend a weekend in Europe and see as many nice horses as I have the desire to ride, and they will mostly all be suitable.

Which brings me to my next (and possibly most important) point. A four year old WB over the pond is going to be RIDEABLE. You can get on them, put your leg on and they know what you are “saying.” They have a good dressage foundation on them, and a good work ethic. You point them at a jump… they go from point A to point B without a fuss. They have been places and done things. They are a lot further along than most US bred horses of a similar age.

This, to me, is priceless.

Add all this to the fact that they are also usually less expensive (of course depending on the exchange rate) and it just makes more sense to buy abroad a lot of the time.

I am not saying there aren’t great US breeders; there ARE. But, despite recent efforts to create “buying opportunities” with multiple breeders/shows… it is MUCH harder to see a similar number of high quality prospects in a weekend over here.

And I have found that the ones I do see, are not nearly as far along as their European counterparts. They tend to be really green. And not particularly accustomed to regular work. And that can really be a PITA to deal with.

I know this will elicit howls of protest from all those who say that you will ruin a horse by starting it at that age, blah blah blah. I disagree, as that has not been my experience (and my oldest is still going strong in his mid-20’s with almost zero maintenance. ) But that attitude is prevalent here, and it makes those European horses a lot more attractive to someone like me. It doesn’t take long to spend $8K in board in my area (that would be 3-4 months of charges in a typical barn here in CT) so I am happy to pay for an airline ticket to bring me a horse that I can A) evaluate for the job prior to purchase and B) is rideable for me on day one.

#48

[QUOTE=andy.smaga;5258876]
I notice that almost no US buyers come to France to buy their jumpers, despite the quality of the SF.
I think it has a lot to do with the language barrier (not so many people speak English, that is the opposite with the Dutch, Belgium and even Germans)

On top of that, France can’t fight against the marketing skills of their neighbors, it has always been a negative of the country, whatever the industry you look at.

The only positive is that it helps keep the prices lower when you look for nice prospects (for example the market for 4y/o is almost dead actually, a lot of good deals are probably sitting in the farms)

I hope that next generation of breeders will be more “export” oriented and will master foreign languages, in the meantime our breeders are suffering, but they manage to keep the quality of the horses, that’s what’s important for the future.

Sorry for being out of the subject. but couldn’t resist.
(BTW I’m not a breeder, having a foal every other year, for the pleasure of watching them grow)[/QUOTE]

Can you recommend dressage breeders in France? (you can pm)

#49

YL, I’m not a dressage person and the SF is not specialized in Dressage.
The best farm for looking at dressage horses is the Haras de Hus (they have Kevin Staut as a rider for their Jumpers)
You can look at their website, some very interesting dressage bloodlines:
http://en.harasdehus.com/

#50

Haras de Hus = Poetin.

#51

[QUOTE=MintHillFarm;5261213]
I imported a Selle Francais gelding in the early 80s. While this was a long time ago, the experience was memorable and both fun and very stressful.

I went to a large breeding farm in Normandy. I was looking for a 2-3 yr old gelding, started or not. We literally drove into a field in the breeder’s very fancy car (this particular farm owner was dressed in a 3 piece tweed suit!) and there were dozens of horses to see. I picked out a few that I saw to watch go.

I must have looked at a bunch of young horses, but truthfully only remember the one that I bought. The cost for “Max” was $5,000.00 + 2,500.00 for the flight over to the US. He was 3 at the time, 16.2 hh, with papers.

I did not sit on him at that farm, I only saw him loose and we jumped him through a chute. He was great- jumped well, very quiet, had a good mind and a lot of bone. The dealer allowed me to take him to Paris for a few weeks on trial (we were living there temporarily as my then-husband had a work obligation). I was fortunate enough to spend time with him and knew he would be easy. In fact, he came to NY in January of 1982 and in May we showed in the low hunters at Old Salem Farm and got ribbons - He went on to be a junior jumper for someone else years later. He was very brave and fun, fun, fun to ride…

I vetted him there and sent the x rays to my vet in NY. I remember going to pay for the horse and bringing along a translator and hoping I was getting the right points across.

I also arranged for the ground and air transportation and health paperwork. A bit of a challenge as my grasp of French was poor.
He was in quarantine for 3 days at Stewart’s in Newberg, NY.

I still have pictures of him - in fact one in my office of us showing at Ox Ridge. Only recently have I had another horse as easy as this one![/QUOTE]

very cool!!!:slight_smile:

#52

[QUOTE=Lucassb;5261334]
Lots of good info so far. I will tell you what my experience has been and why I generally go to Europe first.

Of course the first issue is convenience. I can spend a weekend in Europe and see as many nice horses as I have the desire to ride, and they will mostly all be suitable.

Which brings me to my next (and possibly most important) point. A four year old WB over the pond is going to be RIDEABLE. You can get on them, put your leg on and they know what you are “saying.” They have a good dressage foundation on them, and a good work ethic. You point them at a jump… they go from point A to point B without a fuss. They have been places and done things. They are a lot further along than most US bred horses of a similar age.

This, to me, is priceless.

Add all this to the fact that they are also usually less expensive (of course depending on the exchange rate) and it just makes more sense to buy abroad a lot of the time.

I am not saying there aren’t great US breeders; there ARE. But, despite recent efforts to create “buying opportunities” with multiple breeders/shows… it is MUCH harder to see a similar number of high quality prospects in a weekend over here.

And I have found that the ones I do see, are not nearly as far along as their European counterparts. They tend to be really green. And not particularly accustomed to regular work. And that can really be a PITA to deal with.

I know this will elicit howls of protest from all those who say that you will ruin a horse by starting it at that age, blah blah blah. I disagree, as that has not been my experience (and my oldest is still going strong in his mid-20’s with almost zero maintenance. ) But that attitude is prevalent here, and it makes those European horses a lot more attractive to someone like me. It doesn’t take long to spend $8K in board in my area (that would be 3-4 months of charges in a typical barn here in CT) so I am happy to pay for an airline ticket to bring me a horse that I can A) evaluate for the job prior to purchase and B) is rideable for me on day one.[/QUOTE]

So true! I found this out in reverse as I learned to ride in Germany then moved to the states and the horses here had no clue what I was asking of them. I think the absolute most valuable part of getting an import is the training they get before being imported!

#53

[QUOTE=barnbum81;5261405]
very cool!!!:)[/QUOTE]

Thank you! His show name was fitting too, Atlantic Crossing.

#54

[QUOTE=MintHillFarm;5261431]
Thank you! His show name was fitting too, Atlantic Crossing.[/QUOTE]

Love it! :yes:

#55

Importing horses from Europe - CEM Facilities

Does anyone know if there is a CEM Quarantine Facility in Southern California - Los Angeles or San Diego area?

#56

I’m curious about one of the questions that the OP asked: how much does it cost to board a horse in Europe? Let’s say field board for a youngster, but also stall board at a facility with a riding ring and trainer?

I’m interested in Germany in particular, but would appreciate hearing about other countries as well.

#57

For France

Field board 100 - 150 euros on average per month (more closer to Paris)

Full board, with trainer etc – varies largely by region, but around 500+ for your average barn in the greater Paris area (more for closer to Paris, and some exceptional places a whole lot more), down to 250-300/350 ish in the provinces. These prices would generally be inclusive of most training.

I think Belgium is similar.

#58

I imported my jumper from Germany and it was quite an experience. We actually went and test rode about 30+ horses over a short period of time then purchased and shipped.
Depending on the age and the travel budget you have a few options. You can hire a buyer in the US who goes on frequent trips and will test ride your horses for you make selections and give you input or provide videos. Some buyers just go get one for you and bring it back ( i know a fabulous woman who does this and she always matches well, but I just couldn’t put all my eggs in one basket and decided to go too). There are people in Europe who do a similar thing and will send you videos or if you go on the trip take you to multiple stables and help with translation if you don’t speak the language (though most of the trainers speak some english). You can also go to an auction for younger horses where they are all presented early usually online and then have yourself or a buyer make bids on preselected horses. If the horses are rideable there are test rides you can sign up for at the auctions prior to them being displayed for sale. A seller will sell you any age of horse, but I don’t know the rules for flying very young horses over or how long they stay in quarantine.
Quarantine in the US happens in LA and New York so depending on where you are and where your horse is coming from you can pick one of those locations. Duration of stay depends on sex (ie. geldings stay for the shortest amt of time then mares and then stallions stay the longest because of breeding possibilities)… if you are planning to have a stallion from Europe gelded get it done there so they aren’t sitting forever in quarantine.
Another thing to take in to consideration is insurance… it is super hard to get insurance for a horse out of the country, but well worth the $ and hassle of finding someone who will insure them. My plan covered return shipping due to illness at quarantine and fatality in flight (they will not chance it and euthanize a horse if tranquilizers fail to rest it en route).
Very exciting and wee bit stressful experience, but can be worth it! My suggestions are going and talking to an import barn about the whole process it will give you a good perspective on the European markets and when is the best time to buy and they have a lot of great contacts over seas most of the time so you aren’t just trying to wander through every backyard in Europe in a little rental car with some Dutch version of mapquest as your only guide.

#59

I just got back last week from my trip over there, it was so amazing! I can’t even stop saying how amazing it was! Were currently working out the details of the horse we like.

It was such an amazing experience, I look forward to going back again next year. We went without an agent and it was such a good time. Yes riding about 40 horses was a lot to do in 10 days, but I really got to pick and choose in the end which one I wanted. And the amount I learned from riding all those horses, talking to trainers, breeders and owners was amazing, something I would never be able to learn here. I definitely would have not been able to have such a learning experience if we were working through an agent. I was even asked to catch ride a horse in a show. We made several really good contacts over there so if we ever need to find another horse we have plenty available to us. It was just great.

I am so excited the horse vets some time next week!

Ahh the trip was just so amazing, I would definitely recommend doing the trip. I really cannot wait to go back again! :smiley:

#60

That sounds like soo much fun! I’m jealous. How did you find the farms that you visited and was there a huge language barrier? (sorry for thread hijack)

Get your Digital Subscription here - only $29.99 / year

Subscribe here
See gift options

Sign up to our monthly newsletter!

By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You may also receive promotional emails from The Chronicle of the Horse. You can opt out at any time.

Copyright © 2023 The Chronicle of the Horse