Nope, no quarantine. I imported a horse from Canada last year and (after completing the required paperwork) they put him on the trailer and unloaded him at my barn. I used a hauler with lots of experience crossing from Canada to the US. It was a very smooth ride for everyone.
I’ll have to check it out! Europe or Canada has always been the top ideas for me. I have a friend who lives in Canada that has already said we can stay in his house if we ever go up. (I do an online equine program through University of Guelph, so we were maybe thinking of planning a trip to go see the college).
I’m assuming, like going to Europe, an agent is probably going to be needed? I guess that’s where the next problem will come in. No one around here buys from Canada. Most of the horses that are imported come from Ireland or the Netherlands, so I doubt any of my trainer friends will really know of anything up there or anyone.
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I’m in the Atlantic provinces - Nova Scotia - and I’d highly recommend looking up here for something. Smaller market than more central provinces like Ontario, but a high concentration of successful breeders, and some very solid trainers who definitely have experience with clients shopping from the US. Plus, the exchange rate is very much on your side.
If interested in going that route, a few places I’d recommend checking out -
https://www.restlesspines.com/
And for a breeder directory - https://www.facebook.com/eastcoastwarmbloods/
If you’re going to Ocala, definitely check out some of the eventers. Same as with the h/j they dont want to ship sales horses home. Being in south georgia may also want to check out Aiken or Southern Pines. Courtney Cooper does a ton of event horse sales and is really good at knowing what they can do.
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Darn, my friends place I believe is somewhere in Toronto… Looks like that’s not a trip I could do by drive necessarily. Do you happen to know of anyone in the Toronto region? Ideally, I’d probably do a week trip and maybe fly/drive to other places if it’s worth it.
I’ll keep that in mind! Ocala is about a 6-7 hour drive from my current place. I just want to try and line up as many as I can to make the trip worth while.
That’s patently untrue. Once a horse lands stateside, a premium is added because there are people who feel more comfortable buying domestic, being able to sit on one, etc. If you bring that horse to WEF or Ocala or another major show circuit and give it some miles and a decent record, add another premium. Buying that same horse in Europe, even with import costs, can be a difference of tens of thousands of dollars. You can have a more modest budget and shop in Europe and get more for your money, with the risks of the importing process, the time it takes to Americanize a horse, etc.
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I don’t personally know anyone out of Toronto for H/J connections. If you have a friend there perhaps they could help you out?
Please feel free to PM if you’d like any more info about the east coast, though. Besides some great horse shopping, it’s also a super place to visit.
Sadly none of my friends buy from Canada. They all have great connections in Ireland and Holland, so they usually only buy from there. I’ll have to start seeing what I can find. BigEq didn’t offer many horses to reach out to, so I’ll have to dig around.
And I’ll reach out to you about the East Coast soon! If I’m going for a longer trip, might as well turn it into a family trip as well and have some fun.
I find this to be true the more I look and the more I buy. I would love to be able to drive a few hours and try things, but it’s becoming harder and harder.
My personal view has always been that if you have to make the trip to Europe to find one, the costs of the trip are likely to eat into a lot of your savings. The people who get the most value/savings are the ones who do import off of a video through trusted contacts. It is not without risk, as anyone who read the recent nightmare thread is aware, and it works best for people who are able to ride a variety of types. It sounds like you are trying to do a lot of this on your own, and I think that would be very difficult. The people importing works best for are the ones with trainers who do it regularly, and who have contacts across the pond who they can trust to tell them if a horse is the type they are looking for AND who has a network to resell it or the relationship to trade it for another one if it shows up and is a disastrous match.
Canada is a much easier option, although you’ll still have to fly up there, the import costs are significantly lower. There are FB groups like Ontario Show Horses for Sale, if it is still active. And having a trainer or agent will facilitate the process, as I think it is tough for a selling barn to get a call from a random amateur from the US who wants to show up and try horses! Fair or not, it makes people nervous.
Horse prices, and particularly hunter prices, are definitely high right now. I second the suggestion to try some of the eventing sales barns - Courtney Cooper and Pippa Moon both come to mind. Also, there is a FB group fo r2020 Ocala and Wellington Horses for Consideration, it wouldn’t hurt to post an ISO ad there for what you are looking for and your general budget range, you might be surprised. I saw someone post a nice WB mare for $35k, with a local show record but not a USEF one.
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Except for crossing a border to visit and import, shopping in Canada should not be any more complicated than in the USA. The overall population and market for everything is much smaller than the USA and the show horse world is centered in the population center of Southern Ontario.
On the other hand many breeders are located in very rural areas on the prairies.
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i doubt there is anything like an agent operating on Canada. I would suggest doing the same research on breeders and show barns as in the US. Equine Canada has searchable databases for show results and coaching credentials.
If you line up places in Southern Ontario you probably could fly into Toronto and rent a car for a week. I would expect Toronto to have the most and cheapest tickets, and you are within 8 hours drive of all the populated areas of Southern Ontario.
I think you might need Coggins to enter the US from Canada, as it isn’t a thing in many parts of Canada. People cross the border all the time to compete and Canadians will buy horses in the USA as well. If you deal with a knowledgeable shipper they can tell you what paperwork you need
I could be wrong but your posts make it sound like you are fixating on some relatively insignificant expenses (like a few nights in a hotel or Airbnb), while contemplating the purchase of a mid-five-figure animal, potentially $10k in import costs, and all the ongoing expenses that go along with keeping and showing said animal. If you’re looking to spend that much money on a horse, I think you just have to accept that you will incur some additional logistical costs in the search process that will be dwarfed by the purchase, the PPE, the import, and the ongoing expenses.
That said, you can absolutely minimize some of those travel expenses if you’re smart about it. To get an idea of how much it costs to travel in different places, search some general travel information sites. They will often give you some idea of daily cost of living for travelers. Two examples, for Germany: https://www.lonelyplanet.com/germany/money-costs and https://www.budgetyourtrip.com/germany. I wouldn’t necessarily hang my hat on those estimates but they can tell you where is likely to be more or less expensive.
Also plan on eating in restaurants as little as possible because that really, really adds up when you’re traveling. Hit the grocery store instead.
Airbnbs can be a LOT less expensive than hotels in some areas.
For flights, I like Kayak.com. If you have flexibility in when you’re traveling, you can enter a range of acceptable dates or even look at a whole month at a time to see when would be least expensive.
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I’m in Toronto. Feel free to PM me. 
If you decide to shop in Canada, find a trainer who has some sale horses you would be interested in. They will most likely know of others in the area and be willing to help you put some things together or offer suggestions to make it worth your while to make the trip. Look at trainers who regularly show on the Trillium circuit up there, and get some suggestions from COTH’ers, and search for some of the old threads on shopping in Canada, and that should give you some leads.
Have not done this but am somewhat interested in a horse in Europe. So COST OF THE TRIP depends on where you live and where you are going. Also are you going alone or also paying for a trainer/other second set of eyes.
So right now I can get a plane ticket to Spain from Orlando for something in neighborhood of $700 round trip, and where I would be going, hotel/lodging of decent quality for maybe $75/night. I would probably need transportation - ie rental car. I would certainly need to eat (and drink!). I would say 3-4 nights. so…$1000 for travel/lodging, maybe $50 or so for food/day, ($200) maybe $150 for rental car, maybe $200 for other misc stuff (gas, etc). Total for me around $1500. If I paid to bring trainer, that would bring me to maybe $3,000.
In the whole scheme of the process, this is not huge. When I look at horse cost, plus import costs, plus prepurchase costs, you can still probably do better by going there. (And I might add, its not hard to run thru $3k if you do a couple trips w/in US and/or Canada that require getting on a plane. )
BUT as mentioned above, there are risks. I tried a PRE nearby the other day - owner talked about the fact that she had him gelded before import ($); that creates a 4 week delay before they can be shipped. She paid to leave him at clinic ($) during that time so he wasn’t possibly exposed to PIRO after already testing negative. He then had to go to Amsterdam and sit around for a while before shipped to Miami. Lots of opportunity for horse to get stressed, catch a bug, get hurt, and so on. The PPE thing to me is scary - even with contacts, you dont really know how good the vet is, who he/she is really working for, what their standards are for sound/not sound.
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I have bought my last two young horses off of videos from Europe (using an English agent representing German breeders.) My approach is to buy horses that are nice enough quality / breeding that I can at least get my money out of them in a resale situation if somehow they turn up and don’t suit me. (I’m an amateur, there is always a risk they won’t be my ride.) However, both these horses were very fairly represented, reasonably priced and the agent - Amy at Supreme Sport Horses - has always been fantastic to deal with. I’ve recommended her to a number of friends and they have also been pleased. She has a pretty high volume business and has an excellent reputation.
I used to go to Europe and it is definitely fun to get to see and sit on so many great quality horses in a short period of time. However, as you note, it is also rather expensive and a bit time consuming. I fly enough for work that I can usually get the flight for free using miles, ditto for the hotels at least in major cities. But for me the time factor is a challenge. I do write a contract that covers contingencies and I make sure that I get insurance that covers any incidents that may occur in transit/quarantine.
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I’ll also throw out South America as an option. When we bring clients - we usually see 100+ horses in a week. We don’t charge any extra for arranging everything- you are responsible for your flights and expenses but we do try to minimize costs (we’ll arrange Airbnb and everyone shares cost of van rental). It’s a great way to see LOTS of horses and prices are great there. This is an article about the last trip: https://outsiderein.com/the-ultimate-travel-souvenir-a-horse/
In Canada you will have to pay sales tax if you don’t during the sale and its discovered on crossing. Just a beware.
I bought a horse off video from Europe and all the stars aligned, but I would not recommend it unless you have a very reliable source or are willing to sell the horse if its not a good fit and may lose money. I bought a 4 year old, so he was pretty untested but has the most amazing brain and is extremely well bred.
We just bought a horse for my daughter from Argentina–our trainer has a lot of connections down there and there are some very nice horses. We sent the trainer to find one on her own. Lovely horse, but import (to Oregon from Argentina) was twice what it cost to get my horse from Holland.
If you are mid five figures spend the 5k to go over and try horses in Europe. I love my horse, but I also feel like I got very lucky with who I bought him from, she actually ended up flying out with him and taking an American holiday. She has a 5 yo if you want to pm me
Also I concur with looking at Canada–great horses and a strong dollar.
The flight is the least expensive thing about the whole operation. Just pick the cheapest flight on the cheapest day to any airport in Europe. Frankfurt, London, Paris, Amsterdam. Then rent a car or fly closer to where you want to try the horses. Stay in super cheap bb type places. I’ve done 3 weeks in europe for less than 2k including flights.
