airfare for horses ?

[Blue feather]

I'm considering shipping a horse to Ecuador. Does anyone have any idea what the cost may be?

[Jessi P]

I think the place to call would be Fed Ex. I have heard of them shipping horses to other countries. I believe they go by the "box."

[madelyn]

Probably $4-5K.

[Ann]

We have been using Mersant International to ship horses to the Middle East and they do an excellant job. They fly just about everywhere in the world and I'm sure they'd give you a quote. There is a bit of a break if you use a whole flat, which consists of 3 horses. The main office number is; 718-978-8200. The gentleman who's handled business there for us is, Joe Santarelli. Hope this helps some.

[casallc]

Just depends upon how many seats they take up.

[TrueColours]

Where are you located?

I am shipping horses to Europe and the UK now and the cost for their 1/3 pallet is in the $4000.00 - $4500.00 range

When I brought Whatever in from Auckland, NZ to Toronto, Ontario Canada she ran just over $10,000.00 and that was 2 1/2 years ago

I have a lady in Australia that is interested in one of my mares and possibly one of my foals as well and we havent gotten pricing from here to Australia yet.

You might find your best and cheapest option is to find flight costs from both Miami and Los Angeles and arrange to truck them down to those points. THAT would open up a lot more options for you

My background is freight and logistics and we used to ship the Canadian Equestrian Team driving horses to competitions around the world, so this is pretty familiar territory for me ...

[majxmom]

I have used Airequine.net, who sends the horses Fedex. I don't know if they go to Ecuador, but they are easy to talk to, just check their website. I'm not sure that you can use Fedex directly without using an agent. If you go on the Fedex website and look at their "Live animals" page, they say that they reserve the right not to ship you if they do not believe that you are capable of the requirements, or something like that. So they want to deal with known agents. You can pick up and drop off at the airport yourself, or they will arrange it if you want.

The "stalls" are mounted on a standard airline pallet. Three stalls can be on a pallet, so it is economical if you can send three horses, but sometimes for valuable horses, a trainer may arrange for a double or triple stall. Then you would pay 2x or 3x. Airequine has attendents with the horses at all times, hay and water. On a 3x pallet, they don't have more than standing room, but they are comfortable and have the other horses to steady them. The top is soft-sided, like a Coverall. The horses could not see to leap out, as the ramp was in front of them.

The Fedex people were very professional and really concerned about the horses' welfare. They tried hard to put us in a quiet area to load, but it was garbage pickup day, and dumpsters are banging all over. They have the capability to put the pallet on a scissor jack and push it right against your trailer, so the horses just walk forward into your trailer without unloading and reloading, but the Airequine girls were good judges of horse character, so we unloaded and reloaded right in the Fedex yard.

Airequine charged me about $3500 to fly from Newark to Oakland, but I was patient about making up the third horse. If I had been entered for Saturday and it was a "must go" situation, I'm sure it would have been more.

Airequine was very excellent about communication during the transport, and they bill you. I guess the communication wasn't that great between when I placed the order and when they called me to tell me the flight was on, but I suppose there was really nothing to say. The girls that handle the horses were very competant. I think your own groom can also go along. I'd definitely use them again.

[KamiBrooks]

I priced FedEx on a must go soon situation and it was $9k coast to coast. So it seems like flexibility and lead time must save you about 50%