MOVING horses between Ireland and Britain looks likely to become easier in the future following news of two diplomatic breakthroughs this week.

Britain’s departure from the European Union in 2020 led to a significant increase in paperwork and costs associated with importing and exporting horses between Britain and the EU, even if the horses were only travelling temporarily for races, breeding or sales.

Transporters have had to ensure they had health certificates for travelling horses, which involves having blood tests taken and getting veterinary sign-off. For several years British horse owners had to pay a temporary bond if sending horses to Ireland for racing or breeding, which was refundable once the horse returned home.

Political lobbying from racing and breeding groups on both sides of the Irish Sea saw many of these barriers lifted or eased, but the administration process remains complicated and costly.

A leading transporter told The Irish Field this week that post-Brexit health checks have added, on average, €250 to the cost of sending a horse from Ireland to Britain, and €400 to the cost of moving a horse from Britain to Ireland.

But this week Britain and the European Union agreed a deal to “reset” relations between the two parties. If signed and fully implemented, it would reduce paperwork and ease checks on good moving between Britain and EU countries.

Separately, the British Horseracing Authority announced that as a result of lobbying by British racing, the British Government has announced changes to the Temporary Admissions (TA) procedure that will be beneficial to British racing and breeding. TA allows certain goods, including racehorses, to be imported into the UK temporarily without payment of customs duty and import VAT.

According to the BHA, the British Government will implement new guidelines by this summer which “will help to ensure the importation of racehorses remains cheaper and streamlined, and clarifies that customs duty and import VAT do not have to be paid on them.”

Horse Shuttle

However, Paul Murphy of Horse Shuttle – who has built a business around the import/export paperwork - does not expect to see things change soon.

Son of the late Ferdy Murphy, Paul employs eight people in Horse Shuttle which has offices in Waterford, Northumberland and Calais. Horse Shuttle looked after the paperwork for over 200 Irish runners at Cheltenham this year.

“Obviously it would be good for racing if the health checks were no longer required, even though it would greatly reduce our workload,” he said.

“But there will always be customs and a lot of work required to implement on the ground any agreements made in London or Brussels. All the current systems will have to be unravelled and new computer systems put in place. In my experience these things don’t happen overnight.”

Murphy says the current system is complicated. Speaking from Doncaster Sales, he cited an example of an Irish client who had just paid £10,000 for a gelding being sold by a leading British trainer. The horse was bred in the EU and would now be re-entering the EU when he comes to Ireland.

“This means there is 13% VAT payable plus 11% duty, so the £10,000 horse is now £12,250. We’ll have to see if these things change but I think customs paperwork will always have to be done.

“It’s even worse on the French side. The vets there recently went on strike and that held up a lot of horse trucks.

“It even affects ponies going to compete in Europe. Last week we did the paperwork for a team of ponies and the health checks added £400 extra per pony to the transport cost.”