Anyone with experience shipping horses from mainland to Hawaii? Or horses in Hawaii experience generally? (Hilo: 2009)

[SagDreamer]

Aloha,
We are planning to relocate our farm from Idaho to the Big Island sometime this year. Although I have about 25 horses now I realize they can't all make the trip. If anyone has experience shipping horses from the mainland to Hawaii I would love to hear about it. Cost, regulations, transport companies, ease of doing it, etc. Is the Big Island (Hilo side) a horse friendly area? Are there veterinarians, riding trails, etc?
Mahalo.

[mdand3boys]

I am not sure that I would even want to know the cost to ship a horse, let alone, a bunch of them. (tell me anyway)


You may want to call the Hawaii Dept of Ag.

Hawaii Dept of Ag

From the web site:
Importing Horses to Hawaii
Horses and other equidae must meet the following requirements:

Originate in an area or county in which equine encephalomyelitis has not occurred in the six month period prior to shipment.
Vaccinated with a USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service approved equine encephalomyelitis vaccine recommended in the area of origin, no less than 15 days before shipment.
Sponged or sprayed with a USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service approved pesticide within seven days.
Include a Statement-Free of external parasites.
Tested for Equine Infectious Anemia (EIA) by an USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service approved laboratory within 90 days of shipment.
Importer required to have imported horse retested for EIA 45 - 60 days after entry
.
.

Keep us all posted. This should be interesting and could become one of the longest running threads on the Hawaii forums by the time you get all the forms done, vet care, shipping...

[SagDreamer]

Thank you for the link. I hope this isn't the longest thread by the time we get there, but if looking at the dog requirements (we have 6 Komondors to bring too) are any clue it might be. So far it's looking like $3500+ per horse to fly or $1000 per horse to ship by boat. If anyone has experience shipping by boat I would love to hear about it. We also would like to bring our Jersey milk cow and maybe some sheep and airfare is prohibitively expensive. My husband is a pilot, maybe it would be cheaper for us to charter a plane and have him fly us all over....

[whynot?]

A quick forum/thread search revealed this thread that started in November, 2007. (The most recent posts were in March 2009.) Two locals have/had experience and knowledge of equine transport to the islands. The idea of contacting Hawaiian breeders/trainers who ship to the mainland is a good one, too.

Check out the thread, then you might want to DM the local posters to see if they can help with your particular situation. I haven't seen recent posts from either of them, but a DM might work. Here's the thread: http://www.city-data.com/forum/hawai...ng-horses.html

Best of luck.

[hotzcatz]

If you are going to ship all these critters, can any of them be bred first to expand the available genetics once they get here? My neighbors have a brown milk cow, it is either a Swiss or Jersey, I think. I can't tell them apart very well. Dark brown cow, lighter brown on the edges with a lighter colored nose. Friendly cow, likes to be scratched. Anyway, once you get here there are fairly limited genetics so folks are always looking to find a new genetic line.

[SagDreamer]

Hotcatz, that is a great idea and one I was already exploring. I am going to bring my sporthorse stallion and a mare or two to help with horse genetics (which seems limited to Arabs and Quarter Horses) and I really want to bring at least one cow who I would try to have bred before I came. The cow you described of your neighbor's sounds like a Jersey. Is it smaller? I also have a Brown Swiss cow but they are very large and not as friendly. I also have a Jersey bull calf. If the dairy genetics are very limited maybe it woudl be a good idea to plan to bring him too. A review of Craigslist didn't show much in the way of milk cows or raw milk so I figured the genetics were limited. Do you know if there a market for raw milk or home milk cows?