Brexit - Calculating the costs to competitors and horse welfare.
A six year old competing in Young Horse Classes in Peelbergen, Holland
There are a considerable number of show jumpers based in the UK who choose to compete in Europe for a number of reasons. Not least of the reasons for all these riders is that the shows in Europe are generally very nice and plentiful - there is not much of a problem getting into them. They offer very well built courses, very good surfaces, great competition and, when there is no COVID, a nice amount of socialising.
Obviously there are a number of elite riders of various nationalities based in the UK who are genuinely gearing up for team selection, and who pull in big prize money at CSI4* and CSI5* shows, the Global Champions Tour and Nations Cups and Championships.
The next group probably are large producing and dealing yards, run by riders who are themselves jumping at Nations Cup levels and producing horses to Grand Prix level. These riders take a considerable number of young horses and pupils with them to the shows. For this group the shows not only provide considerable income through prize money, but also are excellent networking and marketing opportunities for selling both young horses and established horses. Horses are seen competing in their peer groups and the sales opportunities are genuinely there. Having pupils competing successfully at these shows also markets their training skills and keeps this part of the business healthy too.
Then come a very large group of smaller producing yards. Talented riders who are constantly producing nice horses to CSI2* Grand Prix level or higher, and always have a bunch of nice young horses coming through the ranks. Every horse is for sale, and producing the horses at shows in Europe not only provides the best marketing opportunities, but also is a very good, tried and tested way of educating horses for a future in international sport.
Lastly come a large group of amateur riders. Many of these are pupils of the above groups, all have nice horses and some are learning their trade with a view to making show jumping their career, and many are there to have a very nice time jumping at very nice shows. These riders are a hugely valued group in the industry, they provide a huge market for well produced horses who have already proved their worth by jumping successfully at international shows. These horses may not be the next Olympic superstar, but a lovely, well produced horse who knows his job and is relaxed in the atmosphere and over the courses at busy international shows is worth a good price to somebody who has worked hard to earn the money to enjoy competing at very nice shows. These horses really are the bread and butter of our sport. They represent a large number of horses in Europe and further afield showcasing not only the talents and hard work of our producers, but in many cases British breeding as well. There are so many reasons why we cannot afford to lose this market.
Up until Brexit large numbers of lorries left the UK every Tuesday or Wednesday for shows in France, Belgium, Holland and Germany, either for one or two shows returning on a Sunday night. Logistically it was pretty simple: enter the show through your national federation, perhaps also email the show to let them know you’d like to come, engage a shipping company to book the ferry or train, and organise your health papers, get a green card from the insurance company, organise the vet to do your health papers, pack up the lorry and leave at the crack of dawn, about 4am from Sussex. At Dover all was pretty simple, a bit of a wait, onto the ferry, one and half hours trip and you’d easily be unpacking your lorry in Lier or Peelbergen by 2pm, this was still a fairly long day, especially for young horses who would have been on the lorry for about 9 hours. From an admin point of view you were actually supposed to have a DEFRA check on your lorry and to hold a Type 2 Transporter Certificate - neither of which were ever checked.
I have a 12 ton lorry so my costs would be a little bit less than bigger lorries, but basically the ferry fare was £195 each way, and £500 each way for the Eurotunnel, shipping fees were approximately £95 per trip and the vets charged approximately £70 per horse for heath papers.
Nobody could say they didn’t know Brexit was coming, but it was a long time coming, and I think we presumed that consultation with vets, governing bodies and government departments over a period of four years would result in a sensible and workable system. From the Autumn we were advised by British Showjumping not to plan to travel in January to allow for the new system to settle in, whatever that might be. However, in December rumours that Eurotunnel were raising their prices exponentially started, followed by a series of updates from the shippers Shelley Ashman on the new requirements, which were basically that all paperwork would need to be duplicated in the UK and the EU. All drivers would now need to have a Type 2 Transporter Certificate in the UK, and in the EU, which had to be taken in the EU, and that lorries would have to be inspected as fit to transport horses in both the UK and the EU. Before Christmas there was no way of taking the Type 2 in the UK, but Gills in Ireland and other transporters were quick to this party and have run zoom courses at 195 Euros per person. Take up of these courses has been well into the thousands which is a measure of how many people are affected by this. I have now had my lorry inspected in the UK at a cost of £380, lorries now need lashing points every 3m, thermometers with 24 hour downloadable readings, and in some cases downloadable sat navs too, these minor upgrades were a further £400. My lorry is now ready to be booked in for a European Inspection at European Horse Services in Ostend, so two empty ferry journeys at £200 each, an inspection cost of E150 and a E500 annual contract with EHS to act as my EU agent. We also need a Carnet for the horses which is approximately £800 per annum.
The further costs are as follows: on top of the ferry fare:
Dover customs check per truck E135
BCP (Customs) per horse E140
DCSE (inspection number) per horse E30
Vets per horse E32
A total cost of E202 per horse and E135 for the truck.
At weekends these costs will be x 2, and on bank holidays x 2.25.
On top of the Eurotunnel fare:
Customs check per truck E135
Eurotunnel surcharge per truck E490
BCP per horse (charged by Eurotunnel) E325
DSCE per horse E30
Vets per horse E31
A total cost of E386 per horse and E625 per truck
At weekends these costs will be x 2 and on bank holidays x 2.25.
On reaching Calais there is a vet check:
veterinary entry per horse E50
Writing or updating DSCE per horse E30
Health Port Charges per horse E50
Customs per horse E30.49
Total of E160.49 per horse
No extra charges for weekends and bank holidays.
For me with three horses on the ferry this would raise the charge, on top of the £200 ferry fare, by £1,070.76 (at today’s exchange rate) to £1,270.76. A 535% rise. On the train on top of the fare of £500 the rise would be £1,983.45 making a total of £2,483.45 which is a 396% rise. There is also the annual fee of E500 to European Horse Services to act as your agent in the EU and an annual Carnet charge of £800.
The vets and shipping agents that I have spoken to are also raising their admin charges in line with the hugely increased amount of work. The only vets that I have an interim price from have raised their price for the health papers by 75%, and there will be blood tests incurring both vet charges and lab charges on top of this.
Obviously these charges affect all groups, but it is the bottom two groups that are most at risk. Can producers selling horses for under £100,000 really afford such incredibly expensive marketing campaigns, and how many of those hard working amateur riders be forced to draw a line in the sand when such a valued part of their leisure time becomes so expensive.
Perhaps the most important effect of this increased admin are the animal welfare issues. As written above a 2020 journey to a show in Northern Europe meant horses spent about 9 hours on the lorry. On a trip to Spain or Portugal mostly we would try to leave early and arrive mid-afternoon at stop overs so that the horses get time to rest, get their heads down, rehydrate properly, etc. and so that we have time to observe them in daylight hours. COVID isn’t a major issue with this, but is necessitating approximately one hour at Clacket Lane for a test. But the two customs checks are approximately one hour each and the reports are that horses are standing at the vet check at Calais for anything between two and nine hours. Due to COVID the ports are abnormally quiet, and on a busy day are processing approximately 10 lorries per day. So a journey that previously took nine hours door to door could now take 21 hours - only four hours of that would be actual driving. This is absolutely unacceptable to anybody involved with any type of animal transport. If this system is allowed to continue competition horses, breeding stock and race horses are going to be subjected to journeys that are far beyond acceptable levels of time and stress. Unless these issues are resolved we are going to see some very distressing incidents involving horses at these border in the summer.
Top competition horses are managed with utmost attention to detail for their physical and mental welfare. It is unacceptable that politics should impact on this welfare. Equestrianism is an industry that provides many jobs and a good slice of revenue to the government. It is also unacceptable that those who are ambitious and hardworking and aspire to progress to high levels in their sport and to earn a good living from it should be subjected to what amounts to approximately a 700% rise in the costs of travelling to their place of work.