PLEASE NOTE: 2024 UPDATES IN TEXT IN BOLD & AT BOTTOM!!

I have done it before and I have now done it post Brexit – and the halcyon days of flitting gaily in and out of Europe with horses are now gone. Grit your teeth and be prepared to battle with reams of paperwork! 

The worse thing about taking one’s horses to Europe these post brexit days is not the paperwork involved, which it is possible to slog through, but finding the information about which paperwork is needed!

In retrospect, I fucked up, chickened out and finally used an agent for the outward journey partially because I was given incorrect information by an official body and partially due to the actual difficulty attaining information about the process. It appeared I needed an agent to apply for certain papers which I have since learnt was wrong in one respect but right in another!

So on the outward bound part of our recent trip to Europe (in this case France) we did use an agent but we did organise the return section ourselves quite easily.

On the next trip I would be tempted to muddle through myself, solely due to the costs involved, and although all the form filling might have me pulling my hair out, I believe it is quite possible. The horse transport agencies would like everyone to think otherwise but their office staff can be no more intelligent than the rest of us! 

My husband and I were taking our horses to the Pyrenees for a riding holiday. We had already done 13 trips there pre-Brexit, this was our first post Brexit. Just to make things even more complicated, we took (some of) our cats with us! 

The following information may be useful to someone wishing to do a similar trip.  I have focused on France as that was where we were going.

One word of wisdom: Google translate is your friend: everything is possible! 

Some Things to Note

Transport Rules: a pain in the butt if you are a company, but they do not apply to a private individual transporting their own horses with no hire or reward involved. (Obviously if you are involved with horses as a business, it is completely different – you may find some information here). So you can carry on as normal, but keep in mind tacho usage/driver hours for hgvs if you would normally use one – and make sure the calibration is in date for the duration!

We were once pulled in at a pèage south of Toulouse and the tacho was checked, although I think ultimately they were more concerned with smuggling from Andorra. 

Truck Odds and Ends: a UK sticker must now be displayed. Trucks should have 4 lashing points for ferry travel. The lashings are unlikely to be used and the anchor stickers denoting the lashing points are not obligatory – but they look quite cool! Light beams should be adjusted – we find duct tape an easy option (remove, and clean off sticky residue on return, or you will fail the MOT!)

To add to the E. U. preoccupation with stickers, there is now an ‘angles mortes’ version which is a legal requirement for any vehicle over 3.5 tonnes – this is effectively warning people that drivers have blind spots on trucks – particularly relevant to cyclists!

It should be displayed no more than 90 cm from the front of the truck, effectively one on each door. One should also be attached to the back at no more than 90 cm in from the side. All should be between 90-150 cm from the ground. We paid £6 for 4 of them on Ebay. 

Drivers should travel with their passports and driving licences, as well as the Vehicle Registration Documents and Green Card insurance. Breakdown insurance is probably wise but beware that many policies only cover you for one recovery! If you break down in July or August you could be stuck a long time, even if you find a garage which is open! Breakdown and green card insurance for our 18 tonne truck cost £348 for 82 days with NFU. 

Tyres are expensive if you have a blow out: we usually travel with 3 spares. If you can change them yourself even better! France requires hi viz for all drivers, a first aid kit, spare light bulbs and breakdown triangle. Winter tyres or snowchains must be used or carried in certain areas between certain dates. 

Travel Restrictions on Autoroutes: HGVs are restricted from travelling in France between 2200 Saturday and 2200 hours on a Sunday and also on Public  Holidays in France which are January 1st, Easter Monday, May 1st, 8th, 9th and 20th, Bastille Day- 14th July, 15th August, 1st and 11th November and Christmas Day. Further weekend restrictions between 0700-1900 hours Saturday and 0000 hours and 2200 hours on Sunday are applied between mid -July and mid -August.

Luckily livestock carriers are exempt, as are racehorses! If you read the small print, it actually says that at least 50% of the load area should be occupied but I think it would take a very officious gendarme to enforce that one! 

Motorway Tolls: Autoroutes can be free or have tolls. On the return leg of our recent trip, I noticed that the booths are now turning contactless. As the contactless limit in France is 50 euros, that can leave you scrabbling if the charge is 77 euros – keep some cash handy just in case! This now appears to have increased: we had no trouble paying an 85 euros charge with our credit card!

Crit Air: European cities are gradually closing down to older vehicles as clear air zones are extended. Some vehicles are now totally excluded or can only enter at certain times. Make sure you apply through the official site. You will need your Vehicle Registration Document to hand and vehicle details to establish which category you come under.

If entering such a zone in France, a Crit Air sticker has to be displayed in the window. These can be bought quite cheaply for about 3 euros but allow at least 2 – 3 weeks for it to arrive before you travel.

ATA CARNETS

These were the straw that broke the camel’s back and resulted in our finally using an agent for the outbound trip. 

Naively, I had originally imagined that one would be able to buy a refundable bond on our entry to Calais to cover the value of our goods but it turned out that they were not an option in Calais and that the only viable way was to use a carnet. 

A carnet is basically a passport for goods: a customs document which allows the temporary importation of various goods into countries which are part of the ATA Carnet system. It is designed to get one through customs quickly. They could be considered good value if doing multiple trips as they are valid for a year but are expensive if one is only going to use them once. 

Issued by the London Chamber of Commerce, at the time of writing they cost £310 + Vat (£372). If you are lucky enough to be a member of the London Chamber of Commerce it is £185 + Vat (£222).  A further cost is then involved: a percentage security charge which relates to the value of the goods which are then declared on the carnet. This Carnet Security Scheme is a one off non refundable payment and doesn’t involve any bank guarantee. 

Once declared on the carnet the goods can come and go as often as wanted within a year but they cannot be altered or added to.

Unfortunately when I looked into these, I twice spoke to people at the London Chamber of Commerce who told me that I could not apply for one as a private individual, which is when I finally thought we were going to have to use an agent. 

However, THIS IS NOT TRUE – anyone can apply and pay online and the carnet will be posted out to you (just check it is stamped on the front page in the bottom right hand corner to start with).

Annoyingly I only found this out after our trip when I complained about the system to the London Chamber of Commerce and was finally able to speak to someone conversant in English who knew what they were doing!

Karen Pitfield on 0207 203 1846 is carnet supervisor and extremely helpful. She told me that I could indeed sign up for a carnet as a private individual at ecarnet.co.uk and that what I had purchased through the agent would have cost me a total of £509 – quite a big saving as the agent charged me £516 for the carnet plus a security charge of £143.

In addition, instead of opting for the lower security charge which is non refundable, I could have paid a higher amount (in my case £600) which would have been fully refunded by the London Chamber of Commerce within a month of my return, subject to all the paperwork been completed satisfactorily – this answered one of my main complaints in that one had laid out all this money but really got nothing back, not even the security charge! Obviously I can see this might not work for someone doing multiple trips on the same carnet, or those with very high value items, but for a one off trip it does allow one to claw something back, albeit for a higher initial outlay.

As for the actual goods, we had to list the two horses and everything associated with them, down to haynets and flymasks. I was told to put a reasonable value on each animal which the agent suggested be £1000. This seemed stupid to me: initially I was going to take an old horse who was basically so old as to be worthless, with another I had a receipt for the £500 we had only paid the previous autumn – but that was considered too low by the agent!

We also noted down a motorbike which traveled in the back for use at our destination, a generator, an electric fence energizer and two bicycles, all with makes and serial numbers. Every item has to have a weight too. 

Stuff for our personal use was excluded as was anything that might be partially used once there, ie. saddle soap, first aid kit or shampoo. 

It all added up to quite a list and to a price far higher than if anyone went out and bought the stuff 2nd hand! For £4,062 worth of horses, etc., the security charge came to £143 in addition to the carnet cost. 

As the agent ended up arranging the carnet, we then had to pick it up as we drove to the ferry at the Shell Services at Junction 20 of the M20 at 4 am in the morning – not the most relaxing way of getting our hands on it! 

It also had to be stamped out of England, stamped into France and the same in reverse for the return trip (see below). At no stage did anyone want to actually look at any of the items listed. 

SORTING OUT THE HORSE – UK

BHS Insurance: The BHS 3rd party insurance cover which is available with gold membership includes 90 days in Europe at no extra cost. 

Equine Passports: it simplifies paperwork and is cheaper if the horse has a passport which is recognised in Europe. BHS passports are NOT recognised so if a horse travels on one of these he is effectively unregistered. France registration is more expensive, blood tests are required to enter back into England and there are more stringent isolation rules  before exit/entry (in theory). 

Blood tests: If not staying in the EU for longer than 90 days the horse has to be tested for Equine Infectious Anemia (Coggins) within 90 days before travel (or within 30 days if going to be out there longer than 90 days) Any vet can do this. (Cost June 2022; £60 per horse plus £55 call out).  It is not required for the return trip unless the horse is unregistered in which case it is within 10 days of travel.

Veterinary Supervision

A horse is supposed to be on a holding in Great Britain for 40 days before export and then under veterinary supervision for 30 days before departure. This isn’t as onerous as it sounds: if the vet knows you he will generally know where the horse is and will probably largely take your word for it. 

Ours were elsewhere on livery so we had the Coggins test done early in the 3 month interval so that the vet had already seen the horses in advance and knew where they were. 

County Parish Holding Number (CPH). 

The address from where the horse leaves has to have one of these! It is a means of keeping track of farms and smallholdings. In effect, most places dealing in farm animals will already have one. If not it is a simple form. The number is needed when applying for the Export Health Certificate.

Government Gateway Account.

You have to sign up for this first. It will enable you to apply for the export health certificates, apply for an Economic Operators Registration and Identification number ( EORI number) and subsequently a Goods Movement Reference number and access the Import of Products, Animals, Food and Feed System (IPAFFS) –  too many acronyms here but that’s Government for you! 

Economic Operators Registration and Identification number ( EORI) 

Once you have your Government Gateway account, you can then apply for an EORI number. Even if you use an agent, you still have to do this bit yourself! It is basically used by customs to monitor and track shipments coming into and out of the European Union.

You must have an EORI number to apply for the Goods Vehicle Movement number.  Apply in plenty of time and allow for weekends – ours took about 5 days to be issued. When you look at the websites, it can appear that you only need one if you are a business but even private individuals need one as you simply cannot get the GVM number otherwise – and you won’t be allowed on the ferry without this! 

You need to have your Tax Reference Number to hand – our application was complicated by the fact that we have Isle of Man residency but there is a space to provide additional information if needed. We just said we needed one in order to get the GMR number in order to get our horses to France and it wasn’t a problem.

Goods Vehicle Movement Service (GVMS).

This is a one time generated number for the import or export of goods which allows customs to link the goods concerned directly to you and your vehicle. 

Once you have your EORI number you can apply for this (up to 28 days in advance, although you can update it after the initial application which resets it to 28 days again) . It wants such information as the crossing used, vehicle registration number and the carnet number.

This eventually generates a bar code which is shown at the check in desk, allowing you onto the ferry.  

Export Health Certificate (EHC). 

This was Number 8431 in our case which covers horses going out to Europe which aren’t destined for slaughter. The agency we employed took over for this bit but it is effectively filling in the papers online for the Animal Plant and Health Agency (APHA, formerly DEFRA). They look a complete nightmare but are actually fairly straightforward if you can work out the lingo and you can save them online and return later if you wish. There is loads of useful information on the Government website and even YouTube videos. I was fully prepared to fill it in with a APHA person on the telephone line if necessary! 

The people at APHA in Carlisle were extremely helpful and the telephone was usually answered quite promptly. 

Note unregistered horses need a government-issued supplementary travel ID from APHA which is sent to your official vet along with the EHC

Once completed online with the APHA, they check the papers and forward them on to the nominated vet. The vet then checks them and produces a draft copy. 

This will then be forwarded to you (or your agent) and this is where the fun starts as you now have to access the French side of things!

SORTING OUT THE HORSE – FRANCE

I will run through what happens in France below but here is the rub: although you can get an EU login account easily enough, you cannot progress any further: only a European agent can access the TRAces system and upload the paperwork to the SIVEP. 

So for this bit a European agent is necessary. Investigating further on my return, I approached Commis Associated Shipping Agencies in Calais who were prompt to reply, helpful and spoke perfect English. Whereas it would appear the costs of arranging the horse paperwork was roughly what I paid the English agent, there was a big difference in the cost of the SIVEP appointment. I paid £250 per horse (with the possibility of a further £50 charge if they actually unloaded them) yet the European agent only quoted me 75 Euros per horse – quite a significant saving. I haven’t gone into it, but I think it is also more expensive should you choose to travel at the weekend! 

Obviously as I didn’t use them on the way out, I would have to fine tune the details, but I imagine I would have to submit the EHC paper work to APHA in England who would forward to my vet for approval, who would then forward to me so I could forward it to the European agent so they could organise the SIVEP appointment! I would then forward the final copy to them before departure for them to upload it for the final approval. If all is well, they would then email me the final approval. 

For Reference

EU (European Union) Login Account. To start off the European sides of things, the first thing to do is to create a EU login account which requires only a name and email address. This allows access to the TRAces system where one can generate a CHED-A (see below). 

TRAces NT  (Trade Control and Export System) Where the UK uses the IPAFFS system, Europe uses TRAces NT. It is basically the digital tracking for sanitary purposes of animals, animal products and feeds which enter the EU and the application / issuing of export health certificates. 

(Unfortunately it is impossible to sign on for this from England as the ‘operator’ has to be in Europe) 

CHED-A (Common Health Entry Document) Using the TRAces system, one can then generate a CHED-A which will be sent to the border control post (BCP) before your arrival. The ‘A’ bit signifies ‘live animals’. 

Service d’Inspection Vétérinaire et Phytosanitaire (SIVEP). This is the inspection side of things in Calais and the website is actually quite clear with directions in both French and English.

Working through their website, it is then possible to reserve an inspection slot (of half an hour’s duration) in Calais – this can be done at least 4 weeks in advance. The first slots are available from 8.30 am, the last at 6pm. 

The draft copy of the EHC and owners declarations – in English and French – have to be uploaded onto TRAces NT for them to give their approval a minimum of 72 hours before travel. They then review the drafts and give approval for the certificates to go ahead if they are happy with them. 

The final EHC is then signed, stamped and dated by the vet within 24 hours of the appointment and immediately uploaded to replace the drafts on TRAces NT for their final approval. Once they are happy with this and the CHED-A, they confirm by emailing a PDF document and the ferry booking can go ahead. 

So basically they have reviewed all the documents in advance – twice – and there should be no reason for them to reject an animal at the border post.

FERRIES 

At the moment there are 3 options from Dover to Calais: DFDS, Irish Ferries and P & 0. P & O and DFDS are fairly close in price, but Irish Ferries was about £60 more. Our situation was complicated by the fact we wanted to take our cats with us. Ridiculously, there is a maximum of 5 pets per vehicle – if we wanted to take all 10, I would have to follow behind in a separate vehicle. DFDS only allowed 2 per commercial vehicle, Irish Ferries were £20 a pet and P & O £15 so it was an easy choice. (Brittany Ferries operate from Portsmouth to Caen and take horses, but bizarrely are only allowed to take pets in commercial vehicles outbound to France, not inbound to England!) 

I would probably have chosen P & O anyway: they were by far the most helpful operator I spoke to: Megan and Astrid in their office patiently put up with all my queries and were quick and efficient. Irish Ferries just told me brusquely to use an agent and DFDS were slow to respond. 

The agent I used could have booked the ferry for me, but they used Irish Ferries whom I had already decided against, plus there didn’t seem to be any advantage price wise. 

Booking is only open within 2 weeks of travel and times are flexible with tickets valid for 14 days from booking, although having the SIVEP appointment, we had a specific crossing in mind. The ferries ask that you email them within 24 hours of travel with confirmation of the SIVEP appointment so they can facilitate the crossing, plus you have to let them know (within 48 hours, but not less than 24) that you are travelling with horses and will have hazardous goods on such as hay and straw! I was told to only have sufficient hay and feed for the trip, another annoyance as previously we had taken a half tonne bag of barley with us – horse feed is more expensive in France.

As it turned out, on arrival at Dover we were told that the ferry we had intended to take was cancelled so we were delayed an hour until the next one. This made us half an hour late for our SIVEP appointment but P & O had already contacted them to say that we would be delayed and it was not a problem. 

I just bought a single outbound trip as the tickets only last two weeks once booked.  I rang up the English office from France 10 days before our intended return to book that crossing.

When you book your ferry ticket, you could ask them to email you the Export Declaration for Equidae over 147 Centimetres (14.2 hands) in Height. (EXH06) This just asks for the name and address of the exporter, where you are traveling from and to and the details of the various horses. It basically exempts private individuals from the various commercial transport rules for transporting horses.

 It is not an issue if you forget as you can just pick one up when you arrive at Dover, although you will have to visit the office, whereas if you have already competed it, it is just handed over upon check in.

If you do have to cancel for any reason, freight tickets are fully refundable.

Ferry Details

P & 0

DOVER

Tel: +44 (0)1304 864360 / 862539

Email: freightops.dover@poferries.com

CALAIS

Tel: +33 (0)321 461020

Email: freightops.calais@poferries.com

DFDS

DOVER

Tel: +44 (0) 1304 874001

Email: dover.fbookings@dfds.com

IRISH FERRIES

DOVER

Tel: +44 (0) 844 7700656;

Email: Dover.freight@irishferries.com

ON THE DAY

UK Side

With the aim of taking the 6.30 am ferry the following morning, we had arranged for the vet to visit the horses at midday on the day before to issue and sign the final EHCs. She merely scanned the microchips and we both signed the papers.

She went back to her office where the final document was sent to my agent who could then send it to their agent in France who could upload it to TRAces and send it to the SIVEP for final approval. It is also worth asking for a copy for yourself as they are retained by the SIVEP in France.

SIVEP did not actually issue us with the final clearance until about 9pm that evening which is apparently normal. A last form was issued to confirm the appointment for the following day and we could consider the trip finally on! At this stage, you or your agent can also inform the ferry that you have the final go-ahead. 

We usually find that when we travel to France with our horses in the summer that it is better to travel at night to avoid the heat, especially these days when 40° temperatures are not uncommon.

Indeed it is now illegal for commercial operators to travel any animals with vertebrae – which includes horses – between the hours of 1300 and 1800 if MeteoFrance have any red or orange alerts regarding high temperatures. There are various exceptions if the vehicle is fitted with air con or it is a veterinary matter.

For this trip we left Leicestershire at midnight to get the 6.30 am ferry at Dover. The trouble with traveling at night in England is that the motorways quite often close for maintenance: on this occasion we were lucky and only had one short detour. 

We called in to the Shell Services at Junction 11 of the M20 to pick up our carnet, which was happily correctly stamped in the lower right hand front corner. 

The next stop was customs clearance at MOTIS (2024: Now Sevington Inland Border Facility at Junction 10A of M20, see below) which is signposted as ‘freight clearance’ and ‘cruise terminal 1’ off a roundabout as you drop down the hill into Dover.  We had to go into the office to get the carnet stamped once we had signed it. At this stage, although we didn’t notice at the time and they corrected it in retrospect on the way back, they should have stamped the front bottom left corner too, as well as the inside which they did do. 

Luckily this wasn’t an issue in Calais and we were happily oblivious to it at the time, but I guess it does go to show how easily it is to make a mistake on the paperwork through no fault of one’s own, with possibly disastrous consequences! 

The carnet is taken for processing and they send you a text message when it is ready to be collected. It took about 40 minutes at 4.30 am in the morning, then we were finally able to head down to the ferry. 

This was when we found out that the 6.30 am ferry was canceled and we had been transferred to the 8am sailing. This would make us late for the SIVEP appointment but luckily P&O had already informed them and it wasn’t a problem.

The chap checked the cat paperwork (we did the scanner bit) and finally we got on the ferry for France. 

France side

We followed the orange lane to the animal clearance area where we parked next to a much more professional horsebox than ours.

We took all the paperwork into the office and signed the carnet again, and went back to the truck to wait. After about 20 minutes, we were instructed to drive into a big barn where we opened the ramp.

The chap walked up the ramp and stuck his head vaguely over the door. 

“Un,  … deux!” 

He also took a copy of the V5 truck registration and that was it, I could not believe that was what we had paid £500 for! There were lots of shiny stables there if they ever did unload a horse but they did not look overused.

Our papers were handed back to us and finally we were in France and free to go. We went down the road briefly and got the horses off for a break – the stupid thing now is that all this takes so much more time so the horses are travelling for longer and into the hotter daylight hours as the SIVEP don’t work at night. 

SIRE Numbers

Someone asked if I would ever live in France and I replied ‘No, I couldn’t cope with all the paperwork! “

The SIRE Numbers were a good example. In theory every horse that stays in France for longer than 30 days needs to be registered with the Institut Français de Cheval et de l’equitation (IFce). 

It was quite hard to work out what was actually required from their website, but as one of our main stops en route to the Pyrenees was in the Limousin, we decided to call in in person. 

The office is at Pompadour, a very horsey place which is home to Le Haras National Stud and a rather fine racecourse, right in the middle of the town. It was only 30 km away in the Correze department and gave us a good excuse to stop in the closeby and rather lovely village of Segur le Château for lunch afterwards!

On arrival I presented two horse passports, only to be informed that the thoroughbred had to be registered through France Galop. 

However they could cope with our thoroughbred x warmblood who had a Sports Horse of Great Britain passport. I handed over 110 euros, expecting to get an instant number. 

She disappeared and I then established that they were keeping the passport for processing. I stressed that the passport once ready had to be sent to our address in the Pyrénées – I had visions of it being sent to my home address in GB, leaving us stranded without it!

I was assured that it would be done within a couple of weeks, but as it turned out, having dropped it in on 12th July, it wasn’t returned to me until 25th August – and that only after some increasingly concerned emails from me! Whether it was the summer holiday again or something else (at one stage they queried the horse’s dam, maybe because she was a thoroughbred!?), I don’t know, but it was not a very relaxing experience!

France Galop may have been a smoother one had our first application been accepted. In correspondence with an extremely snooty woman, it transpired that we had to submit a vet-signed French version of the identification page: 6 blank copies were subsequently posted to me (haven’t they heard of email?).

My heart sinking at the thought of call out charges, I visited our local vet surgery. However I was pleasantly surprised to find the extremely practical girl not only spoke fluent English but was happy to just copy the English details onto the blank French version without seeing the horse. She filled in the horse outline, stamped and signed it on the spot and didn’t even charge me anything. 

“Welcome to France!” she smiled when I commented on all the (un)necessary paperwork! 

I duly sent off the form to France Galop, along with a letter assuring them that I had no intention of actually racing the horse and a cheque for 64-something euros, which I had to get off our campsite host, as of course I didn’t have a French chequebook (heck, I don’t even have an English one these days, but France is a bit behind!)

It was sent straight back: the vet had not filled in the written details under the horse outline, having waved that bit off as excessive. I headed back to the surgery and this time the girl filled the whole lot in and again I posted it off.

3 weeks later, I was getting concerned that I had not heard from them and was told that it had not arrived! 

For a third time I went to the surgery and the poor girl did the whole page again. This time I sent it back tracked post so I knew when it arrived.

Finally, after about 6 weeks and only about a week before we were due to leave the Pyrenees, the completed passport arrived: needless to say, it had the second page within it, the one they said had been lost!

All this effort resulted in a few stickers in the passport although at least it is valid for life if you can face a repeat trip. As our time drew towards an end and both passports still hadn’t been returned, it did become quite stressful and I wonder if one could rely on the system if one were, say, only staying 32 days! If you are a worrier, I would actually recommend getting a replacement passport before you leave England just in case!

I am not even sure the number is really necessary to get the horse back to England: the vet check sheet before departure asked for either the passport number or the SIRE number, not both. Also they don’t know or ask how long the horse has been in France, it may well have not been there long enough to qualify for the number. 

Whatever, if you stick to the book, be prepared for a slow turnaround. There is also a separate body for trotter and Arab registration if you are unlucky enough to have one of those!

Heading Home

The paperwork for the trip home felt relatively straight forward after the outward bound journey! 

As long as the horse has a recognised passport, no blood tests or residency in a country with similar status to the UK is required. Non registered ones should have a blood test within 10 days of departure and in theory should have been kept in a country of similar status to UK for 40 days though I get the feeling the vets would not be too concerned about the small print on this. 

Attestation Sanitaire: The main thing is a vet check, a simple one page document that has to be completed the same day as a visit to a local DDPP office to get it all signed off.  It has to be done by an official vet.

The friendly vet that visited us checked the vaccines for the horses, listened to hearts and stomachs and took their temperatures – more to justify his call out charge as much as anything, I think.

Departmental Directorate for the Protection of Populations (DDPP): Each department of France has a DDPP office, which seems to be in the departmental capital. For some bizarre reason, the health certificate produced by the vet has to be signed off by the department’s DDPP office on the same day. 

Having decided where we were leaving from, I emailed the local office. In my case this was in Evreaux, in the Eure region of Normany. 

They were extremely helpful and sent me the links to all the paperwork I needed.  Please note that although I am sure the paperwork is exactly the same in every department, that the department name is actually on the health certicate and the application, so the forms will have to come from the department concerned.

First of all we had to fill in a one page form with the horse details, where they were going from and to and our transport plans. Our form looked a little bizarre as I was owner and transporter, travelling with them through every stage, but they were quite happy with that.

They also wanted to know our IPAFFS number and the name of our nominated vet to make sure he was an official one. 

The IPAFFS number is quite easy to obtain online on the Government Gateway site. You should already be familiar with this portal from the outbound trip.

It is basically just the animal health side of things so it includes things like where the horse is coming from and going to and importer details. Once completed, they will issue you a number which you then tell the DDPP office when you apply to them. 

Once the DDPP approve and issue the final papers, these should then uploaded on your IPAFFS account – job done! 

We were staying with a cousin near Pont Audemer so organised the vet visit with Monsieur Lichon at Clinique Vétérinaire de la Risle de Pont Audemer . I made the appointment for first thing in the morning which would allow us enough time to drive the 90 km to Evreaux to get the paperwork signed off at the DDPP office the same day. 

They suggested I make the appointment about 15 days in advance and in fact they actually contacted me to suggest a 2pm appointment once I had told them I had the vet booked in. 

In the end, we even had time for lunch at La Chimnée bistro beforehand, conveniently only about 5 minutes away. 

Of course being France the building doors were firmly closed for lunch and opened on the dot of 2pm. We made our way to the 3rd floor where someone appeared – again, at precisely 2.10 – to take the horse passports and the health certicate. 5 minutes later we got them all back with another Export document. We uploaded these to our IPAFFS account in the car park and heaved a final sign of relief that it was all done! 

One final thing remained: the Goods Movement Reference number for the trip, again on the Government Gateway portal. You need your EORI number for this which I have covered in the outward bound section.

I rang P & O in Dover (01304 864360) to book the return trip. This can’t be done more than 2 weeks in advance and they don’t actually book you on a specific ferry: you basically just turn up. 

However, you do need to email the freight office in Calais at least 24 hours before travel but not more than 48,  to inform them of your intention to travel with horses. I also told them which ferry we were aiming to catch. For P&O this is freightops.calais@poferries.com.

Boarding at Calais

As we drove towards Calais, the skies darkened. I am reminded of the wonderful and very funny French film Bienvenue au Ch’tis where the errant postman is posted from sunny Provence to Pas de Calais as a punishment. As he arrives in le nord there is a huge downpour. 

We stopped at the Total garage in Calais to top up the diesel tank – diesel was a very reasonable 1.55 euros a litre. A credit card has to be presented for authorization before you fill up but you can pay a higher amount that you think you will need, they will just charge accordingly. Total has a good discount at the moment but they can afford to as they are still importing oil from Russia – boycott if you wish!

At the port one goes through a quick check in where the man jotted down horse passport details, noted cats and sent us on further to the main check in offices. One has to park and schlep in for this one. 

The man laboriously worked his way through the papers for 5 cats. As he had no intention of leaving his desk, we went and fetched them for the microchip reading as Simon did not fancy 5 sprints to and from the lorry park with the transponder!

He scanned our passports, made a note of the horse passports and asked for the Goods Vehicle Movement reference number (we showed him the bar code on my telephone) and sent us on our way.

We bypassed the truck check thankfully – carbon dioxide testing for illegal immigrants doesn’t work when you have horses on!

Next was English immigration. 

‘Ah, we are back in England!’ I exclaimed as I heard a breezy ‘Hello’. 

‘Can’t you tell with the weather!?’ he laughed as the torrential rain battered the truck. 

Ever onwards: we came to a little roundabout where a small slip road (look for the orange sign saying tax refund/ATA with a small nondescript grey block building behind) took us to the customs office.

The small office was quiet and we were in and out in 5 minutes.  We presented our carnet: it was stamped, I signed one of the sheets within it and it was retained, and that was it. We had cleared the final hurdle and joined the line for the ferry! The whole process from arriving at the ferry area to joining the line for embarcation took 1½ hours, but it was a wet Monday morning in late September so this may well be longer at busier times.

The 10.30 am P & O ferry left only 3 minutes late by which time we were comfortably ensconced in the Freight Drivers Lounge. Entry is included on your ticket. If you have been missing the delights of English cuisine a full English breakfast costs £3.99. Coffee is free and unlimited, just help yourself from the machine.

There is a display board in the lounge which highlights in orange the registration number of those trucks which they want to check at customs on the English side – thankfully we were not on it! 

Back in the UK

It was sunny in Dover! We had just one more stop to round off our French trip: back to the MOTIS area to get our carnet stamped back into the UK.

I feel sorry for the foreign lorry drivers for whom this is their introduction to England. People milled around aimlessly and the man behind the counter looked rather harassed. 3 months later, we headed back to the left hand window. 

He flipped the carnet open and told me to sign there – only to find I had signed out for export again. In the confusion, I then put numbers ‘1-33’ rather than ‘1-36′ – which apparently caused some consternation as the missing numbers included our motorbike and generator.

We waited outside the building for a text message to say the papers were ready. Simon went in to see what was causing the delay. Our friend was using the classic English tactic of speaking very loudly while waving papers in some poor Pole’s face: 

‘ YOU NEED TO SPEAK TO YOUR BOSS! ‘

The next driver was similarly received:

‘YOU NEED TO SPEAK TO YOUR AGENT! `

It materialised that one poor sod had been there for 50 hours trying to get his paperwork sorted! Thankfully we were finished in about an hour, though I was concerned to find that the front of our carnet had been stamped out in retrospect, although they had stamped the second page at the time – it could not have been too bad a mistake as they had let us through in Calais but it just shows how easy it can be to miss something. 

It is concerning as I feel it should be their job to put the stamps in the right place, not mine (and especially not at 5 am in the morning after driving through the night), but for future reference make sure the carnet is stamped out on the front in the  left hand bottom corner! Thankfully we had been oblivious to the omission so had not had to worry about it during our holiday!

A couple of days later I posted the carnet back to our agent so they could close it. I was reluctant to part with it after all the expense of getting it as in theory it was valid for a year from issue and for multiple trips, but even if the carnet wasn’t going to cost us anything if we popped over to Europe for a month in the spring, that still left the vet on both sides of the channel which wasn’t going to get any cheaper. It just wasn’t going to happen: I dropped it in the post box and turned my back on Europe with horses for the foreseeable future.

*******************************************

GUIDE TO COSTS

I have just added these up for the first time and have worked out it cost just over £2000 to get 2 horses to Calais – and that is not even considering diesel, truck insurance / breakdown or ferry cost.

Pre-Brexit, I did all the paperwork myself with a vet visit on the day before departure and it cost about £100 for 4 horses. It is quite a difference but ultimately it is a personal decision as to whether it is worth it or not.

It is also interesting to see the costs to get a horse to Calais from England – about £1000 – versus the cost of getting a horse to Dover from France – about £50: something is definitely wrong somewhere!

Vet Costs in UK

We used Oakham Vets in Rutland who were extremely helpful and efficient.

Blood Tests – £60 per horse plus vet visit £55

2 x Export health certs from vet

£326.50

Vet Costs in France

Vet Consultation in France for return papers for 2 horses E109. 

Agency Charges in UK

We used John Parker International to organise our outward travel paperwork to France and they were friendly and efficient, putting up with all my frequent questions uncomplainingly!

Agency fee £150

EHC application £30 a horse x 2 = £60

Vet check at Calais £250 x 2 = £500

Eu safety declaration £30

ATA Carnet £516 plus security fee (£143 on total value of goods £4,062) Total £659

Misc

One way P&O ferry Dover-Calais £304 (Including 5 cats @ £18 each! )

One way P&O Ferry Calais – Dover £296.07 (Including 5 cats @ £18 each – again!)

Green card & breakdown for truck for 82 days £348

SIRE registration x 1 / non TB  E110

SIRE registration x 1 / TB E64. 60

CATS

I haven’t really gone into the cats as they are relatively straightforward as long as they are microchipped and up to date with vaccinations and rabies. They just have to be seen by a vet and the papers issued within 10 days of departure.

They can travel back on the same papers within 4 months with no further action being necessary. However, to save money in the future, you may be able to apply for a French passport for them. This takes a while as they first have to be registered on ICAD, a central database. In theory the owner should be in the country over 3 months. 

Cat Costs 

Cat papers for 4 (one already had a French passport!) :  £250 (£150 for certificate plus £20 per cat with consultation) 

Cat passports in France: E16 per cat plus E9 each for icad registration. 

£18 each way per cat on P&O Ferries

QUICK CHECKLIST 

TRUCK

Professional or private – if former check transport rules

Check tacho in date for duration

UK sticker

4 lashing points

Lashing point stickers

Means to adjust light beams

Breakdown cover

Greencard insurance

Crit Air sticker 

Spare tyres / tools to change them

Hi Viz/1st aid kit/spare light bulbs/breakdown triangle

HORSE

ATA Carnet

Horse Insurance

Passports

Find official vet

Blood tests

County Parish Holding Number 

Government Gateway Account 

EORI Number

Goods Vehicle Movement Number

Apply for Export Health Certificate 

Organise agent to do french customs / everything!

Ferry Ticket

Notify ferry of ‘dangerous goods’ on board

Driver checklist on the day

Passport

Driving Licence

Registration documents / V5

Green card insurance

Breakdown cover

Viz/1st aid kit/spare light bulbs/breakdown triangle

Horse passports

ATA Carnet

EHC

GVM Number

Final vet check 

Await final clearance from SIVEP 

Notify ferry of SIVEP appointment

Get carnet stamped out of UK at Dover

Get carnet stamped into France at Calais 

Horse inspection

In France

Organise SIRE number

For Return

Find official vet

Apply for IPAFFS number

Submit papers to local DDPP office

Make appointment with DDPP office

Vet check

Visit DDPP office for final clearance 

Get GVM number

Finally, get carnet stamped back at Calais and Dover!! Return it to agent or London Chamber of Commerce if finished with it.

UPDATE TO ABOVE – JULY 2024

If I say so myself, my blog on travelling with horses to France in 2022 was very useful in planning our 2024 trip and if we arrived in the Pyrenees in an exhausted blurry eyed heap, it was from all the through-the-night driving, not from the paperwork! 

This time, we decided we would organise it all ourselves, so cutting out the agents and middlemen fees. In fact it was all so much easier than I expected that one wonders what all the fuss is about and if our vet hadn’t initially tried to defraud the French government, it would have been even smoother. 

Most of the things in the above article still hold true today, with a few minor tweaks. 

Bloodtests

The same, tick! This time round, it cost £180 for 4 horses and the vet emailed me the results, all together on one page.

The ATA Carnet

We then tackled the ATA carnet at ecarnet.co.uk which again was just straight forward form filling, made somewhat easier by our just copying the list from the previous trip and adding a few things – including two extra horses.

The Pyrenees are hard on horses and we had ridden the two we had taken in 2022 into the ground; the warmblood in particular had given up the will to live and I had realised that even horses can get depressed. In taking 4, we would have a separate pack horse and a spare so it would be easier on them.

The total value of the goods on our carnet came to £6,020 which ended up costing us £555.60. £410.40 of this was the cost of the actual carnet. The additional £145.20 was to cover the goods we had declared. I had realised on the previous occasion that it is possible to pay a fully refundable fee, either as a bank draft or a bank insurance guarantee – I never fully grasped exactly what the latter option was, and when I tried to ring the Nat West Bank to find out, I’m not sure they did either : I ended up in the travel insurance department and eventually got fed up with hanging on. If you want to go down this route, it would be simpler to actual visit your bank, if you can ever find one open!

However as this came in at £2,380, it seemed a lot of money to have on the table if something were to go wrong, so in the end we decided it was just simpler to lose the £145.20.

The carnet was then posted out to me with no problems. On the day of travel it is still necessary to get it stamped out of the UK, but this no longer happens at MOTIS in Dover (who now charge for their services) – it has moved to the shiny new £154 million inland border facility at Sevington, at Junction 10A of the M20.

Download the app ‘Attend an inland border facility’ where one can make an appointment on line which is within a fairly relaxed 6 hour window. We ended up changing the slot on the day and it was easy to edit the booking to the new window. 

The place itself is 22 miles from Dover and conveniently just off the motorway, a vast complex of seemingly empty car parks and sheds. At 2 am, it was very quiet, and other than our being told to park a good yomp away from the customs facility in Area F, all went smoothly.

The outbound customs office is the second of the two side by side facilities as one approaches; the first is for inbound but of course nothing so obvious is stated on their exterior. They do make a note that you are travelling with horses and our carnet was checked and stamped and returned to us within about 15 minutes – a far smoother and less busy experience than MOTIS. It is also free.

The EHC from APHA

This time we filled in the necessary export forms on the APTA (once DEFRA) website which were fairly straightforward – it was really just all the horse details including microchips and life time numbers so some care is needed to make sure all the numbers are correct. Otherwise species is equus caballus, the subspecies is registered horse and a gelding goes down as ‘c’, where the choice is between male, female or castrated – this even confused our vet who thought we meant colt when we wrote ‘c’!

The only new addition to the form was that they asked the equivalent of the county parish number for the place of destination. I was initially headed to a cousin in Normandy whose private fields did not have a number. Rather than leave it blank, my agent suggested I use the address of my next stop, a Limousin farm which did – just ticking all the boxes!  In reality, I think once you are through you can go basically where ever you like and no one is going to check.

Once you have completed one form it gets easier for additional horses. It gives one the option to add another animal: the details for the next horse obviously have to be added anew, but all the other information comes up automatically. It took us about an hour. The forms looked slightly strange for us, as I was the exporter, importer and travelling with the horses!

Once finished, press submit. It was approved with 24 hours – they let you know but they submit the papers to your actual nominated vet and it is their job to produce the final draft which will be submitted to the SIVEP in France via one’s agent.

Our Agent in France – ASA

I had discovered ASA (Associated Shipping Agency) in 2022 when I noticed that Parkers were using them. I approached them directly and they said they would be happy to help, replying promptly in English. I had to sign a new account letter and a mandate, giving them leave to act on my behalf.

Once our vet had completed the initial drafts of the EHC’s and sent them to me, I was able to send them to ASA who submitted them to SIVEP for approval. I told them I would like an early appointment, ie. 8.30 am, which was possible, although as it happened in the end, I went through at about 11 am – their final approval basically gives one a right to an appointment even if it is later than that intended initially. This was due to ASA helpfully pointing out that there is a large surcharge between midnight and 7 a.m. 

However, we first had to be accepted. A week later our initial application was sent back: the whole thing would have to be resubmitted. Apparently our vet had stamped and dated (if not actually signed) too much of the paperwork in advance, which verged on fraudulent behavior!

She was absolutely furious, claiming the French had moved the goalposts but not told anyone. Each EHC took about an hour to produce – we found it quite amusing until we realized the agent was asking for an entirely new application with a new number: we had to go back to the APTA site and start again too, although our end took no more than an hour and was approved instantly this time! We left our vet burning the midnight oil, reflecting that although we had left lots of time to do everything, it was all becoming a bit last minute. 

Once she had produced another draft for each horse we sent it to ASA again who resubmitted it. We were not given a specific go ahead this time, they just told us to go ahead with the final papers.

So at 7am on a Tuesday morning our vet turned up, checked microchips, hearts and temperatures and gave us the final papers to which we had to add our signatures. 

ASA said they liked the papers 24 hours in advance of the appointment although I think there is some flexibility: it took us about 3 hours to deliver them due to a combination of bad internet and a phone which could not scan such large files. We ended up at a local stationery shop which eventually scanned them for us – so keep this in mind if you haven’t got a great phone, especially if traveling at a time when such help may be closed!

To Calais

The day before our final vet check we discovered a radiator leak in the truck. A carton of K-Seal seemed to do the job until 2 hours down the motorway towards Dover when all the alarms went off and the truck lit up like a Christmas tree. 

As the traffic raced past, we topped up the water and used another carton of K-Seal. . Having spent £680 on the EHCs, there was no other option but to continue, even if it meant spending the next 3 months in northern France!

We called in at Sevington to get the carnet stamped then got the horses off for a break at Junction 11. Our usual stop was a riot of Michaelmas daisies which glowed in the moonlight as the horses munched them. 

We took the 06.55 P&O ferry to France and napped in the driver’s lounge before disembarking in Calais. Following the orange line, we soon found our way to the SIVEP area and the ASA office. They took our paperwork and we went back to wait with the truck. 

Luckily we had beaten three Parker trucks to it and we were called into the shed after only about 20 minutes. We lowered the ramp which obviously looked rather steep: the inspector handed the scanner to Simon and told him to scan the horse on the end. He then walked up the outside of the truck to see the other 3 heads – and that was it! 

They were all quite friendly and even pointed out a water tap for our use. We then returned to the ASA office to collect the final paperwork and to settle our bill with them, which came in at £750 in total, which we paid by credit card. They had been extremely helpful throughout and I can certainly recommend them to anyone else embarking on the same trip. 

We went to a scrubby area where we unloaded the horses again and then headed onto my cousin’s in Normandy – only 270 km but with the radiator constantly running out of water, we found ourselves stopping every half an hour to top it up. 

Mulling on expensive and slow repairs, we pulled in for petrol near our destination – and suddenly spotted a water jet from a hose – there was a hole in it from where it had been rubbing on a piece of metal. 

Great relief! The next day we drove 7 km down the road with the offending hose to a Daf garage at Epaignes (South of Pont Audemer in the Eure region) . The friendly mechanic cut the hose and rejoined it, chucked in some jubilee clips and although some 45 euros poorer, we were on the road again! 

An 8½ hour overnight trip to the Limousin flattened us but at least the truck ran perfectly. Three days later, a further 6½ hours to our base in the Pyrenees were made easier by cold weather, so we had the luxury of leaving at 6 am. 

All in all, it takes a hell of an effort to do the trip. The paperwork actually pales in comparison to the driving required, especially if it is hot and one drives through the night. Thankfully we had two months to recover before we had to head home again! 

Costs for France 2024 – Getting there – 4 Horses

Blood tests £180
Carnet £555.60
Truck Green Card Insurance & breakdown £350
Vet Exam UK £680
Ferry to France £280 (inc 4 cats @ £15 each)
ASA Calais £750

Paperwork just for horses £1610 so cost per horse £402.50
If you include carnet, truck & ferry:
Total for 4 horses £2,795.60 so cost per horse £698.90

SIRE NUMBERS – 2024

Having arrived successfully in France, there was one other piece of paperwork to complete before we could hang our boots up: SIRE – the bane of my life!

At first I thought the IFCE had finally got it’s shit together: as we headed south, we popped into their Pompadour headquarters and gave them the passport for our Cleveland Bay.

Expecting to have to leave the passport, I was surprised when they just took all the details, only 30 euros and said that they would send the number in the post – we thought they must have realised that leaving passports with them for weeks on end wasn’t a good idea.

The numbers duly arrived and I stuck them in the passport.

Next up were our two thoroughbreds and France Galop. The identity pages had been posted to us and we visited our local vet who completed them in French – thankfully for free. We sent them off with a cheque.

Our homebred gelding was not a problem, but we had another ex-racehorse who was registered on the Weatherbys non-thoroughbred register. Having been active on the track, we stupidly thought it was France Galop’s department, but no, he was not a thoroughbred: the cheque and passport were returned with instructions to submit it to the IFCE!

We submitted another cheque (2024; 64.80 euros) for the thoroughbred and his passport was returned reasonably promptly with the SIRE number.

I then sent the paperwork to the IFCE for the other horse, applying for ‘cheval de passage‘ at 30 euros – after 2 weeks of not hearing from them, it materialised that we were in the country too long and would have to go for the full SIRE number – 110 euros and they wanted the passport.

By this stage it was getting on in our holiday and I refused to send them the passport as I had no confidence in getting it back in time for our return. Instead I was able to submit the paperwork, photocopies of the passport and pay via bank transfer, whilst promising to call in with the actual passport on our way home. It is useful to know that this is possible as I never liked leaving the passports with them.

They then asked for the full pedigree. Weatherbys charge £25 for this but the helpful girl suggested I check out the Tattershalls and Goffs sale sites and thankfully I found the horse.

I am glad to report that when we finally dropped in as we headed north that they took the passport and returned it with the number within 20 minutes. Obviously they had made a mistake with the Cleveland Bay in allowing him in as a cheaper ‘cheval de passage’ as we were staying longer than a month, but by that stage I wasn’t bothered as we had the requisite stickers in his passport!

At the final vet check the form remained as either the SIRE number or passport number for identification. The vet doesn’t know or care how long one has been in the country and I don’t think it would matter in the slightest if one didn’t have it – at the end of the day it is just more officialdom and form filling.

The Final Hurdle – the DDPP

Although SIRE dogged us to the end of our days in France, the paperwork for the return was exactly the same as the previous visit (detailed above) and fairly straightforward.

We emailed the departmental head office for the Eure and they sent us the one page for all the details of horses and our trip. We duly sent it back and made an appointment to visit them after the vet inspection. They then send the page per horse which the vet fills in.

Applying for the IPAFFS, we found they had a few more questions for us this time. Again it is submitted online but is not valid until the final paperwork from the department is uploaded just before travel.

We then ran into some jobsworth at the DDPP office – we knew she was at the bottom of the pecking order when she told us she was going on holiday in September. No one goes on holiday in France in September!

She wanted to know the IMO number for the ship we were travelling home on (one can Google this) and then the voyage number. As freight isn’t booked onto a specific vessel but rather on a turn up and get on basis, this flumexed me but she then became distracted in wanting us to upload the IPAFFS application (not strictly necessary).

We were thankful when she finally headed off on holiday and turned the paperwork over to a colleague.

We booked the vet on a Tuesday for travel home on a Wednesday although in theory one has 48 hours in which to travel – or if you get it done on the Friday, by the next working day so you can include another weekend in France.

The vet came out and did a quick health check of the 4 horses which cost 180.80 euros or £153.65 – if only it were so inexpensive coming out! Unlike France there are no charges for entry to the UK so this was the sole expense for the return trip in relation to paperwork.

Once the vet had visited we schlepped over to Evreux to visit the DDPP office who handed over the final paperwork. We uploaded this to the IFFASS system and we were good to go.

P&O, who I have always found quite helpful, had told me there was a 10.30 am ferry – there wasn’t, so we slotted onto the next one. It took a good hour to check in with horse paperwork and cat scanning, go through two sets of immigration and finally get our carnet stamped.

We got on the boat and headed straight to the driver’s lounge and free coffee. Collapsing in a heap, we congratulated ourselves on another successful trip – and this time we had done all the paperwork ourselves! Roughly speaking, we had spent about the same as on the previous trip using an agent but had taken two extra horses.

On the English side, another quick trip to Severington was necessary to once again get our carnet stamped. Their appointment app seems to have fallen by the wayside but we were quickly in and out. The carnet should be mailed back in its entirety to the London Chamber of Commerce.