It has been a whirlwind start to the year for Irish equine transporters trying to navigate the post-Brexit landscape.

Deirdre and Roy Seale of Seale Transport ship about 60 horses a month to Europe and Scandanavia for some of the top riders and sellers in Ireland.

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Since the Brexit transition period came to an end on 1 January, Seales moved away from their previous methods of commuting through Britain and began using the long-haul route from Ireland direct to France in order to avoid having to enter and leave the UK.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Countrywide last month after a lorry was turned back at Rosslare port, Deirdre Seale said: “This is exhausting, it’s mentally exhausting, I’m dreaming about being on a boat and not being able to get off because we don’t have the right form and then the form blows away into the sea!”

This month however, the company, which has bases in Co Laois and Sweden, made a huge step forward in successfully transporting equines across the UK land bridge for the first time since the end of the transition period.

Epic success

Speaking to The Irish Horse two days before travelling, Deirdre said: “It could be an epic fail or an epic success. The France route isn’t a great option for us because the weather is so bad and there were transporters waiting a week to get horses out [due to cancelled boats].”

Thankfully, all went to plan last Wednesday and Roy Seale was successful in getting all horses on board to their respective destinations.

“It was hard work but there were no issues, Dover were a little confused because seemingly we were the first Irish truck that they had seen go through there,” Deirdre added.

“They stopped us because we didn’t have an appointment with the Callais vets and they’re not allowed let anyone through unless they have an appointment.

“The system in place is CHED [Common Health Entry Document]. We had to explain to them that we don’t need an appointment because we were just using the land bridge going from EU to EU.

“It worked and he [Roy] was waved on! We had a checklist of 16 different things that needed to be printed and brought in the lorry. It’s definitely a very complex process but we know how to do it now.”

Pre-Brexit the Seales would have stabled horses in Dover, but that is not a feasible option at the moment so they opted to continue straight to Calais and stable them there.

“We had wanted to stable in the UK and we’ve been told that we can stable if it’s an emergency or there’s an approved place to stay but it just seems a little vague at the moment,” said Deirdre.

“Definitely on the maiden voyage we weren’t going to test that theory anyway.”

“With the weather being so bad at the moment, there’s so many others that can’t get out because ferries aren’t taking horses to Cherbourg so this meant that we were able to keep our commitments,” Deirdre continued.

Tight schedule

“One horse on this trip was then travelling on to Mexico from Germany, so it was quite stressful for a while because we were on such a a tight schedule to make that flight. It was a huge relief that it all went well,” Deirdre concluded.

Deirdre is relieved that the company is finally making progress, but it has been far from plain sailing trying to negotiate new Brexit rules, with the company having to take on a full-time member of staff to solely deal with logistics.

A video map of the route taken by Roy Seale is available to view on the Seale Transport Facebook page, with Deirdre saying they are happy to help anyone with their transport issues where they can.