The shipping date is on the calendar. The joint injections are on the list, the flu/rhino booster may be coming due, and the health papers still need doing. Each one is simple on its own. The hard part is that they all have to fit into the same few weeks, and several of them can't sit too close to each other, to the trailer, or to the border.
Many of our clients make this trip every year, and great planning is what keeps it running smooth. These are the questions we hear most as horses get ready to ship south, whether that's Florida for the winter, a show in Ohio, or anywhere else in the US.
CRossing The Border
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To ship across the US border, your horse needs a Coggins from within the last six months. Many shows only ask for one within 12 months, but the border sets the stricter rule.
Many owners book the Coggins as late as they can, so a single test covers both the trip down and the trip home. That avoids paying for a second Coggins in the US.
We recommend testing at least 14 days before export. Most results come back without any trouble. Now and then a sample is inconclusive and needs a retest, and those 14 days leave room for it.
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No less than 14 days before your shipping date. The health certificate is good for 30 days from the exam, so the timing has to work from both ends.
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No. The export health certificate requires that your horse hasn't had any vaccine, including flu/rhino, in the 14 days before crossing the border. That's why we start with the border date and work backward. The vaccines have to land before that window, and everything else gets spaced around them.
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The Coggins and the health papers have to match exactly, down to how each owner is listed and who appears as consignor and consignee. The Coggins carries those details from the day it's drawn, so we need them before the exam, not after.
When the two documents line up, the border usually goes smoothly.
Vaccines, Joint Injections and Dentistry
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To stay eligible to show, Equestrian Canada requires flu and rhino boosters within six months and 21 days of the last dose. FEI uses the same window for flu. US Equestrian is stricter: its shows require flu and rhino within six months, with no grace period. For many of our patients vaccinated in late April, that booster was due in the last week of October. If your horse hasn't had it yet, it needs to happen before the 14-day window ahead of the border.
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Earlier than most people expect. Performance exams book up through the fall shipping season, so scheduling early gives you the dates you want.
Ideally, no horse goes on a trailer within 10 days of joint injections. That window is for your horse's safety, and it means that if a complication does come up, we can deal with it here at home rather than on the road.
If keeping training downtime to a minimum matters to you, a performance exam ahead of treatment day helps. It lets us see what each horse needs first, then plan treatment days through the barn around each horse's training program and performance goals, instead of fitting every horse into one day.
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Not too close together. We keep at least seven days between vaccines and joint injections, because doing them back to back can predispose to a reaction. We also keep seven days between dentistry and joint injections.
Withdrawal Times Before Your First Show
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It depends on which joints are treated and if and how much steroid is used.
When several joints are treated at once, the steroid adds up, and that changes the withdrawal window too. Horses being treated with biologics like Prostride or ProVet are not subject to the same withdrawal due to the lack of steroid use. Knowing in advance what you'd like done lets us build that into the plan.
Bisphosphonates like Osphos carry a 28-day withdrawal in Canada and under FEI rules, the same as SI joint injections. If there's a treatment you've been waiting on, it's worth counting back from your first show before you book it.
Showing under US Equestrian rules? The timelines work differently. No joint injection of any kind is allowed within four days of competing, and some medications given within a week of a show need a medication report filed. US Equestrian lists Osphos at the same 28 days, and only allows it in horses four years and older. We'll check the timing against the product used and the rules your classes run under.
Planning It All
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Good planning is what keeps the cost and the stress down. We build the timeline backward from your border date, so the Coggins, health papers, vaccines and joint work each land in the right window. We can do export papers, Coggins and vaccines on the same day, which means fewer calls and fewer steps for everyone. When your shipping date and show schedule are set and shared early, we can map appointments around the goals that matter most.
If you have a shipping date, or even a rough one, reach out and we'll talk through the timeline with you. For anything about cost, ask us directly.
Check the Rules for your Trip
These answers are general guidelines, not a replacement for the rules themselves. Border requirements, competition rules and medication rules change, and individual shows can set their own. Before you ship, check the current rules for your destination and the classes you're entering, and talk to us about your horse's own plan.