Moving chaos: choosing the right transporter for you and your horse

So next month Vallu and I are moving to Nottingham!! So exciting but I'm also starting to panic a little bit. It would be scary enough moving to Nottingham by myself, but taking Vallu with me just adds to the amount of stuff needing to be organized, the stress and the worry!

Although I have personally done this trip twice in summer 2011, once with Nelli and Basse, I am still stressing about this upcoming trip for Vallu. During our move from UK to Finland in 2011, I was lucky enough to be traveling with a friend so I was able to go with the horses during the trip. UK to Finland in one go is very exhausting and stressful, and I swear both our horses lost somewhere between 100-200kg in weight (also due to dehydration) even though the trip was uneventful, they were very well looked after, and we took lots of breaks. 

When you can't travel with your horse, one of the biggest choices (after finding a new yard) is choosing the correct transporter for your horse (and you!) Based on recommendations from family, friends and horsey people on FB and forums, these three stand out for me.

LOC International Horse Transport

LOC Ltd has lots of good testimonials, and from their FB page I can't see anything apart from glowing recommendations. Several people on forums have used LOC and highly recommend them. I already asked for a quote from them months ago, and they were very quick to reply, lovely people! Cost of transport from Germany to UK is £360 plus VAT. This is quite a lot cheaper than transport from Finland to Germany, which is over £1k

Equine Travel Agency

When mum and dad visited a few yards in Nottingham, they asked around for a good transporter, and ETA was the most recommended one! I also have a friend who used ETA to bring her new horse from Holland, he arrived safely and she was happy with them. So this one has the most recommendations out of the three. I've just sent an enquiry form, which they will probably reply to next week.

John Parker International Horse Transport

My third option, lots of horsey acquaintances have used this, and whilst some recommended their services, others weren't totally satisfied. Since I don't know the details exactly, I won't comment on whether or not to use them, but I did ask for a quote from them as well.