Candice Hobday is the CEO of Hobday Equestrian Enterprises, who are the chief company through which South African horses are being exported to Europe, and she is bullish about the number of flights that will be available this year for those wishing to export and she is also optimistic that Trump’s tariffs will actually play into the hands of South African horses.
She said about the flights, “We’ve got another one in May, and then hopefully another one in July, and then another, if we have enough numbers, in November. The numbers are a little bit small still, but that’s a wheel that’s going to take time to build up, because a lot of people haven’t been breeding, and now that it’s open, the buyers are starting to come back. The cycle takes a bit of time. I think we’ll really start getting some momentum from 2026. But I think if we do pull three flights off of 21 horses each this year, it will be amazing, and I think it can only get better from here.”
There are 32 stables in the Kenilworth vector protected quarantine station and that limits the maximum number per flight to 32 horses.
There are two chartered airplanes available: the smaller chartered airplane is capable of carrying 21 and the bigger one can carry 70.
However, the bigger plane is limited to carrying 32 because there are only 32 stables in the quarantine.
The cost of the flight is not per horse but per airplane. So the whole cost would be the same whether there were 32 or for example 27 horses … if there were only 27 horses the cost per horse would go up considerably.
The smaller plane costs less, meaning the cost per horse would be about the same if there were either 21 horses on the smaller plane or 32 horses on the bigger plane. 21 and 32 are the two optimum nymbers.
Thoroughbreds are coming out strong in numbers on the flights again.
Candice said, “At the moment, I would say it’s on average 25 to 30% thoroughbreds and then the rest are made up between polo, endurance, show Arabs, sport horses and pets.”
She said about the USA Tariffs, “It’s hard to have a total opinion about it until it’s settled down because there’s so much flux at the moment, the exchange rate is in flux, the whole tariff war is in a bit in flux, nobody really knows what’s going on. What I am fairly confident about, and this is just an educated opinion, is that it is affecting everybody, so I don’t think it’s going to disadvantage South Africa and our positives will still give us a step ahead in terms of the quality of the horses for less money at the strong exchange rate. Studies have even shown that South African horses are better value than most.”
The tariff on a lesser price will be less, meaning the value argument for SA horses will be further bolstered, and the exchange rate will make the South African horse even better value.
Candice also explained that tariffs are also usually set by where the horse was born. For example, tariffs on an Irish horse are greater than tariffs on a U.K horse (one can’t get around it by moving the horse to the U.K. and then exporting, because it goes on where the horse was born). Tariff rates on South African horses would probably not be among the highest.
Tariffs on geldings are more than tariffs on entires and females, because of the possibility that the latter might bring genetic improvement.
There are also different tariffs on permanent exports as opposed to temporary exports.
The Paulick Report recently stated that tariffs paid to bring horses in to compete in the USA would be potentially exorbitant, but would be reimbursed as long as the horses is out of the country within a year.
Meanwhile, Adrian Todd, managing director of SAEHP is in the UK working on the next step in South Africa’s favour, the opening of direct flights to the U.K. At present direct flights to Europe are allowed, but not yet to the U.K.
