BY ANNE WALLACE ALLEN
The show jumping business has been buffeted by a widespread labor shortage, spiking real estate prices, and inflation in recent years. Last spring, another important ingredient entered the mix: New tariffs on imports. Those taxes, amidst uncertainty that’s roiling U.S. trade policy, have created a surge of unexpected costs.
Many in the horse world rely on imported veterinary products, tack, and other goods. While some of those have been affected by tariffs, it’s in horse imports that the show jumping world is seeing the biggest impact.
“The extra money takes your breath away,” said Georgy Maskrey-Segesman, owner and operator of Whitethorne LLC, which develops equitation horses and show jumpers in Aiken, S.C. Maskrey-Segesman said she typically imports horses that cost around $100,000, so the tariff is about $15,000.
“Whereas I used to sell horses in the $100,000, $150,000 range, the sweet spot for me, now the $125,000 range has moved to $150,000 because of the cost of the shipping and the import cost,” she said.
Thousands of horses are purchased from European breeders each year, many for racing and show jumping, according to the American Horse Council. Until last year, European horse imports were exempt from tariffs, said Emily Stearns, health, welfare, and regulatory affairs liaison at Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit. When that changed, buying a horse overseas became more expensive and more complicated.
Agents for buyers and sellers suddenly needed to come up with an assessed value for the horse for inspectors at the port of entry. They also had to have cash on hand to pay the tariff before the horse entered the U.S.
“Initially, we had a lot of panicked feedback from members because no one knew what was going on, and hadn’t dealt with this before,” Stearns said.
Temporary imports for competition, breeding, or other purposes are not subject to tariffs. But permanent imports are. Those fees are levied according to the product’s country of origin, adding another layer of paperwork.
“If you have a saddle coming from France, that’s easy, because it was made in France,” Stearns said. “If you’re purchasing a horse from France that has lived in France since it was a weanling, but it was foaled out in Belgium, you’re paying the tariff on the Belgian rate, even if the horse has lived in France for 25 years.”
“It’s been a very steep learning curve,” she said. “We definitely saw a slowdown in horse movement.”
Tariffs have been upending business plans in many sectors since the Trump Administration announced the first major round of 10 percent levies in April 2025. In February, those were struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, but Trump quickly found other avenues to reimpose them. The new tariffs (which the administration has said could rise to 15 percent) are scheduled to expire in July. It’s anybody’s guess whether the administration will find another way to impose new levies. Ultimately, “the legal issues surrounding the new tariffs are little unclear,” said Alex Durante, a senior economist at the Tax Foundation.
Here are some areas where the show jumping world is feeling the pinch.
Tack, Clothing, and Other Items
A lot of high-quality English saddles and bridles are made in Europe and India, said Laura Spittle, who owns Vermont Horse Country Store in Woodstock, Vermont. Spittle also buys most of her store’s riding attire overseas. She said tariffs have directly affected her business, and are making it harder for tack stores, already endangered, to stay in business.
“They’re destabilizing the entire industry because we don’t know from one minute to the next what we’re going to have to pay for something,” said Spittle, noting that the new tariffs last year raised the retail price of a popular paddock boot in her store from $99 to $150.
Spittle’s shop had a busy spring and early summer after the tariffs were announced, before they were imposed.
“Everyone went, ‘OK, if we buy now we can save money,’” Spittle said. “By the end of the summer, people were going, ‘That costs 30 percent more than last spring; I don’t need it.’”
Kerrits, a major U.S. maker and distributor of riding apparel, has been scrambling to keep up with changing information about tariffs, said Sara Florin, who works in marketing for the Bingen, Washington company. Ultimately, the tariffs forced some changes for Kerrits, which manufactures most of its products overseas.
“There are things we did not make last fall because we could not keep the price reasonable, and prices did go up,” Florin said. “We tried to keep it to a reasonable amount. It was to cover the cost of these taxes for everyone that is involved.”
Horse Transport
Horse imports from Canada are shielded from the tariffs by a 2020 trade agreement, but buyers were spooked at the prospect of extra costs anyway, and many rushed to bring in their horses last spring, said Caleb Glassberg, general manager of Judge Manning Horse Transportation in New York’s Hudson Valley. The company partners with two air freight brokers and transports thousands of horses each year.
“People were panicking,” he said. “All of a sudden, all of the thoroughbred people who thought they were going to send horses for sales, or might send horses for sales, they just moved them all to the U.S. ahead of time,” he said. “Or they prioritized and decided against sending horses at all.”
Now, “my Canadian work has plummeted,” Glassberg said.
Feed
This area is less clear. Much of the animal feed used in the U.S. is domestically grown, according to the USDA’s agricultural research service. The U.S. exports much more hay than it imports, and retaliatory tariffs from customers like China have suppressed sales of hay to overseas markets. A surplus could reduce hay prices for U.S. customers.
Horseshoes
Horseshoes are generally not a major expense in an industry known for its steep costs. But prices have risen. Many domestic horseshoe distributors buy steel shoes in Europe, and last spring, several farrier industry leaders announced they’d be raising their prices due to new taxes of 50 percent or more on steel and aluminum products.
Robert Michel, president of the Farrier Industry Association, warned last spring about increases of 20 percent or more, depending on region, the product brand, and the types of shoes and nails being used.
Centaur Forge in Wisconsin imports many of its horseshoes from Belgium. General Manager Bekki Baas said Centaur, a major supplier, has seen horseshoe prices rise from 5 percent to 17 percent in the last year.
“It’s also horseshoe nails, pads, farrier tools, more than you could imagine,” Baas said.
Veterinary Products
China supplies as much as half of the active ingredients in veterinary medications, and 30 percent to 40 percent of medical supplies, according to Grand View Research. In a report on the impact of tariffs on veterinary costs, the group said veterinarians are seeing duties of 25 percent or more on syringes, surgical gloves, IV sets, and lab reagents.
“Large animal practices and livestock producers are particularly vulnerable, as bulk vaccine purchases and feed additive inputs magnify the financial impact,” the report said. The tariffs also apply to equine semen and embryos.
The Overall Impact
It’s not clear how much tariffs have affected people’s choices within the show jumping industry, which is diverse and individualized. USDA data doesn’t differentiate show horses from other equine imports. But many people in the industry said tariffs don’t seem to be deterring people from buying horses overseas.
“You could ask 10 different people, and you might get 10 different opinions on what is happening,” said Jeni Brown, who owns Shadowbrook Stables in Fillmore, Calif., and imports horses from Europe. Brown said a shortage of local labor is causing far more difficulty for her business than tariffs.
“There are enough people who have a big budget to buy horses that an extra 15 percent is probably not going to stop them from buying the horse they want in Europe, honestly,” she said.
Alan Waldman, who owns Waldman Horses in the Netherlands, said fluctuations in the exchange rate cause more concern among his buyers than the tariffs do. European buyers, he noted, have been contending with tariffs for years; they are just novel to many people in the U.S. — though some U.S. states, like California, also tax horse purchases.
“People add things up, and they talk about it,” Waldman said of tariffs. “But at the end of the day, if they want something, they want it.”
Sources
- American Horse Council. Tariffs: The Horse Industry’s Journey into the Great Unknown.
https://horsecouncil.org/project/tariffs-the-horse-industrys-journey-into-the-great-unknown/ - American Horse Council Foundation. 2023 Economic Impact Study.
- The White House. Fact Sheet: The United States and European Union Reach Massive Trade Deal (Steel Tariffs).
https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/07/fact-sheet-the-united-states-and-european-union-reach-massive-trade-deal/ - Farrier Industry Association. Letter on Tariff Updates (May 13, 2025).
https://cdn.wildapricot.com/44196/resources/Documents/FIA%20Letter%20Tariff%20Updates%205.13.25.pdf - Grand View Research. Animal Health Market: Tariff Impact & Strategic Opportunities.
https://www.grandviewresearch.com/market-trends/animal-health-market-tariff-impact-strategic-opportunities - Tax Foundation — commentary from Alex Durante on business uncertainty related to tariff policy.
