Our longest haul to date has only been 6 hours. We are looking at a 12 hour (drive time) trip plus fuel stops. Please pass on your recommendations from past experiences. Thanks!
Load the horses as usual and drive 'till you get there! 
Seriously, that’s not too long and there is no need to unload during the trip. We routinely haul that long going to OK for the National Cavalry Competition. Never really had a serious problem.
If you have older horses then you might want to think about breaking the trip at 8 hours or so. Older stock, maybe with some arthritis, will likely come off the trailer a bit stiff.
In really hot weather consider a night drive. Less traffic, cooler temps, and generally more pleasant.
Good luck in your trip.
G.
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So I do this distance yearly with the horses. I stop every 3 hours, sometimes 4 with regular travelers. I drive the same route monthly but do it with the horses once or twice a year so I have my regular stops. In the heat we’ve had lately, I’d be stopping every 2-3 hours to offer water.
- Have enough hay. I use small hole hay nets and haven’t had to re-fill them on the trip. But mine are seasoned travelers.
- I don’t rely on water at the gas stations, as I have found a few that don’t have easily accessible outside pumps. I have a blue plastic container I use for shows, water only. I keep it in my tack room which stays relatively cool.
- Check your tires and pressure before you go, spare tires, etc. Yes, you probably always do and travel with this stuff but double check.
It really isn’t much different than traveling shorter distances. I never let my tank get too close to halfway empty with the horses - it makes me stop more often to check on them and OMG- a pig truck overturned last year and I was stuck on 70 FOR FOUR HOURS. It was terrible.
Also- if you can check your route either by MapQuest or satellite if you don’t know exactly where you are going. 2 years ago I went to WV and the “shorter” route took me through the mountains and I thought I was going to die. Not just because I heard banjos and the Deliverance theme song- the hills…
I lover trailering. I just take my time, stop when I need to and make my way along.
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I don’t do much of anything different if I’m driving 6 hours v. 13 hours. Regardless, I try to give the horses a 10-15 min break every 3-4 hours where I park, turn off the truck, check hay, and offer water that they rarely drink.
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I just did my first ~8 hour trip, used most of the tips already mentioned above, and it went very smoothly. I did a write up on my blog: http://trainingcupid.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-long-haul.html
Leave at 4am and call it a day at noon. Split the drive into 2 days.
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I used to do a 13-15 hr haul from the mid-Atlantic down I-81 to Western North Carolina. I had the horses loaded and was rolling south by 3AM to avoid rush hours and arrive at NC by dinner time. I just drove straight thru with the vents opened when hot.
I agree to make sure that all your mechanicals are checked out. I had a flat tire on the trailer in Salem, VA. Although I had a spare, I still had an 8hr drive in front of me and didn’t want to do it without a spare. I was fortunate to make it to a Goodyear dealer to buy a tire before the dealership closed at 1PM on a Saturday.
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700/800 miles?.. stop half way if traffic is light otherwise as several others have said every three hours. We RARELY to almost never hauled in the summer afternoons.
Like others it was not uncommon for us to haul long distance without the stock every being phased, but then they were accustom to the ride
I have routinely done drives between 12-16 hours for the last few years. During summer heat, I usually leave at zero dark thirty, typically between 1 and 2 a.m. I only stop to fill up with diesel, and offer the horses water then. They very rarely actually drink. I have plenty of hay in front of them at all times, and always haul with extra hay and water. I have enough hay and water that if we got stuck somewhere for a couple days we would be fine.
I use shavings on the floor that are lightly watered down to help with cooling and dust, and the longer the trip the more shavings I put down, within reason. I open the trailer as much as possible. All roof vents open and forward facing, drop down windows on the head side down, with jail bars up and screens on the jailbars. I have stock slats on the butt side, and I remove all the plexiglass. When I had a trailer with bus windows on the butt side, they were always fully open.
I do not off load load until we get to our final destination. My horses are all excellent loaders, but many times I am by myself, in high traffic areas, where if a horse were to get away or refused to load could be disasterous.
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We haul our ponies several times a year anywhere between 8 - 24hr. Never had any issues and they travel quite well. We always start in the evening, depending on how far we are going. We tend to start around 6-10pm and drive until around 2am. We stop at truck stops and sleep until 6am or so and finish off our drive.
We have a camera on the ponies so we can see how they are doing. I always offer water but I dont think I’ve ever had a pony drink. I have wet down the hay before I leave if its really hot.
I also use a lot of shavings and we have 12v fans that run on them in case we get stuck in traffic. I never unload and they come off the trailer happy and bright eyed. We also open vents and windows if its hot out. The ponies tend to heat up the trailer quite a bit!
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Can I carry there hay across state lines?
The more research I do, the more concerned I’ve become.
In past posts people have mentioned:
- Health certificates for the horses for each state
- Stopping at the “Port of Entry” for each state (I know in a typical RV/Travel Trailer situation you can blow off all weigh stations - is that true with a LQ horse trailer?)
We just want to camp and trail ride with her sister.
It depends on where you will be traveling.
I think it is law in most (all?) states that you need a health certificate if traveling between states. You only need one certificate from your home state. Your vet can do it for normally around $30 + farm call fees and they are good for 30 days. It basically just involves a visual once-over of the horse, recording their temperature, and noting that their Coggins is current.
While I don’t suggest circumventing the law, depending on where you live, you may or may not truly need a health certificate. Maryland, for example, has an agreement with neighboring states that horses from those states don’t need health certificates to come and go. I grew up in Pennsylvania where we used to cross state lines frequently and no one ever required a health certificate (I honestly didn’t even know what one was until I left for college). I used to travel between TN and KY regularly, and while I usually carried a certificate, no one ever asked to see it.
Florida, on the other hand, actually has interstate checkpoints and takes it quite seriously.
I honestly don’t know what a “Port of Entry” is in terms of traveling between states-- I’m envisioning a border crossing? Or the ag stations they have in Florida? Again, Florida is the only state I’ve personally traveled to that has such a thing… maybe someone else can weigh in…
Re: Hay. Of course you can carry hay across state lines! I’ve never encountered otherwise???
Vet certs are technically necessary whenever you cross state lines but it depends on where you are going. Usually, I just see them requested at final stop and only, very “public” final stops such as race tracks or recognized/high level shows. If you are going to a camp ground or someone’s house it would be best to have one but likely no one will ask. Make sure you do have a current coggins handy.
When travelling across state, I do not know of anyone that stopped at weigh stations with personal horse trailers (not sure about commercial trailers) nor to I know of anyone stopping at a port of entry.
Laws and enforcement of them vary by area. I can trail ride my horse between MD/PA and stay within Fair Hill Natural Resource Center (technically, it is not Fair Hill in PA but it is all the same park//former DuPont estate) and just off Fair Hill, I can walk about a half mile down the road to get to DE. So, around this area (to include NJ), checking for certs/coggins is pretty lax unless going to certain show grounds.
So really, it all depends - my understanding is bigger states, especially the middle of bigger states, tend to be more strict than smaller states and areas closer to state borders.
What states will you be traveling in or through?
The states matter. Where are you going to and from where?
you can absolutely haul hay anywhere. You need certified weed free hay in specific places, sure…but no state prohibits hay transportation carte blanche. Some campgrounds only allow local firewood…one more thing to think about
Florida and California require you to stop at the state line at the ag station. I don’t know of other states that do…
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I will be leaving Minnesota, traveling through Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and camping in Ohio.
The health certificate indicates dates of travel and where you came from and where you’re going. The states in the middle of the trip don’t need their own HCs.
if you blow by a FL ag station with an empty horse trailer, they will hunt you down and be Very Grumpy even if the trailer is empty. Ask me how I know this. 
(In all fairness, I am a former Floridian, I know you are supposed to stop, but this was a little branch station well off the main highways and I blew past it before I even saw it)
In the past I’ve done 12 hour trips regularly in the Atlanta to SFL boogie, but typically that was in winter so the weather was not too hot so that was never a consideration. Still, I’d rather drive fresh in the dark as opposed to tired in the dark, so leaving early makes good sense then as well.
Mine are all lousy drinkers while traveling with water from home or anywhere and it used to bother me a lot. It still bothers me, but after 20 years and no ill effects I can live with it. That doesn’t mean I don’t keep trying though!
I tried some stuff called Rein Water at home a few weeks ago. That was not the preferred drink of fjords (and he is a good drinker post workout so he really said no at that point). Then I picked up a packet of Horse Quenchers. OK when I opened it I was like WTF, $3 for basically a packet of grain to throw in the bucket. Um, I could do that. But damn, he drank 3/4 gallon like it was the best stuff ever, I added another half gallon water to it, kept drinking, and after I was done cooling him off (hard work driving) I put the rest of it in the stall with him and he literally licked the bucket dry… So hey, I’m going to try that out the next time we go on a bit of a road trip.
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None of those states have an ag station, so you do not need to worry about that. What you should have is a Vet Inspection Certificate. Your regular vet can do this. It basically states that you’ve got a negative coggins within the last 12 months and the horse/s were healthy at the time of visual inspection. Your vet will need the address of your final location for the form and it will cover the entire trip. You’ll want to have a hard copy of the form, and of your coggins test for whatever horses you will have with you.
So long as your horses travel well, it’s really not a big deal. You’ll want to make sure your tank does not dip below 1/2, and stop every 4 hours or so - check haynets and offer water from home. I agree that this time of year - you’d be better off driving overnight if you feel like you can safely do so.
Try to avoid passing through Chicago during rush hour.
Assuming you have a private rig (likely since you’re asking these questions) you do not need to go through the weigh stations. Depending on the route you’re taking you will have some toll roads - the wide clearance lanes at the toll stations are usually all the way to the right. I’d recommend staying right in general on the toll roads around Chicago - they have open tolling so if you’re too far left, you’ll miss the pay stations for those of us without the proper transponder. That being said - it’s not a fatal mistake. If you miss one, just try to remember which one/s it was as you can go online and pay the toll after the fact.
Most of all - relax and enjoy your trip - after it’s done you’ll wonder why you were so worried!
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