Thanks everyone for your help.
One other tip that I may add, try to soak the hay before you leave, It will get some much-needed hydration into the horses, especially if they wonāt drink en route. It was the one thing I couldnāt do on our BC-Montana trip last year. Also, if itās warm, try throwing some ice cubes in among the shavings, which when melting/evaporating will help to keep the trailer area cooler
I guess thatās 2 tipsā¦
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If are going to So. or Central Ohio look at a routing of I-94 Madison, then I-90 Rockford (IL), I-39 to Bloomington, the I-74 to Champaign, then I-70 to Dayton and then to your destination in Central or So. Ohio. If you are going to No. Ohio then Iād start as above and then take I-39 as far as LaSalle (IL) and then take I-80 East. It will merge with I-90 and take that all the way to the Toledo area and then on to your destination. This will add some mileage to your trip (you will be going on two sides of a triangle) but the only heavy traffic area will be I-80 across the south side of the Chicago area. And no tolls until you get east of Chicago approaching Indiana.
Do NOT plan on refueling in the Chicago metro area. They have a heavy duty ātransportationā tax on gasoline.
You need a health certificate to cross state lines, along with your Coggins. IL has a separate permitting system. Go here for details. https://www2.illinois.gov/sites/agr/Animals/AnimalHealth/Pages/Animal-Health-Welfare-Laws.aspx Weāve hauled across IL before and itās no big deal.
We stop every couple of hours for a pit stop, lunch, etc. We donāt unload and stopped offering water several years ago as none of ours ever drank any. We do make sure there is a full hay bag. That seems to keep them happy enough.
Drive defensively and youāll not have any serious issues.
Good luck in your trip.
G.
This is the exact route we are planning. We have made this trip multiple times. This is the first time we are dragging the horses along. Iām sure we would be better off renting horses somewhere - but apparently that is out of the question. :sigh:
If you can haul for six you can haul for thirteen. Itās just a bit harder on your butt!!! 
I would not go a lot beyond that. We did one trip, did it at night with three drivers, and I was kind of āwiped slickā for a couple of days. I wonāt do that again. But Iām also well into āsenior citizenā status so that might have something to do with it!
As long as your horses are in reasonably good health and are not ātrailer fightersā or have some other ātransportation viceā youāll do just fine.
Enjoy your trip!
G.
in our horse first aid kit we always had tubes of electrolyte paste
