So, I purchased two trackers for my cats from Tractive when I trailered down to Florida because I was fearful that one might slip out during the trip. No need, they were good. After hearing two horror stories at the barn and of course COTH is filled with these, I decided to GPS my horse for the trip back. I attached it to her halter and damned if I couldn’t see where she was, all the rest stops taken, how long, and the fact that the driver drove the speed limit. Unfortunately, the battery ran out 2/3 of the way. Next lengthy trip I will buy the Adventure Dog XL tag that has a 5-15 day battery life. I also suggest joining the FB site called Horse Transport Reviews. Scammers are regularly called out there. Plus, I learned the latest scam is to set up an account/shipment with a company, then turn around and use the contract they send to masquerade as the company. There is a federal site that lists all DOT numbers, contact info, inspection results and insurance info for commercial haulers. Trust, but verify. https://safer.fmcsa.dot.gov/CompanySnapshot.aspx
I sewed an AirTag into my horse’s halter when he was shipping to me. Watched him the entire way. 10/10 would do that again.
If you’re the type of person who uses tail bags, I’ve heard of people dropping a GPS tracker in one of those. They didn’t want the hauler to know the horse was being tracked in case the hauler tried to remove it. The owner got a tracker off Amazon; it lasted several days (it was a cross country haul) and had both coordinates and speed/stops. This was several years ago that I read that suggestion so there might be even better trackers than before.
Agreed. I didn’t want anyone to know I had an AirTag on my horse so I got a halter with a fleece noseband and opened up one of the seams, slid the AirTag in, then sewed it back up. You can’t tell it’s there.
This is an absolutely brilliant idea!
This sounds like it would be a good idea in a natural disaster type situation as well. Braid a tracker into the mane or tail and you would hopefully be able to locate the horse if needed.
I worked several FEMA disasters, it is best to write your contact info on the sides of the horse using livestock crayons as most loose horses can not be caught easily. From a distance a person can obtain the owner’s contact info.
When Caught each is run through a sorting chute to be scanned for ID chips,
Getting a call looking for a Bay Mare there may be several thousand in the pens
If you use an AirTag rather than a GPS tracker, which typically involves subscription charges, there will be gaps in the travel tracking, and no information about speed, but the $25 price is great.
And if the driver has an iphone and hasn’t turned off its tracking settings you can follow location in almost real time.
I was thinking in addition to other forms of ID. I would think in that situation the more ways to identify the animal the better.
Another thing you can do is get a little case for the air tag and braid it into the middle of your horses’ tail. No one can see it, and if you worry they may change the halter or something, this will fix that.
Edit: you can also do this with tack. The air tags are slim enough to slip into the crevices of a saddle (think the area for saddlers to stick flocking in), in tack trunks, half pads, etc.
yes also detailed photographs of YOUR(S) sure assisted in positive ID, few had the photos since usually their homes had been destroyed
Horses such as Morgans could be traced to owners of record by DNA samples, I guess other breeds also would have DNA on file
Air Tags (apple) and Tile (android) are invaluable . They have a great battery life. They work on being in vicinity of peoples phones and sny transport using the interstate should communicate freely.
I had a friend track sport equipment in a jet, from her home in Washington to its destination in Italy
If you use an Airtag and one of the drivers has an iphone, they may get an alert that they are being tracked. A bunch of parents around here put airtags in their kids diaper bags years back to track their nannies and this happened. Not necessarily a deal breaker, but worth knowing about before you do it.
