Does anyone here have any personal experience having a horse shipped by air? I’m looking into flying mine from Austin to near Seattle. I have four horses now, so there’s a decent element of “bulk purchase discount” involved. I could fly the four of them in those narrow little horse-trailer type stalls for 18k, or I could have them all shipped by truck in a “special” shipment (they would be the only horses on board, on a direct transport) via Equine Express, in 8x9 box stalls, for 13k.
Travelling by air, point-to-point transportation time looks to be about 12-14 hours, compared to “two or three days” by truck. If they go in the truck, they stay in the truck the whole time and the truck only stops to feed and water and change drivers. So it basically never stops moving.
I’m thinking that the flight would be pretty stressful, but I’m also starting to think that half a day’s worth of a fair amount of stress, compared two to three days never stopping in a truck, might be better for them. Two of them are senior horses, and one of those seniors is basically being held together with bubble gum and prayers at this point (very bad stifle; she’s totally pasture sound but she basically has nothing left of that joint).
I’m wondering if anyone has any personal experience flying their horse(s) that they’d be willing to share? Do you think it was the right decision? Did it seem to be OK for the horses?