hauling your own horse. - HELP

[candyappy]

@soloudinhere

I think the answer to this heavily depends on the type of trailer you have.

two spacious box stalls on a gooseneck with a decent driver? Not that big a deal.

tiny 2h steel stock trailer that bounces all over the road? Substantially different proposition.

When I married I moved from CA to a state 2000 miles East. My new husband and I hauled my 2 horses in my straight load BP trailer. We did stop overnight at various " horse motels" ( it was 27 years ago) and we took 5 days.
My horses did just fine.

Hauling from Iowa to Mississippi is certainly doable. We have hauled up to 16 hours with just stopping for gas and a quick meal when we moved multiple times over the years. I now have a 16 foot stock trailer so they have much more room.

I would always choose hauling my own over a commercial shipper.

[BeeHoney]

I think the answer to this question is, it depends. What is your experience and comfort level with hauling? How well does your young horse load, unload, and travel? If you have to unload your young horse en route due to some unforeseen circumstance, would you be able to re-load him? What would your comfort level be to deal with an on the road emergency or difficulty? What type of truck and trailer do you have? What kind of support do you have, i.e. do you have another good driver who also has horse experience traveling with you?

I’d trailer two moderately experienced, reasonably well behaved horses that distance in a heartbeat…but a horse that is an inexperienced traveller or a driver that is an inexperienced hauler, or a rig that isn’t well suited for a long distance drive could add a lot of potential for trouble.

[Guilherme]

@candyappy

When I married I moved from CA to a state 2000 miles West. My new husband and I hauled my 2 horses in my straight load BP trailer. We did stop overnight at various " horse motels" ( it was 27 years ago) and we took 5 days.
My horses did just fine.

Hauling from Iowa to Mississippi is certainly doable. We have hauled up to 16 hours with just stopping for gas and a quick meal when we moved multiple times over the years. I now have a 16 foot stock trailer so they have much more room.

I would always choose hauling my own over a commercial shipper.

You moved from CA to a state 2000 miles WEST? By motor vehicle? THAT’S a trip I wanna hear about!!!

G.

[Palm_Beach]

^^^ Me too!!! Sea-horse motels?

[js]

@Guilherme

You moved from CA to a state 2000 miles WEST? By motor vehicle? THAT’S a trip I wanna hear about!!!

G.

From Canada to the West or maybe California to Alaska? That could account for a 2000 mile trip.

We moved from Alaska to Alabama, it was over 3000 miles, we shipped the horse via transport from AK to NM, picked horse up in NM and hauled it and another to AL. It was a very long trip.

[HungarianHippo]

Maybe the starting point for candyappy was California, Missouri? LOL

To the OP, as you can tell with all these answers here, it really depends on how accurately you’re judging the situation. Even though the trip itself seems do-able, it’s hard to give an unqualified “Sure, Go for it!!” response without knowing the people, horses, or equipment quality. Maybe you can ask a trusted trainer in your area their opinion on the road-worthiness of your horses, crew and equipment, just to get a hands-on opinion?

If in your most conservative, careful judgment you are confident that:
–all drivers (OP, the dad, etc) are skilled and compassionate at pulling a horse trailer in a way that won’t stress/tire out the horses
–the rig is large enough and in good mechanical shape
–both horses travel well together

Then sure, go for it.

If you want to go commercial, I can highly recommend Yoder Equine Transport. He’s based in Iowa, so I bet you could catch a ride south with him. His rates were reasonable and good quality service.

[GraceLikeRain]

Another piece to consider is that you are still teaching one horse to haul. If it is longer than 7-8 hours, you’ll need to unload and ideally stable overnight. Green hauler may gladly load the first time and then decide that the idea of hopping on a trailer for another day of riding around sounds like a really bad idea. Are you willing to problem solve through that if you have a green hauler who decides he doesn’t want to load? Is he the type that you could probably get him back on but he’d be a hot mess and risk hurting himself or stressing out your good loader?

I’d much rather have a green hauler in a pro rig for a substantial haul than in the back of a personal trailer.

[tabula_rashah]

For me, I’d absolutely haul myself as long as I had a reliable truck and trailer- 12 hours isn’t that long of a haul. And no way would I stop and stay overnight during- that’s just more stress for your horse. The ideal of “pro-haulers” gives me nightmares, way too many horror stories and ones I’ve personally witnessed.

[TMares]

The OP was so desperate for HELP that she joined and posted yesterday morning and hasn’t been back :lol:

[candyappy]

@Guilherme

You moved from CA to a state 2000 miles WEST? By motor vehicle? THAT’S a trip I wanna hear about!!!

G.

OOPS !! I meant EAST!! It was an interesting way to spend my honeymoon!

[soloudinhere]

@tabula rashah

For me, I’d absolutely haul myself as long as I had a reliable truck and trailer- 12 hours isn’t that long of a haul. And no way would I stop and stay overnight during- that’s just more stress for your horse. The ideal of “pro-haulers” gives me nightmares, way too many horror stories and ones I’ve personally witnessed.

The stress for them mentally of unloading and living in a strange place overnight is usually outweighed by giving the horse the ability to stretch, turn around, clear their airway, have some water, and lie down to take a weight off (so to speak) and get a break from the constant vibration of the trailer on the road.

the drive straight through from CT to Wellington is about 21 hours, 1400 miles. We always layover at about the 14 hour mark to give them a chance to just rest. I wouldn’t do it for a 12 hour trip but longer than that it’s a necessity I think, and also gives drivers a chance to rest and therefore drive safely.

[Guilherme]

@candyappy

OOPS !! I meant EAST!! It was an interesting way to spend my honeymoon!

I’ll bet it was!!! :lol:

G.

[tabula_rashah]

@soloudinhere

The stress for them mentally of unloading and living in a strange place overnight is usually outweighed by giving the horse the ability to stretch, turn around, clear their airway, have some water, and lie down to take a weight off (so to speak) and get a break from the constant vibration of the trailer on the road.

the drive straight through from CT to Wellington is about 21 hours, 1400 miles. We always layover at about the 14 hour mark to give them a chance to just rest. I wouldn’t do it for a 12 hour trip but longer than that it’s a necessity I think, and also gives drivers a chance to rest and therefore drive safely.

I drove MD to Wellington and back many, many years. We always found the horses arrived fresher without a layover (it’s 18 hours without traffic). Of course, my preference would always be to have them in box stalls where they could move and they were always given a couple of good breaks along the way and water was offered at every stop. We also did the drive with 2 drivers. The longest I’ve done is MD to Denver, CO. That I did break into 3 days because I drove it myself

[candyappy]

@soloudinhere

The stress for them mentally of unloading and living in a strange place overnight is usually outweighed by giving the horse the ability to stretch, turn around, clear their airway, have some water, and lie down to take a weight off (so to speak) and get a break from the constant vibration of the trailer on the road.

the drive straight through from CT to Wellington is about 21 hours, 1400 miles. We always layover at about the 14 hour mark to give them a chance to just rest. I wouldn’t do it for a 12 hour trip but longer than that it’s a necessity I think, and also gives drivers a chance to rest and therefore drive safely.

I agree.
My horses seemed to appreciate the overnight rest stops. In all reality it is no different than stabling at a show or event. With a trip that long we had no choice and the " motels" had covered pipe paddocks for them away from all other horses.

If it is 16 hours max we drive it straight through and with the room in a stock trailer they can shift and change positions at will. What I find interesting is the fact that my 2 will turn to face the back of the trailer ( looking at the road) and basically not move a muscle the whole way.

[soloudinhere]

@tabula rashah

I drove MD to Wellington and back many, many years. We always found the horses arrived fresher without a layover (it’s 18 hours without traffic). Of course, my preference would always be to have them in box stalls where they could move and they were always given a couple of good breaks along the way and water was offered at every stop. We also did the drive with 2 drivers. The longest I’ve done is MD to Denver, CO. That I did break into 3 days because I drove it myself

Mine are in box stalls, but it is just not realistic to go straight through for 24 hours with only two drivers. The only time I have done straight through is when I had one that I did not feel safe unloading and loading again. They chilled on the trailer while we napped for two hours but it’s really not wise.

[clanter]

OP should sell the horses and just move,