Horse Haulers from Hell "Wellington Equine Express"

[Gayle_in_Oregon]

Thread on warning. List haulers to avoid. I just had the worst experience of 30 years of using professional transporters. This one hired by my kind and wonderful client. The company is Wellington Equine Express supposedly based in Florida with a dispatcher called “Dawn”. They ‘hooked’ my customer with a new type seven horse slant with a ‘horse whisperer’ driver and we got “baited and switched” 7 days late, to a dangerous, old, steel, unpadded, low ceilinged, angle iron exposed, stock trailer that looked like it came from a junk yard. The driver tried to make a ‘divider’ out of nylon tape, electrical wire and rope. I was horrified to say the least and I mean least and had the worst night of my life after they left. A 6 month old colt to spent 5 days on this rig often alone, and along the way injured of course.

I tried to stop them from taking him but I had sold the colt and I got overridden by the buyer who had his back to wall on time and the shipment was already a week late.

I don’t want to bring problems on myself or my clients but I feel even more obligation to warn other breeders and buyers. When I started to complain I got told by Dawn, “Don’t call here any more. You are going to hear from the owner and it will be unpleasant”. I have not heard from the owner.

Horses need to be protected from unscrupulous people. This is my little contribution. If they want to threaten me then I guess that is just going to have to be the way it is.

[UlysMom]

Wow, that’s insane. I just googled them. One rig, one driver, listed as in business since July 2014. I don’t know if I would have let one of mine leave in a set up like that. I’m sorry you were put in this spot and the buyer wasn’t concerned about the potentially unsafe situation.

Was this colt injured during transport?

[YankeeLawyer]

I would not let any horse leave my farm like that. What was the buyer thinking and why on earth the rush to transport a weanling?

[Marla_100]

I would have chased the guy/trailer off the property and then called buyer to schedule a decent/qualified hauler w/ a safe rig.

Learn a lesson from this. sorry you had to learn this way.

[Gayle_in_Oregon]

READ original post carefully, I did tell them to leave but they called the owner who said load em and ship. I am sure they painted me to him as a hysterical ‘woman’. I had sold the colt and he was fully paid for. I had no legal right to override its owner. I want us to share the name of unscrupulous haulers. The original bidder whose company name was given to me and who appeared on the health certificate is NOT who showed up or is who showed up, the ‘first switch’ but the second. The colts owner was leaving for a foreign country and felt he could not wait another several weeks till he returned and he is a very nice person but naïve as was I. I never imagined a rig this bad in my wildest dreams. I think this was a bait and switch and there are people in the world who know how to take advantage of others especially in a time crunch. This transport contract was begun 30 days before this even took place. LISTEN TO ME. THIS HAD ALL THE ELEMENTS OF BAIT AND SWITCH OR CON ARTIST. DONT THINK YOU ARE TOO SMART TO BE CONNED. RATHER PLEASE USE THIS THREAD TO ADD THE NAMES OF UNSCUPULOUS COMPANYS. What I decided is to never allow a hauler to plan to come without pictures of the rig and biography of the actual drivers, not just the boss. I feared and may get retaliation from the shipper. I don’t need it from my fellow breeders in this forum. By posting this I am trying to help others and their horses.

[Daventry]

Simple solution - when you sell a horse, just make sure you are the one booking the transport! We’ve been selling horses and ponies down to the US for approximately 20 years. The one time we allowed a buyer to find a transport company for their new pony, it turned into a complete nightmare. Of course, it was a shipper I had never heard of. Since then, we make sure the buyers know that we will book shipping for them…they just have to pay the shipper and we will do the rest. To be honest, most buyers are relieved that they don’t have to deal with any of it. We have a list of about 10 regular shippers that we use, and of course, phone around and get the best rate possible. I won’t ever let one of our animals leave the property again with a shipper I don’t know. There are just too many scammers and incompetent people shipping horses these days.

I know we weren’t in your shoes at the time, so it’s easy to sit back and arm chair quarterback…but if it had been me, I would have made the shipper wait while I went in and called the new owner and explained what had arrived to pick up the colt. Take photos of the rig and emailing them to the new owner if necessary.

[DownYonder]

Sounds like the “one man shop” that is Wellington Equine Express might be part of that segment of freight haulers that operate by bidding against each other for jobs. I can’t remember what the official term is, but most (all?) of them are independent operators with their own rigs, and they watch certain auction web sites where people list stuff they need shipped, including destination. The operators then bid against each, and the lowest bid gets the job.

If your buyer contracted with one of these folks (probably because he had the low bid), the shipper may have “resold” the run because he wasn’t interested in doing it himself.

Sorry for your youngster! Hope he got to his destination okay and is now kicking up his heels!

[Gayle_in_Oregon]

[QUOTE=Daventry;7775546]
Simple solution - when you sell a horse, just make sure you are the one booking the transport! We’ve been selling horses and ponies down to the US for approximately 20 years. The one time we allowed a buyer to find a transport company for their new pony, it turned into a complete nightmare. Of course, it was a shipper I had never heard of. Since then, we make sure the buyers know that we will book shipping for them…they just have to pay the shipper and we will do the rest. To be honest, most buyers are relieved that they don’t have to deal with any of it. We have a list of about 10 regular shippers that we use, and of course, phone around and get the best rate possible. I won’t ever let one of our animals leave the property again with a shipper I don’t know. There are just too many scammers and incompetent people shipping horses these days.

I know we weren’t in your shoes at the time, so it’s easy to sit back and arm chair quarterback…but if it had been me, I would have made the shipper wait while I went in and called the new owner and explained what had arrived to pick up the colt. Take photos of the rig and emailing them to the new owner if necessary.[/QUOTE]

WHEN I TOLD THEM THEY COULD NOT HAUL THE COLT, THEY CALLED OWNER AND TOLD HIM. I GOT OVER RULED DUE TO A TIME CRUNCH. I EVEN SENT HIM CELL PICTURES OF THE RIG. I KEEP SAYING THIS SO PLEASE, THE PURPOSE HERE IS TO EXPOSE A BAD HAULER OR HAULERS IF YOU KNOW OF ONES THAT SHOULD BE AVOIDED. NOT MONDAY MORNING ARM CHAIR QUARTERBACK ME. AND IF I ARRANGE THE HAULER IT MAKES ME RESPONSIBLE FOR THE RESULT. THAT IS ALSO NOT ACCEPTABLE. BUT, I WILL DEMAND DETAILS ON THE HAULER AND RESUME PLUS PHOTOS OF THE RIG IN THE FUTURE. I HAVE BEEN SHIPPING HORSES ACROSS COUNTRY AND CANADA FOR 30 YEARS AND NEVER EVEN IMAGINED ANYTHING LIKE THIS EXISTED IN THE INDUSTRY BUT CLEARLY IT DOES.

[Gayle_in_Oregon]

[QUOTE=DownYonder;7775594]
Sounds like the “one man shop” that is Wellington Equine Express might be part of that segment of freight haulers that operate by bidding against each other for jobs. I can’t remember what the official term is, but most (all?) of them are independent operators with their own rigs, and they watch certain auction web sites where people list stuff they need shipped, including destination. The operators then bid against each, and the lowest bid gets the job.

If your buyer contracted with one of these folks (probably because he had the low bid), the shipper may have “resold” the run because he wasn’t interested in doing it himself.

Sorry for your youngster! Hope he got to his destination okay and is now kicking up his heels![/QUOTE]

THANK YOU DownYonder. You are the first to actually help. I did not know this ‘segment’ of the industry existed till now. Terrible way to find out. We believe the youngster will be OK and it is kicking up its heals now, in luxury horse on earth heaven after horse hell. I expect he will make a name for himself in a few years or less and I will report back in.

[Gayle_in_Oregon]

I also want to say that this was not the low bid and remember it was supposed to be one company, then the second was a new 7 horse slant with living quarters and a known horse whisperer trainer. That was the hook. This was bait and switch in my opinion. The switch (3rd) was to his brother who obviously had an empty trailer for good reason as it was a cow or sheep trailer, not a horse trailer as we think of them with padded step ups or ramps and padded dividers. My stock style 4 horse even has rubber lined walls as well as rubber lined step up bumper. I have a rubber padded horse-stock trailer and a fancier 4 horse show trailer with camper. Regular livestock they don’t care if they crack a leg on a steel step up or walls or head on a low ceiling. To call the rig that showed up a ‘horse trailer’ is a very long stretch in my considerable experience.

[Janeway]

[QUOTE=Gayle in Oregon;7775652]
WHEN I TOLD THEM THEY COULD NOT HAUL THE COLT, THEY CALLED OWNER AND TOLD HIM. I GOT OVER RULED DUE TO A TIME CRUNCH. I EVEN SENT HIM CELL PICTURES OF THE RIG. I KEEP SAYING THIS SO PLEASE, THE PURPOSE HERE IS TO EXPOSE A BAD HAULER OR HAULERS IF YOU KNOW OF ONES THAT SHOULD BE AVOIDED. NOT MONDAY MORNING ARM CHAIR QUARTERBACK ME. AND IF I ARRANGE THE HAULER IT MAKES ME RESPONSIBLE FOR THE RESULT. THAT IS ALSO NOT ACCEPTABLE. BUT, I WILL DEMAND DETAILS ON THE HAULER AND RESUME PLUS PHOTOS OF THE RIG IN THE FUTURE. I HAVE BEEN SHIPPING HORSES ACROSS COUNTRY AND CANADA FOR 30 YEARS AND NEVER EVEN IMAGINED ANYTHING LIKE THIS EXISTED IN THE INDUSTRY BUT CLEARLY IT DOES.[/QUOTE]

There is no need to yell at Daventry - she was just sharing her experience based on yours. I did not see her as being anyway judgemental :yes:

[Gayle_in_Oregon]

Please lets stay on topic EXPOSE unacceptable practices and shed light on this problem as probably systemic with our tough economy and too much competition for too little hauling work. In over 30 years of using commercial haulers I have never seen a trailer on the road like the one that showed up, not even with cattle or pigs. It was 3rd world-ish but its still out there and how many more like it are on the road right now. And yes as DownYounder said, there are web sites that create bidding and anyone can make a pretty web site or facebook page, right?

[fordtraktor]

Why don’t you post the pictures? I am intrigued to see this rig!

[Polydor]

Yikes. Hope the colt wasn’t badly injured.

P.

[Gayle_in_Oregon]

[QUOTE=fordtraktor;7775717]
Why don’t you post the pictures? I am intrigued to see this rig![/QUOTE]

I would post pictures if I knew how. Walk me through it please

[Calamber]

I would think you could file a complaint with the state where the company is based. Someone at the state AG’s office should be able to give you direction.

[dani0303]

[QUOTE=Calamber;7775774]
I would think you could file a complaint with the state where the company is based. Someone at the state AG’s office should be able to give you direction.[/QUOTE]

You should be able to go through DOT as well. He may not be “up to code” so to speak.

[Simkie]

[QUOTE=Gayle in Oregon;7775744]
I would post pictures if I knew how. Walk me through it please[/QUOTE]

Upload to a site like photobucket and copy/paste the link here.

[siegi_b]

Gayle in Oregon… as much as you don’t like folks to critizise what you did and would like other examples of bad shippers, in the end you didn’t have to let the foal get on that sorry excuse of a trailer. There is something called the “power of conviction” and once that is there it will determine the course of your actions. I think I would have returned the buyer’s check before I would have allowed any of my foals to get on such a rig - how’s that for an option out of a situation like that? Besides, there isn’t a court in this country that would have sided with the buyer’s demands given all the pictures you took demonstrating the deplorable condition of the trailer. And no, I have never had that kind of experience in my over 30 years of breeding and selling horses.

[Daventry]

[QUOTE=siegi b.;7775896]
I think I would have returned the buyer’s check before I would have allowed any of my foals to get on such a rig - how’s that for an option out of a situation like that? [/QUOTE]

Yep, that’s what I would have done…and was thinking that as I read her story. Although, I totally understand that everybody’s circumstances are different, not everyone has that luxury to risk losing a sale or can act quickly in a difficult situation and stand up for themselves. Most people don’t like conflict and want to try and give the other person the benefit of the doubt. I always listen to my gut. If you’re uncomfortable and questioning whether it is the right thing to do, your gut is probably right and there is something wrong with the situation.

As a breeder, I feel 100% responsible for my stock and am fully committed to making sure they are happy and healthy. I realize that once they leave my property, their care and training is out of my hands…but until then, they are still my babies. I brought them into this world, so it is my responsibility to make sure they are well cared for.

This time, she can feel free to yell at me!