Say you are having a horse hauled 1000 miles. Big city to big city. How much would you expect to pay for transport?
Last spring, similar distance, small town to small town, estimates ranged from about $1300 to about $2800.
The most important factor affecting price seemed to be whether or not they were hauling other horses along a route that I was close to. The highest price quote was from a shipper who said he would have to make a special run that would have been a round trip there and back for just my horse. The lowest quote was from a shipper who was meandering his way across the midwest to the southeast, zigging, zagging, and circling around to pick up and drop off random horses along the way.
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Probably around $2k at the moment.
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Box stall, single, or stall-and-a-half? I would budget for $2 a loaded mile and be happy if one of the big names quoted less.
Here’s a thread from summer 2019 with lots of prices and additional info on what things influence the price:
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Ok, feel hella lot better. I paid $1500 for an 8X8 box stall transported with another horse (in an adjoining stall) that he knew.
I got absurdly lucky just a year ago: a $1 a mile for small town midwest to small town New England, little over a 1000 miles. But, it wasn’t an easy trip either, for most of it the horse was the only horse in a regular stock gooseneck trailer, with a long layover during a snowstorm. The horse definitely dropped a lot of weight. The price was cheap and I was ok with it because: a) the breeder knew the hauler, and the hauler was picking up a last load on the coast before real winter shut hauling down, so I basically was paying for a repositioning run. I wouldn’t have done it otherwise.
In summation: I’d be happy to pay closer to $1.50 plus per mile.
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I have never shipped a horse so had no idea of the going rate but I knew the accommodations would be good and it was a straight thru drive in good weather. I got up and made sure he had a huge mash before he left.
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I don’t know about horse transport but most people here hauling livestock are between $1.50- $ 3.50 a loaded mile . We had an Angus bull delivered and he was the $ 1.50 and that was pretty local and the couple was older.
I think most would be $2.00-$3.50 as we were quoted on several occasions.
Whew! No wonder folks try to do it themselves.
I just hauled one 500 miles (about 1k round trip)myself because the rates are so insane at the moment. I went 7.5h spent the night, picked him up early in the am and drove back home. It cost me about $200+ including $55 at the motel.
Last one I had shipped commercially came from Illinois to Texas and cost $1,000. That was in 2017.
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Well the transport companies have a lot of overhead we normal haulers don’t. Employees, insurance and massive truck/ trailers to pay for and fill will fuel…
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How do you check out a shipper? We called several references but of course they are given by the shipper. Any suggestions?
Most commercial shippers have facebook pages. Might be a good place to start. I’m on the Facebook page Major League Eventers. Follow them on FB and post a question about what you re looking for.
Starting a thread here is an option, I did that when I was considering a commercial shipper last year. After a couple of false starts I ended up just taking off work and going to get the pony myself.
Ask for a sample contract and read all the fine print. (One that I reviewed insisted that if my horse damaged the trailer, I would have to pay for the damage in cash before they unloaded the horse.)
Make sure they are properly licensed and insured for interstate commerce. Understand exactly what can go wrong if they are not.
