Need Advice on shipping old horses

[moonlitoaksranch]

I’d haul them myself and take a look at them whenever you stop for gas and food, but it depends on how good you are at driving a horse trailer. Are you good at hauling? Are you calm and take turns and stops slowly? Is your trailer safe and well equipped? Water is always a concern. You can flavor your water troughs with something that you can take on the road and use at the overnight stop and at rest stops. I used ACV, but many use a little powdered drink mix.

When I was in the USN, my 26 year old mare went coast to coast with me a month after colic surgery. When she was 30, we went from Virginia to Rhode Island and back. She did fine.

The horse who gets the runs on hay…he might need some senior feed watered down. It seems like the old ones have trouble with their teeth properly chewing the hay and that’s what causes diarrhea. Our old gelding had issues with that and we switched him to a watered down senior feed diet and he did great. He could eat pasture grass, but the hay would too course and long.

The one with ataxia…what does your vet recommend? That sounds like it could be bad in a trailer.

[HappyTalk]

I should add that these were show/ competition horses that were hauled extensively when they were competing. Two of them were boarded in a herd for a couple of summers and did fine ( the show horses transitioned into competitive trail in their older years and were boarded at a farm near trails for conditioning) The one with ataxia was ridden and jumped until the ataxia hit at age 26. The horses just haven’t been hauled off the property for the last 4-5 years as they were in total retirement.

We decided to take the one with ataxia on a test trailer ride to see how he does and make our decision from there. We have a straight load and he can lean on the walls if he needs to.

We are going to haul ourselves as it is interstate almost the entire way and we can stop at the rest stops for rest breaks. We will arrange to layover in KY to let them rest and stretch their legs. That is about a 5 hour trip and close to the halfway point. If we leave early morning, we will make KY by early afternoon. We are going to bring our own water for the trip. We are experienced at trailering; we have always hauled ourselves to competitions and out to trail ride.

We do not have an option to board here until cooler weather. The stables around here are very marginal and these guys need to be checked on and medicated. I do not trust anyone here to do this. We can watch the weather and plan accordingly.

Thanks for everyone’s input!

[Zu_Zu]

[B]Safe Travels ~

Jingles & AO ~[/B]

[KnockedOut]

I have a 22 year old OTTB that hauls fine on short distances (like to shows, trainer, vet etc) but he’s definitely not happy about it. When I moved cross country I figured I had two options. One, leave him where he was and accept that he’s happy there even though I will miss him. Or, two - I was going to haul him with a catheter and run fluids the whole trip. Fluids, no stopping, get there as fast as possible and most likely go straight to the nearest vet hospital and have him stay for a few days for more fluids and any other treatment.

Needless to say he stayed where he was. I miss him, but I know he’s well taken care of and much happier not having to make the trip.

[AKB]

We moved from Virginia to Ocala, FL 2 years ago. Creech, who shipped our 3, recommended they go in a stall and a half rather than box stalls. They picked them up in the evening, and the horses arrived 14 hours later. All arrived in good shape, including the one with chronic laminitis. The travel and the transition seemed easy for them. We do have 9 acres of good pasture and a cool, concrete block, barn.

My concerns about moving your guys are their poor health, and that they will be boarded when you get to Aiken. Boarding may be very hard on them. If you do move them, I would use a professional shipper with a top reputation. Euthanasia may be your best option.

[Equisis]

OP, I don’t think there is any easy answer here. The mini sounds like the best candidate to move- older but not ancient, and in relatively good health. Personally, I would not consider shipping an ataxic horse for that distance, nor would I be comfortable moving him from home to a boarding situation. If he goes down on the trailer, you will have a major problem on your hands, or if he becomes so ataxic on the journey that he cannot load at your layover. Also consider that many boarding facilities may not be able to accommodate him, due to the safety risk of handling ataxic horses, and the complications that arise in group turnout situations, difficulty finding farriers willing to work on ataxic animals, etc. For me, he would be a candidate for compassionate euthanasia prior to your departure.

The other two are a bit of a grey area. I have an older arthritic horse and I have long told myself that when he can no longer handle his normal activities- including but not limited to getting up and down comfortably, getting his feet trimmed, and making it down to the lower pasture/back up to the barn, I will euthanize. It sounds like one of your horses, that was unable to be trimmed, may be teetering on the edge of this line. This, combined with the metabolic issues, would make me think long and hard about their quality of life with the stress of a move. Move or euth- I don’t think either decision is wrong, and you need to evaluate your level of comfort.

[HappyTalk]

We have done a couple of 2 hour test trailer rides and all of the horses handled it well. We are trailering ourselves because we can stop and rest them every few hours. We have a layover planned in Lexington, KY. Our vet was out to examine them this week and he didn’t see a reason for them not to be shipped. As he put it, they are old but they are basically in good health. The ataxia that affects the one horse is intermittent. We can watch him carefully for the best time to trailer him. We did trailer him while ataxic and he just leaned against the trailer wall. He did not have any trouble loading/unloading. The one that had trouble with getting his feet trimmed was helped by adding dormosedan gel with the bute. It relaxed him enough that he was better able to hold up his feet and we were able to get it done correctly We found a facility with very nice pasture board which is what they are on 3 seasons out of the year here. We hope to ship everyone down early July. Waiting on one Coggins so we can get the health certificates done.

[Bluey]

@HappyTalk

We have done a couple of 2 hour test trailer rides and all of the horses handled it well. We are trailering ourselves because we can stop and rest them every few hours. We have a layover planned in Lexington, KY. Our vet was out to examine them this week and he didn’t see a reason for them not to be shipped. As he put it, they are old but they are basically in good health. The ataxia that affects the one horse is intermittent. We can watch him carefully for the best time to trailer him. We did trailer him while ataxic and he just leaned against the trailer wall. He did not have any trouble loading/unloading. The one that had trouble with getting his feet trimmed was helped by adding dormosedan gel with the bute. It relaxed him enough that he was better able to hold up his feet and we were able to get it done correctly We found a facility with very nice pasture board which is what they are on 3 seasons out of the year here. We hope to ship everyone down early July. Waiting on one Coggins so we can get the health certificates done.

You can add cameras inside your trailer and watch them all the time as you drive, in case something happens, or if all is ok drive longer, etc.

I-Ball is a wireless camera we have and works well for that. There are others also.
Ours is old and cost 1/2 that years ago, get plenty of batteries:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/iBall-5-8GHz-Wireless-Magnetic-Trailer-Hitch-Car-Truck-Rear-View-Camera-LCD-Monitor/145216055?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=2267&&adid=22222222227063200536&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=169709582535&wl4=pla-277218310463&wl5=1026182&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=113719209&wl11=online&wl12=145216055&veh=sem&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIl_LPuZKg6gIVjobACh0YoQEEEAQYAyABEgI_ufD_BwE

[HappyTalk]

Update on my guys. We shipped the 31 year old with the periodic ataxia and the 27-28 year old with cushings. They did extremely well. We picked a cooler time to ship and gave rest breaks every 2-3 hours. We also brought our own water for the overnight stay to encourage them to drink. We laid over at the Horse Lodge in Lexington (highly recommend) for one night and then finished the trip to Tryon the next day. They ate the whole way and actually looked like they enjoyed the trip. We stayed for two days to make sure they settled in at the new barn.

[hoopoe]

oh man that is a happy post. continued good wishes in your new home