This bears repeating!
I saw exactly the same thing in my own. Hauled two myself CO to MN, sent two commercially. The horses I hauled were TIRED. The two sent commercially came through much better, even in stall & a halfs. It was clear the old lady would have done better in a box stall, though.
Then sent all four commercially MN to CT in box stalls. They all walked off the trailer as fresh as they walked out of their stalls in the barn every morning.
There is no other way to ship long distance, IMO.
