Transporting Horses Long Distance
As I get ready to make a 4 day trip across the country with some horses, I thought it would be helpful to document the procedures I take in order to help others plan similar trips. Hopefully this will be helpful to anyone new to transporting horses long distances on their own.
The Trip:
Where and Why: We are driving from Montana to Kentucky, then back again, to pick up a stallion I recently bought.
Paying for It: It occurred to me that it is a bit of a waste to drive to Kentucky with an empty trailer, so I put and ad on Craigslist in all the major cities we will be passing through asking if anyone needed transport in that direction and could split the cost of the trip with us. Ended up picking up 3 horses in Minnisota who needed to get to Kentucky. That will cover half our costs for the trip
Timing: We are not planning on rushing this trip - we don't want to drive more than 10 hours per day if we can help it, and we also wanted to stop and see family along the way, so we planned an extra couple days for that. We will then stay 2 days in Kentucky to look at a couple additional horses we may want to buy - there are a few breeds of horses which are very common in Kentucky but rare in Montana. We could easily buy them there, bring them home and re-sell them for a higher price. That will also help off-set the cost of the trip.
Other Resources: Here are some of the resources I found most helpful in learning about transporting horses long distances. They don't all agree on every detail, but each was useful in a significant way.
Where and Why: We are driving from Montana to Kentucky, then back again, to pick up a stallion I recently bought.
Paying for It: It occurred to me that it is a bit of a waste to drive to Kentucky with an empty trailer, so I put and ad on Craigslist in all the major cities we will be passing through asking if anyone needed transport in that direction and could split the cost of the trip with us. Ended up picking up 3 horses in Minnisota who needed to get to Kentucky. That will cover half our costs for the trip
Timing: We are not planning on rushing this trip - we don't want to drive more than 10 hours per day if we can help it, and we also wanted to stop and see family along the way, so we planned an extra couple days for that. We will then stay 2 days in Kentucky to look at a couple additional horses we may want to buy - there are a few breeds of horses which are very common in Kentucky but rare in Montana. We could easily buy them there, bring them home and re-sell them for a higher price. That will also help off-set the cost of the trip.
Other Resources: Here are some of the resources I found most helpful in learning about transporting horses long distances. They don't all agree on every detail, but each was useful in a significant way.