Can you FedEx my horse? Shipping my new horse across the country
After buying a horse on the Internet, you then have to figure out how to ship it. Add in hurricane season and you've got quite the adventure for this Florida baby boomer!
by Karen Prell
After taking the plunge into shopping for and actually buying a horse via the Internet, I now had to figure out just how do I get my new “baby” safely home to Florida all the way from Payback Ranch in the mountains of Idaho.
Let me say here that as a lifelong rider and horse show enthusiast, I know about hauling my horse down the road in my little two-horse-trailer to go to a local show or to access some great trails for trail riding. These days you just hitch up the pick up and trailer. In my case, it's a two-horse Brenderup trailer and Chevy Pick up. I load my horse and down the road I go!
I vividly remember the days of loading my horse onto my trainer’s six horse van and watching with fingers crossed to see if he would walk quietly up the ramp. It was very steep and ended with said horsey partner being about three feet higher off the ground once he settled into his assigned stall. Fortunately for all involved back then, my horse Copyboy was a real trooper. When it came to traveling to shows, he would get on just about anything, as that meant he was going to show, which meant everyone was coming to see him!
Again, these were in the days when today’s gooseneck trailer and truck combos were pretty much nonexistent here on the East Coast, and if you wanted to “arrive” in style and make an impression when you arrived, you brought out the mighty Horse Van. It was usually painted in your barn’s colors with the name lettered on the side.
It was quite common in those days to buy old moving trucks like the ones you see at truck rental places and then convert them into horse vans. It was quite a little side business for some horse folk. You could customize it any way you could think. You can still find some vans here and there, but nowadays you see a lot more Big Rig tractor trailer combos showing up at the shows than ever before. On the day I asked him to get on a friend’s two horse “walk up” horse trailers––no ramp–– I swear he turned around and looked at me with mild disgust, wondering just where his big horse van had gone and why he was traveling alone!
Now not only did I have to work out the logistics of getting Nick ready to ship with all that entailed including vaccinations, vet check and health papers, but I had to actually find a shipper to go from Idaho to Florida! There wasn’t a lot of horse shipping traffic going back and forth between those two points that I could piggyback my trip on, so cost was going to be a huge factor, not to mention that I had zero personal experience shipping a horse such a lengthy distance.
The last time I shipped horses anywhere near that far was when I moved from New Jersey to Florida back in the late ‘80’s. At that time I was lucky enough to know a commercial racehorse shipper who was coming down to Florida empty to pick up some racers to go back up north for the season. For the nominal fee of $1,000, I had all three of my horses shipped commercially by some great folks. They made money on a trip that ordinarily would have been empty and I got a great price and good care for my “kids” on the way down. A win/win situation! I was hoping to get that lucky again this time.
I started my search the normal way most horse folk do. The first thing I did was ask friends who I knew showed and traveled big distances. I asked everyone that I knew who had shown at various regional and national levels. Fortunately for them, but unfortunately for me, most of them either hauled their own horses to the various far flung shows–– everywhere from Oklahoma to New York–– or they caught a ride with their trainers who were hauling others all in one big happy group. Sigh!
Undaunted, I figured I would work on the paperwork needed by the State of Florida in order for my Idaho boy to be allowed to cross into our borders. Having moved my horses into Florida when I first came here in 1988, I knew the state had some pretty stringent guidelines for shipping horses into the state. I thought I was prepared. The key word here is “thought”.
After calling the Florida Agricultural Office, I was beginning to think Nick was going to need his own Passport, references from three of his herd buddies, a set of hoof prints and written permission from his Mom before he’d ever make it into the state.
Besides the usual Negative Coggins test, he had to have proof of all necessary vaccinations and a health certificate verifying that he was in fact healthy. That certificate had to be dated within 24 hours of his departure. Whew!
Horse Shipping Experience to the Rescue!
This is when you really begin to appreciate having bought a horse from someone who’s been there and done that before, so getting this together was relatively easy. All I did was call Nick’s breeder, Melanie, out at Payback Ranch and she took care of arranging all the necessary paperwork on her end. Did I mention that out in Idaho there was something else needed called a brand inspection?
When I looked into this, it was explained that this came about in the bygone days with farms used their own unique brands for their livestock. It now even said that if the creature had no brand, an inspector had to certify that also. Again, no big deal, and it appeared that this Internet shopping and shipping was going pretty easy.
I had visited the farm and actually purchased Nick at the end of June and it was now July. I was advised that I shouldn’t wait too long to ship him, because winter started pretty early in Idaho, so August would be “pushing it” for the good weather window. Living in Central Florida, the actual concept of winter weather had long since left my mind. I figured since everything was going pretty smoothly, I must be on a roll, and I should have the new kid home by time my birthday rolled around in August. I was being very optimistic!
At this point, since I still had not found a shipper and since Melanie was familiar with this whole shipping across the universe thing, I asked her for some recommendations. She mentioned a couple that she knew of who did this sort of shipping and together with my own search (once again on Ye Old Internet!) I came up with a total of four different shippers to investigate. One of my non-negotiable items was that Nick have a box stall rather than just a standard straight stall. This way it would be less stress on a youngster traveling such a long distance for his first trip.
Let the phone calls begin.
Just to shorten the search saga a bit, not everything went as planned. One of the shippers was already booked up. The second one would not be able to give me the necessary box stall, so that was a no go as well. A third shipper gave me a price that seemed reasonable until I asked him about the length of time needed to ship and where they would layover while traveling. That shipper said they tried to stop every eight hours and usually stopped at whatever racetrack was nearby their route. Hmmmm, this sounded a little too “iffy” for me and my long awaited youngster to endure.
I cringed to think of my baby enduring days standing on a trailer with no chance to lay down and move around. Or worse, being put into a strange stall whose last occupant had Lord knows what kind of germs. (Now I’m starting to sound like a paranoid Mom shipping her kid to school for the first time). I started wondering… Can you FedEx a horse? I was very anxious to get my baby home where I know he would be safe at last.
Finally with fingers crossed I called the fourth and final name on my list. I had my hopes up as this last one was a well-known, big time equine shipping company who crisscrossed the country all the time and mentioned several prominent farms and horses as their clients. Wonder of wonders, when I spoke to them they told me they had their own places along the route that they either owned or contracted with on a regular basis to layover and rest.
When I asked how long such a trip would take, they said should be no longer than three days on the road if weather stayed good. The price they quoted was reasonable for such a long journey (I thought) and I liked the fact that they had regular places to stop. So, the arrangements were made, trip scheduled and deposit paid. The balance would be paid once Nick stepped safely off the trailer in his new tropical digs.
Yay! Hooray! He’s on his way!
On the much anticipated shipping date the driver called ahead to Melanie to let her know what time they were coming to pick up Nick. They showed up on time and called to let me know they were on their way and they anticipated being at my barn by sometime on Saturday morning. They gave me a number I could call, which would put me in touch with the driver for the duration of the trip. That way I could check in on their progress as they traveled along.
Everything went fine until I called to confirm their expected arrival, which was now one day away, and was told they were going to lay over at their barn due to the turn in our Florida weather. Not to worry, they would be there just a little later, so they said.
Saturday morning came and went. No horse! I called the contact number, and had to leave a message for the dispatcher to call the driver. Now I was officially freaking out! Where was my horse? The dispatcher sure didn’t seem to know and would have to call me back. When we finally got in touch of someone, we were told they would not be there until sometime tomorrow. WHAT!?! They were in Florida, but didn’t want to unload in the dark with a yearling. Okay, so maybe they were just looking out for my horse? Only after Nick arrived did I find out that he had spent the night only 90 miles West of me in Ocala. Had I known he was that close, I would have hitched up my trailer and gone and brought him the rest of the way home.
At this point, it would be an understatement to say that my very tolerant husband was upset. I was stressed, he was worried about this yearling he had never even met, and we were both keeping an eye on the weather.
Nick arrived finally in the early afternoon (not in morning as anticipated). After all my worrying, we opened up the doors and here was this adorable, confident looking youngster looking out at us as if he had just come from around the block not thousands of miles and days on a trailer!
Did I mention Hurricane Season?
Nick settled into his new barn and got to know his barn mates just in time for our area to get hit by not one, not two, but three hurricanes in a row. Charlie, Jean and Frances! This was not a trio you would want coming and paying you a visit at anytime, never mind with a newly transplanted Idahoan yearling who knew nothing about 80 mph winds, flapping tarps and knee deep water in your pastures!
You could say that Nick was about to be weather tested, for sure!
Normally (if anything about hurricanes can be said to be “normal”) here in our area of Florida, if a hurricane does decide to come ashore or across our area, it pretty much comes, gets messy for a few hours and then leaves. Well 2004 was not a normal year. We had Hurricane Charlie, who decided he liked the Central Florida area so much that once he crossed the state twice. We thought we were done with him and he decided to cross back over us for one more go round. Then after he finally left, we had Jean come in and add her bit of moisture. Then in came Frances!
Only the particular lady called Frances moved so slowly, it stalled over our area and did not move for over 24 hours. This is not a normal occurrence and when it does happen, you would be amazed at the amount of water that can get dumped on you in a very short time. At least in the northern regions of our country that get snow, you can always shovel the snow somewhat away from your front door, your house and be able to shovel you way to the barn if you really have to. I know I’ve done it. Plus, horses can actually go out after it has snowed and roll and play a bit.
Not so in a hurricane! There are only so many places you can get water to drain, when all the drainage ditches now look like the Colorado River at its worst. Add into that the fact that you can now walk across your pasture and see actual fish in it and you get some idea of the volume of water to be gotten rid of.
It gets to the point where your knee high barn boots are keeping the water that has now entered them in and you might as well grow webbed feet! Add to this the effort you expend making sure the stalls are bedded deep enough to be dry and you can imagine the aerobic exercise you get. Who needs a gym membership! This is only one reason some people decide to pop the cork on some wine and just stay in the house and “ride it out”. Not so much when you own horses! The fact that you have to get to the feed store to make sure you have enough feed and bedding before everyone else in the area decides the same thing and it can sometimes look like someone is giving away winning lottery tickets. And all this while driving through weather that makes one think of building an Ark!
Can you build me an Ark?
Through all of this, we has set up camp at a friend’s house where our horses were staying, so that we could keep an eye on everyone and not have to try to drive through this.
The amazing thing about us horse folk––through all these storms did we ever once think about the damage that might be going on at our actual home? Nope! Since we had packed up our dogs and brought them with us and our home was built back in the good old days of the 1950’s out of concrete block, we took a calculated risk that the home front was okay after we evacuated. We thought about it, but were so busy listening to weather reports and making sure our “kids” were safe throughout that we figured we’d deal with that when we finally got back home.
Once Frances moved out, the weather cleared and we finally got word from local authorities that while some roads were still not passable, others were and we could finally make our way back to our home.
Satisfied that our horsey family was okay and munching on their dinners when we finally left, we returned to our home 20 miles to north and on the beach side of our Florida peninsula. Some of the sites along the way were not encouraging and some of the incredible destruction that could be seen made me feel so blessed that we were finally finished with the worst of it. While our home did sustain damage, we were at least blessed to have a home to go back to. Best of all, Nick made it from across the country to Florida and survived three very rude hurricanes safely and was now home!
Notes on devising your Emergency Horse Evacuation Plan
In light of what the folks in Louisiana have just gone through, I may have more sympathy than the average person might because I have seen first hand the destruction of some “minor” hurricanes. But I have to say that I know how generous people can be and horse folk in particular. I have seen and heard about people from every state you can name offering to trailer horses and other animals out of harms way and opening up their homes and barns to those trying to escape the devastation of a monster storm.
Many local and national equine organizations have gotten involved and put together emergency evacuation plans not only for themselves, but as a means to help others all over the country.
It seems to me that ever since Katrina decimated the Deep South and changed so many lives, all of us have woken up to the reality that we are all first responders in some way or another for ourselves and our neighbors.
Whether it means offering to get someone’s beloved animals to safety or offering space to someone who just lost their home or just volunteering your time to help, we are all of us able to do something.
Here are a few helpful hints regarding emergencies whether it means hurricanes, wildfires (which we have also lived through) or any other disaster that may put lives in jeopardy.
1. If the authorities warn that you may have to evacuate, take it seriously!
They are not telling you this for fun! It usually means that the emergency system in your area is going to be stretched to the point that they may not be able to come and get your sorry butt out at the last minute. So, have a pan on how to get you and your animals out ASAP and have a place to go once you leave. Do not count on the local Holiday Inn to be able to give you and your animals a room.
2. If you belong to a local riding club, have an emergency preparedness meeting.
Instead of talking about the next horse show or who won how many ribbons, talk about how you and your members are going to handle a real emergency. Better yet, have a clinic where anyone who may have a hard loader or particularly skittish horse or pony, can practice with lots of knowledgeable friends around. The day of an evacuation is a really bad time to find out your prized steed is not going to load. Trust me when I tell you, trying to load a horse while there may be smoke in the air or a fire raging down the road is a horrible time to find out you can’t load your horse safely.
3. If you are member of a national club, contact them now for information on what they have for evacuation plans.
I know of at least one national organization that has a “phone tree” of people they call in any given area that is in serious trouble to see who is available and nearest to help out.
4. Network! Get to know everyone in your area whether they have animals or not.
You never know where help can come from. I know of one riding club that got together with their local fire department and had a fun day where they brought the heavy trucks and equipment to the riding club to get everyone familiar with what they had and what they could do. Out of this meeting came a fundraiser to buy a large stock trailer that had the means to carry livestock out of an area if it was needed. They also had enough funds from the shows and other fundraisers that they were able to make a donation to the fire department to go towards much needed equipment.
Practice getting ready with your horse or help someone else who might need help with their horse. You never know when you might be called on to get up and get out and your knowledge could make the difference for you, your animals or someone you know.
Face it, we can all find ourselves in a situation where a little help could make a BIG difference and who wouldn’t want to be an “angel” for someone who might really need it. Pass it on!
About the Author: Karen Prell, aka "Triple Crown Karen," came from a very non horsey, working class New Jersey family and started riding at age three. With over thirty years experience as a riding instructor, Karen is passionate about developing beginners into confident riders and compassionate horse owners. A favorite expresion heard often by her students is "It's ALL about the horse!" A lover of all things "horse," she is especially passionate about promoting the retraining of retired Thoroughbreds and adoption and rehoming of unwanted horses. Her ultimate dream would be to see the US Equestrian Team mounted on these great reclaimed athletes. Her career in media focuses on the everyday equestrian adventure and how a horse lover of modest means CAN make a difference for even ONE horse.
