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Veteran
Posts: 120
| My family will be moving to Stephenville in January and we are so excited!! It is going to be about a 1,300 mile trip and I've never made the drive before! Any tips?? We really don't want to stop and lay over so we will be splitting the driving and taking the horses out to stretch as needed. |
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 I Prefer to Live in Fantasy Land
Posts: 64864
   
Location: In the Hills of Texas | We made a 1200 mile trip back and forth to Texas from Ill to NW of San Antonio many times before moving. We made a stop about every 6 hours and never had any problems. Many times it's hard to find a safe place to let them out. Our horses drank good and we would offer water and refill hay bags when we stopped if they were empty.
Welcome to Texas! You will be going when it's cold. The downside of Stephenville in winter is that it seems that the wind is always blowing.
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 A Barrel Of Monkeys
Posts: 12972
Location: Texas | Welcome!! You'll enjoy winter but come summer, you'll want to go back. |
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Location: in the ozone | I suggest don't unload - you never know if one will decide not to get back in, footing could be worse than ou thought, grass in the area could be sprayed with weed killer (poison), etc. Just stop every 3-4 hrs & let them rest good - offer water on the trailer & let them relax their legs. We always feed hay bags that we've soaked the hay with water - gets some moisture in their systems & also something to munch on along the way if they want. |
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 My Heart Be Happy
Posts: 9159
Location: Arkansas | Where are you moving from? |
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Veteran
Posts: 120
| Thanks everyone! These are great tips. We are moving from Idaho! |
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Location: Illinois | Lucky you!!!
I agree what others said above. I'd stop every 6 and just make sure the horse are happy and you'll be fine! How exciting! |
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Veteran
Posts: 120
| Yes we are very excited!! Hopefully the trip goes smoothly. The summers will be a hard adjustment for us but it'll be worth it! lol |
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  Ms. Marine
Posts: 4627
Location: Texas | Very exciting! Best of luck with your travels! |
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My Heart Be Happy
Posts: 9159
Location: Arkansas | Safe travels and hope you love your new home. |
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 Shoot Yeah
Posts: 4273
Location: Where you need a paddle... Oregon! | When we drove from Oregon to Vegas a few years ago we Googled fairgrounds along the way and were able to stop and let them out. A couple of places had arenas where they could run and stretch. They traveled really well - even in the heat. |
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 Yard Ornament Collector
Location: BFE, Texas | Welcome !! You'll love it down here. Lots of barrel races. Stephenville is a nice area. Summers are killer but you just learn to deal with. Stock up on fans for horses if they're kept up. |
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Expert
Posts: 1255
| When I moved to Washington to New Mexico I stopped every four hours to get out and walk and stayed the night where they was a fairgrounds and I let them out for the night. |
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 I Don't Brag
Posts: 6960
| Good luck!
I want to move TO Idaho (or Utah maybe), lol. Whereabouts in Idaho and do you know of any reasonably priced horse type places for sale??
Hubby has tried to get me to move to Texas since I mat him but I just can't take the heat and humidity of East Texas or the rattlesnakes (and lack of grass for my ponies) in West Texas, so we are still here in the frozen North. I fell in love with that area out west a long time ago. I figure If I'm going to be cold, having gorgeous scenery would be a plus. |
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Boot Detective
Posts: 1898
| Check weather and road conditions for your line of travel so you don't run into any surprises. I like to unload every 4 hours or less and let them walk around a few minutes and drop their heads to eat some hay or feed and drink. They need to drop their heads to let their sinuses drain AND clean the manure out of your trailer so they aren't breathing in tons of ammonia. Once you arrive and get settled, you MUST go visit Teskeys store in Weatherford. You will recuperate instantly. Safe travels and welcome to Texas.
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 Shelter Dog Lover
Posts: 10277
| If you don't have a trailer where they can drop their heads I would definitely stop every 4 hours or so snd unload. We map out fair grounds with arenas when available. There was an article not too. Long ago about his bad it is fur horses when they can't drop their head and clear their airways. Welcome to Texas, I love it here!! |
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 Angel in a Sorrel Coat
Posts: 16030
Location: In a happy place | Welcome to Texas. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 764
Location: Stephenville, TX | I have made the trip from the NW to Texas 3 times with 4 horses. One of them was 29 years old at the time. I planned my stops and overnighted at fairgrounds so they could relax and roll in a bigger pen or even arena (make sure you check all the gates) I also stopped about every 5-6 hours in a safe place and unloaded to walk out the kinks. I agree with another poster about keeping the trailer cleaned out. Keep a vet kit handy with Banamine or Colic Stop. I kept buckets of water in the trailer with just enough water to keep it from sloshing out and didn't overfeed hay.
Horsemotel.com and Horsetrip.com are good for overnight boarding and fairgrounds information. Happy travels!
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Veteran
Posts: 120
| rodeoveteran - 2016-11-24 11:44 AM
Good luck!
I want to move TO Idaho (or Utah maybe), lol. Whereabouts in Idaho and do you know of any reasonably priced horse type places for sale??
Hubby has tried to get me to move to Texas since I mat him but I just can't take the heat and humidity of East Texas or the rattlesnakes (and lack of grass for my ponies) in West Texas, so we are still here in the frozen North. I fell in love with that area out west a long time ago. I figure If I'm going to be cold, having gorgeous scenery would be a plus.
We live in the Boise area and have loved it! We've been here almost 10 years...it seems the housing market here is insane!! We looked and looked for decent horse property or just somewhere with some acreage at a decent price, but most seem to be in the 400k-500k range. There are always exceptions though and lots more houses are hitting the market every day! If you look at towns outside of Boise - Kuna, Middleton, Parma, Homedale to name a few, you might be able to find more property!
It's beautiful here and the people are very friendly - the horse community is pretty nice too. In the summer there are jackpots usually once or twice a week and rodeos usually every weekend. In the winter we usually have 2-3 jackpots per month as well!
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Veteran
Posts: 120
| quickdraw - 2016-11-24 11:56 AM
Check weather and road conditions for your line of travel so you don't run into any surprises. I like to unload every 4 hours or less and let them walk around a few minutes and drop their heads to eat some hay or feed and drink. They need to drop their heads to let their sinuses drain AND clean the manure out of your trailer so they aren't breathing in tons of ammonia. Once you arrive and get settled, you MUST go visit Teskeys store in Weatherford. You will recuperate instantly. Safe travels and welcome to Texas.
Oh my gosh we just visited Weatherford about a month ago and I drained my bank account at Teskey's!! lol I was in heaven! |
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Veteran
Posts: 120
| BroncoBetty - 2016-11-24 6:46 PM
I have made the trip from the NW to Texas 3 times with 4 horses. One of them was 29 years old at the time. I planned my stops and overnighted at fairgrounds so they could relax and roll in a bigger pen or even arena (make sure you check all the gates) I also stopped about every 5-6 hours in a safe place and unloaded to walk out the kinks. I agree with another poster about keeping the trailer cleaned out. Keep a vet kit handy with Banamine or Colic Stop. I kept buckets of water in the trailer with just enough water to keep it from sloshing out and didn't overfeed hay.
Horsemotel.com and Horsetrip.com are good for overnight boarding and fairgrounds information. Happy travels!
I'll definitely check out those sites, thanks! I'm only hauling two and one is a 4 year old who hasn't been hauled much, the other has been hauled a lot but his longest trip is 6 hours or so. I don't have a living quarters but could sleep in the gooseneck if we did end up staying somewhere overnight, but I think we will try to go all the way through with lots of breaks! |
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Veteran
Posts: 120
| Tx3turns - 2016-11-24 11:12 AM
Welcome !! You'll love it down here. Lots of barrel races. Stephenville is a nice area. Summers are killer but you just learn to deal with. Stock up on fans for horses if they're kept up.
I'm excited for all the barrel racing opportunities!! It's going to be weird going from 1 or 2 races a week in the summer, to having somewhere to go almost every night! |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 764
Location: Stephenville, TX |
nicole.b - 2016-11-25 2:30 AM BroncoBetty - 2016-11-24 6:46 PM I have made the trip from the NW to Texas 3 times with 4 horses. One of them was 29 years old at the time. I planned my stops and overnighted at fairgrounds so they could relax and roll in a bigger pen or even arena (make sure you check all the gates) I also stopped about every 5-6 hours in a safe place and unloaded to walk out the kinks. I agree with another poster about keeping the trailer cleaned out. Keep a vet kit handy with Banamine or Colic Stop. I kept buckets of water in the trailer with just enough water to keep it from sloshing out and didn't overfeed hay.
Horsemotel.com and Horsetrip.com are good for overnight boarding and fairgrounds information. Happy travels!
I'll definitely check out those sites, thanks! I'm only hauling two and one is a 4 year old who hasn't been hauled much, the other has been hauled a lot but his longest trip is 6 hours or so. I don't have a living quarters but could sleep in the gooseneck if we did end up staying somewhere overnight, but I think we will try to go all the way through with lots of breaks!
Edited to add: As far as your 4 year goes, I would make sure before you leave that he loads willing and safely or he may have to stay on the trailer. Nothing worse than getting in a standoff about loading or getting away friom you. It depends on your trailer but we have pulled out dividers to give them more room and hauled a horse loose to turn around if that's an option.
Edited by BroncoBetty 2016-11-25 8:43 AM
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My Heart Be Happy
Posts: 9159
Location: Arkansas | When we took Two about 8 hours to North AR for a vet visit on her back legs, we stopped and let her rest on the way up. Coming back we stopped at the back of a large truck stop that wasn't busy and unloaded her. We let her walk around and also eat her supper and just hang out for awhile. She's been hauled thousands of miles and knows the drill, so I felt safe doing this. Since it was her legs we were dealing with I felt she just needed to get out and move around. Not sure that all five of ours I would trust this much, but with her I wasn't too worried. |
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Veteran
Posts: 146
| I would not unload unless you are 100%+++ sure your horses will easily load back on, won't spook at odd sounds or traffic etc. The last thing you want is a horse that suddenly doesn't want to load or a horse that spooks at a passing truck and gets away from you. We have always let horses rest on the horse trailer. We stop about every 3 hours and let them rest for 15-20 minutes, offer water with some electrolytes and refill hay nets. Agree with having a well stocked first aid kit for horses (and humans). Ace or something similar, Banamine, vet wrap, something to stop bleeding etc. and a list of large animal vets along your route. Have a list of horse hotels along your route just in case you need to stop for a night.
If you have the $$ hire a professional horse transport to haul your horses for you. When we move this next year that's how we will move our horses. Doing a charter so the horses will have the entire van to themselves with box stalls. They will have a 2 night layover which will give us time to get to the new place ahead of them. While expensive, we need the trailer to load up all the cats and their pet carriers. It would probably be less stressful to have the cats professional shipped and haul the horses ourselves! |
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 A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | 4Horse - 2016-11-26 6:27 AM I would not unload unless you are 100%+++ sure your horses will easily load back on, won't spook at odd sounds or traffic etc. The last thing you want is a horse that suddenly doesn't want to load or a horse that spooks at a passing truck and gets away from you. We have always let horses rest on the horse trailer. We stop about every 3 hours and let them rest for 15-20 minutes, offer water with some electrolytes and refill hay nets. Agree with having a well stocked first aid kit for horses (and humans). Ace or something similar, Banamine, vet wrap, something to stop bleeding etc. and a list of large animal vets along your route. Have a list of horse hotels along your route just in case you need to stop for a night. If you have the $$ hire a professional horse transport to haul your horses for you. When we move this next year that's how we will move our horses. Doing a charter so the horses will have the entire van to themselves with box stalls. They will have a 2 night layover which will give us time to get to the new place ahead of them. While expensive, we need the trailer to load up all the cats and their pet carriers. It would probably be less stressful to have the cats professional shipped and haul the horses ourselves!
Very good advice, theres nothing worst trying to reload a horse thats tired of being in a trailer all day, I would find fairgrounds if I were travel and wanted to unload for a few hours, its would be safer then a road side rest area.. When I hauled long periods of time I would just pull over in a rest area along the way and just let the horse rest in the trailer and offer them water and fill hay bags. Even when you stop to eat find shade to park the trailer under so the horses can rest..
Good luck on your trip and Welcome to Texas, we're big and theres awesome things here to see and do.  |
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Veteran
Posts: 120
| Southtxponygirl - 2016-11-26 9:31 AM
4Horse - 2016-11-26 6:27 AM I would not unload unless you are 100%+++ sure your horses will easily load back on, won't spook at odd sounds or traffic etc. The last thing you want is a horse that suddenly doesn't want to load or a horse that spooks at a passing truck and gets away from you. We have always let horses rest on the horse trailer. We stop about every 3 hours and let them rest for 15-20 minutes, offer water with some electrolytes and refill hay nets. Agree with having a well stocked first aid kit for horses (and humans). Ace or something similar, Banamine, vet wrap, something to stop bleeding etc. and a list of large animal vets along your route. Have a list of horse hotels along your route just in case you need to stop for a night. If you have the $$ hire a professional horse transport to haul your horses for you. When we move this next year that's how we will move our horses. Doing a charter so the horses will have the entire van to themselves with box stalls. They will have a 2 night layover which will give us time to get to the new place ahead of them. While expensive, we need the trailer to load up all the cats and their pet carriers. It would probably be less stressful to have the cats professional shipped and haul the horses ourselves!
Very good advice, theres nothing worst trying to reload a horse thats tired of being in a trailer all day, I would find fairgrounds if I were travel and wanted to unload for a few hours, its would be safer then a road side rest area.. When I hauled long periods of time I would just pull over in a rest area along the way and just let the horse rest in the trailer and offer them water and fill hay bags. Even when you stop to eat find shade to park the trailer under so the horses can rest..
Good luck on your trip and Welcome to Texas, we're big and theres awesome things here to see and do.
I know for sure my older one will load easily and won't spook but who knows with the 4 year old! lol she may just have to take the front stall and rest in the trailer while the other one gets unloaded.
Thanks for all the great tips! |
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Moving to Texas!