moving with horses

[eagles ring farm]

we have our farm for sale (its not sold yet) in NJ

we are planning to reduce our price soon to get things rolling with the spring weather here

and are looking to move from NJ to southern VA

and trying to figure the easiest way to

schedule settlement and schedule to move horses

how have you coordinated a hauler and a certain (unknown date)

and have you found 1 hauler to move all at once?

sounds very hard to me

did you move with horses and did it go smooth? or was it a nightmare

we have 6 mares, 1 gelding and 2 stallions

we are also expecting 5 foals this season

any suggestions?

Lori

 

[Marty]

Of course it was a nightmare! Nothing turned out as it was supposed to.

I'll write the saga and post it just for you but it will take a while.

 

[whimsical]

Well we only made a move from Louisiana to Texas. I made two trips myself to haul the horses (10 hours each way). And we found rental property that had enough land for the horses. But our trip went fine. I had told my husband that we couldn't move unless the horses came with. So we made it work and did what was best for the horses.

Ellen

 

[Marty]

Our new place in Tennessee was fenced fairly well but had no barn or shelters on it. Therefore, we arranged for the shipper to come with our horses one week after we left Florida so we could have that time building stalls. The plan was to build 4 stalls in a shed row for our three quarter horses and one pony. We could get that done in a week's time if we hustled. Keeping in mind that we had to accomplish all this, plus get moved in the house and get power and phone hooked up the barn was still number one on the list of things to get done now. I had two very young boys and also my mom who had alzheimers with us, plus the old family dog, cat, and mothers parakeet.

The horses were left behind in the very capable hands of several friends back at our former stable. I had already packed the tack and brought that with me, but my friends were going to send the feed and hay cans and their buckets with the shipper, because they still needed them. They were going to wrap their legs, sheet and blanket them, and put their head bumpers on for the trip also.

We arrived up here at the new house to discover the former owner was still living here, in the living room! He had some long story why he was still there but to make a long story shorter, we ended up having to stay in a hotel in town for a few days till he got out of our house.

48 hours later at 2:00 AM at the only hotel in town, we have a sherrif banging on our door telling us that some guy is in the McDonalds parking lot with a big trailer with our horses in it looking for us.

The shipper decided to leave a week early to suit his schedule so he just came on with my horses right after we left Florida! My friends had no way of contacting me to warn me this was happening. And to save time, he went over some horrendous steep steep roads he thought would be a short cut; roads you would never haul horses on through the mountains.

So here we were in McDonalds parking lot in the middle of the night, in our shorts and no jackets, nothing but a blanket, in 35 degree weather because we couldn't get to our clothes, freezing half to death with no place to put our horses. And the guy wants his money now and also wanted an additional $300. because he said it was further than he thought. We paid him and he unloads our horses right in the parking lot too and there we were each trying to hold two horses who were all freaking out. Good thing the sherrif brought some deputys to help us hold the horses and he told us he knew a boarding stable that would come and pick them up for us. We had no idea who this guy was, where he was, what kind of stable he had either but we had no choice. He showed up about 4:00 that morning and by that time we were frozen and our horses were exhausted to say the least.

We went back to the hotel and got a couple hours sleep and when the dollar store opened up we all got sweat suits and headed out to find the stable. Next thing I knew I went to the stable and there was some kid riding my old pony around and my mare colicing her brains out. That's when I noticed she was lame. Sonny and Michael's horse were ok just scared to death. They got a vet out there for me and we got the colic under control but she must have fallen in the trailer because her hip was out of whack and that needed X rays over the next few months with meds.

We got the shed row built in record time, 3 days, and by they way the shipper guy wouldn't even give my friends any time to wrap my horses legs or anything and get my buckets or feed loaded. I blame this entire mess on the shipper because if he just stuck to the schedule we had arranged, there would have been absolutely no problems with any of this. By the way don't ask me who the shipper was.

Do you still want to move?

 

[eagles ring farm]

oh nightmare alley !!!!!!!!! Marty what a mess

well you gave me alot of things to plan on not happening

I'm trying to get a story or 2 to set my mind at ease, that hasn't happened yet

and I'll bet no matter what goes wrong I think your story will

top mine.

at least I hope it does

your saga was great just wish you added only kiddin on the ending

 

[kaykay]

We moved from Illinois to Ohio and had one hauler haul the entire herd at once. It was nice as his trailer was huge and we could block off areas for certain horses.

Only bad thing was he got stuck in the driveway when he turned in so we had to unload and walk the horses quite some distance LOL. A neighbor came and got him unstuck

 

[anita]

We moved from San Diego, CA to Texas a 24 hour drive. My husband and I had a trailer stopped several times to feed and water over 20 horses foals included.

I was more worried in the car then the horses in the trailer. Everything went smoothly horses were glad when they came out of the trailer on green pasture. Most of them had never seen natural green pasture in their lifes.

Overall it was not bad and it can be done.

Anita

 

[Barbie]

[SIZE=12pt]One of these days we'll be moving to our place in Tennessee. Fortunately, there is already a barn on the property. It does need work, but will take very little initial improvement in order for our horses to move in. Our biggie will be fencing as what is there is barb wire and that will be long gone before we are there permanently. We purchased a new Wrangler trailer last fall, so will be able to haul our own horses in one load. After Marty's story, I am really glad we won't have to rely on a hauler.[/SIZE]

I just hope that our moving day comes soon.

Barbie

 

[eagles ring farm]

we will have to use a hauler

as our trailer is only sectioned into 2 box stalls for our minis

but how on earth did you co ordinate your settlement date with a haulers schedule

to take a full load of minis 9-14 depending on when our house sells for our expected foals this year

as far as at the other end we plan on having fence and at least run ins for the minis before we sell the house

of course we have no idea when it will sell

 

[AppyLover2]

When I moved from Florida to Missouri I left my horses with a friend in Florida for a week or so. Gave me time to get things settled a bit here before they arrived. I told the hauler to consider his trailer full, paid the extra price for it (it was a 4 horse trailer and I only shipped 3)....because I didn't want the route changes, delays, etc. that can happen otherwise. When my horses arrived they looked like they had just been hauled across town rather than 1,000 miles. My move went about as smoothly as I could have wished for.

Edited to add....One thing you might want to consider (worked well for me anyway)....I hired a local hauler (headquartered in Missouri). He left his house, drove to Florida, picked up my horses and dropped them off here on his way back home.

 

[Field-of-Dreams]

Ours went VERY smoothly! Jane left at the end of Oct with the big trailer holding our two QHs and one mare and foal pair. I stayed in PA holding down the fort. We had Sharrways (HIGHLY recommended) take the FIRST load of llamas and Minis down. He made it down, unloaded just fine, and came back up. We loaded the SECOND load of all Minis and away he went again. I left the next day with my three boys and headed down. Sharrway got there way before I did and unloaded- again uneventful. I got into Texas and met Jane at the state line and followed her in. The ONLY trouble I had was the roads were wet and I skidded into a truck in front of me at a light- no damage to either vehicle OR animal! Whew!

We unloaded my three and they were fine!

We no colics, no boo-boos, no abortions- NOTHING. 1300 miles, four trailer loads: seven llamas, 28 Miniature Horses, two cats, one dog and one guinea pig- ALL FINE.

Lucy

 

[wildoak]

Oh Marty, the stuff of nightmares!

We have only moved once since we have had a significant number of horses, and it was only a 20 minute move. We were under the gun to get our property horse ready after we sold the old place - got held up awhile waiting for water - but we moved the 2 big horses out to their pasture first, then made countless trips with 2 trailers back and forth to move the nearly 40 miniatures. Much easier moving across town as I could do it all myself. It was in November so I didn't have foals or near term mares to worry about. Our barn wasn't built yet so I had to turn most out together here at first, just broke the arena down into round pens for the stallions and put mares/geldings/show horses out on 15 acres and said a prayer LOL. All survived, most toughened up - and we had our barn to the point of being usable within a month. Our living quarters weren't ready, I was living between the Holiday Inn, my moms and an unfinished barn for awhile...along with some other unrelated crises....!

Good luck - was worth it in the end, but I don't want to do it again anytime soon!!

Jan

 

[eagles ring farm]

the thing that worries me is to have everything set up

and then go to settlement and have it postphoned or fall through

maybe i'm just a worry wart

but when you have inspection day of settlement did you have to leave that day with your horses

or make arrangement with new owners to take a few days to move horses

 

[Windhaven]

Well our move from MI to GA was good also. Just a few minor problems. The most problems I had is when I was in GA house shopping not the on trip itself. I had a couple mishaps with the horses during those times. Not my barn helps fault either, it just was a fluke of nature.

But for our move, I lined up a transport company in advanced to move all my horses in one load. The problem I had with the transport is that they did not reserve the whole trailer like I wanted. They scheduled a pick up on the way down and where upset because they didn't plan right. There definitely was a communication problem with this haul but we got it worked out.

My new house in GA only had a barn of poles with a roof (down here, GA, a pole barn is a tin roof on telephone poles, no sides). So we left the horses in the good hands of friends and family. I had the shipper scheduled to contact a friend upon pick up. She met him at my old place and they loaded the horses when the time came. I made sure I left detailed instructions for everyone, even my vets so they knew if someone called for me that I was not there and they would just take care of the horse/s and bill me.

We left two weeks before the horses with everything else in tow from the house and barn. We had two weeks to get the house organized, barn & fencing supplies, and feed bought, stalls built, and pens put up before the horses came. It was a very long tiring two weeks. We just finished putting the last gates up and finishing the fences just hours before the horses got here.

Overall things went fine. There would be a few changes I would make IF I HAD TO MOVE AGAIN, but not many.

The main advise I have is to have a good group of people to take care of your horses if you have to leave them behind to get the new place ready, and have a good relationship with your vet so they will come out and care for the horses when you are not there.

Good luck with your move.

 

[Just Us N Texas]

When we moved from Ky. to Texas, I guess we were lucky in a way. The girls' trailer can haul 11-12 minis at a time, and their farm hadn't sold. Neither had our house. We bought property that was fenced, but didn't have any barns or shelters, or house. We had to do everything, including a driveway! We didn't have electric or water on the farm here, and that held us up quite a while. We could spend at least $10,000.00 digging a well and hoping, or wait till the county water district "approved" us to get water on the property. At that time, they had decided they didn't want any more customers and would only give water to those who moved into a place with an existing water meter. It took us four months and several meetings with the water board. By that time, we bought a mobile home, had a septic put in, and just drove back and forth in the motor home, and filled the water tank. If they hadn't given us water soon, I was about to sue them. The end of the water line was less than 100 feet from our property. Anyway, the horses were brought down by the girls in several loads, and when Jerry had to go home for furniture and belongings, he would bring a load of horses also. It was easy on hauling the horses, but everything else was a pain in the hinney. I would not want to do this again. Two and a half years later, we are still trying to get new fencing, barns and run in sheds and etc. finished. But, as you are always trying to improve on a farm, guess that part is okay. We have a pole barn shelter for the horses, and this next week, will be starting a second barn. As soon as it dries up enough, we will get on with the fencing. By having our own trailers, we could haul the horses at night when it wasn't so hot, and keep an eye on them along the way. Everyone arrived here just fine.

 

[CheyAut]

Yikes Marty, what a nightmare!!!

It was easy to move into my current house, I only had 4 horses, 2 minis, and 2 mini foals who were still with moms. My horses were being boarded, so I just moved them when I moved in, it was less than 20 miles away. Then when the foals were weaned I picked them up and brought them here.

However, our next move will NOT be easy! We're moving from Arizona to Kentucky. I'm really not sure how it will work! We have to sell our house, then buy a house there... which in itself isn't easy... then how the heck do I get 7 horses/large ponies, 2 mini donkeys, 13 (currently, but three are due soon) mini horses, 7 goats, 6 dogs, 19 cats, 8 rabbits, 2 chinchillas, and 3 lizards there????

My goal is to only use one hauler, one load (large horse van). I can put all my goats into my current (2h slant) trailer. And my friend will be selling his stock trailer, they are giving me first option on it, so I"m hoping to "stuff" a bunch of minis (obviously not so many that they aren't comfy, and obviously only those who get along!) and hope the rest fit with the hauler???

And how the heck do you coordinate the move with the hauler and having to leave current house, but get to new house before them? And I only have one truck, how do I get BOTH trailers there? And all our stuff?

I do have a friend in Alabama who could probably board them, I could probably send a load of horses to her place, then take trips to get them to our new place on weekends or something... ugh I don't look forward to that... nor do I look forward to selling our house with having all our cats as housecats, I"m sure that won't be easy!

Ok so I"m NO help for you, guess I just needed to say all that... and hope for ideas I guess?

Jessi

 

[PaintedPromiseRanch]

we've only moved once with horses, and we had 6 big ones and 3 minis. we moved from downtown Phoenix out to Wittmann, about an hour + drive, so not hard. BUT we had no fencing at the new place other than a perimeter fence, so we turned out the 3 minis and loaded their pen on the flatbed and hauled it out and set it up, then went back into town, switched to the horse trailer, and hauled the minis and the 2 goats out (plenty of room for all in the trailer). back to town to turn out 2 big horses and take down their pens, load on the flatbed and haul out and set up, back to town for the horse trailer and haul 2 big horses out... repeat... repeat. my daughter agreed to haul our flock of chickens in her trailer as ours was a stock and they could get out, but i had to promise to wash all the chicken poop out of it for her

we got really lucky though, my mom bought the new place so we could move without selling the old one, we took THREE MONTHS to move everything, didn't have to take any time off work after the initial couple days to move the horses, just picked up a load every day or so on the way home from work, had time to clean up the old place and put it up for sale, then once it sold we turned around and bought this place from my mom.

that said, we now have almost 30 equines and 11 dogs (although no more goats or chickens), and we don't want to stay here forever... so it will be a very complicated move as even with 2 horse trailers now, we cannot fit all in one trip - and we will NOT be moving close again, we want to get away from the Phoenix area as it is becoming the next LA. i guess it's a good thing we won't have to worry about it for a while!

 

[HGFarm]

Back when I was married, I cannot tell you how many times we moved- a LOT!!!!!!! But we were always lucky enough to be able to haul our own animals- horses, dogs, cats, etc...

We did have a funny story moving from AZ to OR one time... had a stock truck with full sized horses in it, and a long trailer behind with our furniture and my husbands hounds in it behind. Had the whole thing tarped. One hound had pups about 3 weeks old, and she was in a crate in the trailer.

As we were going down the hiway, my husband looked in the rear view mirror, and there was old Queenie the mama bluetick hound, riding on TOP of the tarped furniture- her long ears flapping in the wind, as we are going down the hiway!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He pulled over as quickly as he dared and got hold of her and put her back - we have NO idea how she got out of the crate, and then out of the trailer and on top of the tarp- what a heart attack that was!!! The rest of the trip was uneventful.

I would see if there is a RELIALBE hauler that can do it for you- I have used Worley's for years with great success and they are very reliable. There are many others too, that could probably help you out. Just make sure the house is EMPTY when you got to move in, LOL and that you have enough facilities - even portable fencing or something, to put them in....

Jessi, you guys are moving to KY????!!! How come? Man, that is going to be one loooooong drive!!!

 

[MountainMeadows]

Since I have never moved, I will let other offer their suggestions on the logistics -- BUT, I would put all my pregnant mares on Regumate for a couple of weeks prior to the move, during the move and for a couple of weeks after the move and then SLOWLY wean them off of it.

Stress will release the hormone oxytocin - oxytocin causes contractions = abortion time. The Regumate will help minimize this risk.

Stac

 

[eagles ring farm]

everyone I love all the stories

and I guess this will work out but its got me nervous

Thanks Stacy for the recommendation of regumate I will talk to my vet about getting some