You know the weird horse girl in elementary school that was obsessed with horses? Well, I was homeschooled but if I wasn’t I would have been that girl. I would say now as a college senior I am still the weird horse girl. In the past 15 years horses have taken me all over, from showing, trail riding, and even Standardbred harness racing. I decided to make this blog post a little different and talk about traveling with horses.   

Horses are constantly trying to kill themselves. When not being big dumb toddlers, they are looking for ways to cause you financial stress and gray hair. I would say that fellow equestrians are some of the toughest individuals out there, dumb but tough. One of the dumb things we like to do is go on ‘vacations’ with our horses. I have been to a bunch of horse shows, a few trips to Missouri and Florida. Here are a few things that stick out to me about traveling with horses. 

If the horses are not causing you stress, the government will. Any horse that travels over stateliness has to have the correct paperwork. The paperwork required is from a vet and clears them of one specific medical condition, equine infectious anemia. They also must have health papers that expire every 30 days. If you are pulled over and do not have the proper paperwork your truck, trailer, and horses can be impounded. In Florida they have check stations for people coming and going to check paperwork and make sure that the papers match the horse.  

If you are hauling them in hot weather, you will constantly be concerned that they are to hot. It’s even worse hauling them in the cold. To blanket or not blanket, either way is probably wrong, and you are going to end up pulling over every hour to check and see if they are too hot or cold. 

So, you have all the paperwork, the feed and hay loaded, your own things loaded and finally the horse is in the trailer. Now for the most exciting part, dealing with other drivers. This post is turning into a PSA before it turns into a rant. Don’t cut people off, don’t tailgate and give us space. We are hauling 1,000-pound animals that are standing on legs that have a lot of the same properties as a toothpick.