Choosing A Horse Transporter 

As a horse owner you realize that it’s a major undertaking selecting a Horse Transporter that you can trust. Unfortunately, there really isn’t any easy answer or method which would enable you to feel 100% comfortable and secure in your decision. 

The horse transporting industry is full of well meaning people who have decided that since they have a trailer they can be a horse hauler. Most of these people don't have a clue about licensing and insurance requirements, let alone how to safely transport a horse long distances.

These companies usually do not have their own web sites or physical addresses, and most are not incorporated. By this we mean if the company has a Home Page on AOL or other Internet Provider and not an actual web site bearing their name with a .com or .net then they could be smaller than you think. Incorporation, LLC or Sole Proprietor are three standard forms of business operations, both having the availability of a company name licensed in the state or county of the business. In any case they will have a Bank Account in the Company Name and will be able to accept payments in that name. Haulers requesting CASH or Certified Funds payable directly to themselves most probably are not recognized legal businesses. We suggest that you be extremely careful when sending Cash or Certified Funds to this type of entity, horsemen have been ripped off doing this. Unfortunately there are individuals who will take your money and never show up. 

There are a number of web sites offering to accept your trip request and to forward it to all of the transporters associated with them. These sites provide you with the vehicle to get your trip to a lot of haulers and to receive bids from them. Typically, none of the haulers listed on these sites are certified by the site. No licensing or insurance is checked or any references. Therefore, it’s still up to you to check the hauler out, not doing so could spell disaster. ShipMyHorse.com is different, since we do check each horse transporters' authority.

It has been our experience that you get what you pay for. This is not to say you shouldn’t negotiate for the best possible quote, but realize if it sounds too good it probably is. For example diesel is now upwards of $3.15 per gallon, so if the truck was to get 10 mpg your raw cost to move the truck is $ .32 per mile, plus insurance, plus payroll, plus tolls, plus licensing giving an approximate cost per mile of over $1.00.  

With this in mind if a transporter offers to pick your horse up for $ .45 per mile, operating a 3 horse trailer cannot be making money and probably not licensed. Those unlicensed transporters, if stopped, can be put out of service by the authorities, their horses sent to impound and you would never know until the authority contacted you about your horse. Impound fees could be as high as $ 150.00 per day with you now faced with finding a hauler to get the horse as well a additional costs. The old adage of an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure really does apply here.