I've been to traveling horse, or something like that, where you put your trip route and number of horses, then people with barns who do overnights email  you to let you know what they have. I'm getting responses there, so that's good.

But I was also curious... I know when I had a horse shipped to me, the hauler mentioned staying at rodeo grounds. How would I go about finding those to overnight the horses? I think that might be cheaper, want to look into all my options.

Also... anyone know of a website or something that will tell me at what point on my travel is so many hours? I mean, yahoo maps and mapquest tell me the route to take from here to Ky, and how long and how many miles (granted, it will take longer traveling with all the animals!) But how do I know where to plan to stop, any ideas?

Also, its' roughly 1800 miles, "27 hours" (without animals haha). How far in a day would you drive? We'll stop often for potty breaks (me and the dogs!), food (fast food due to the animals), gas, and to let the horses rest. Obviously want to get there as quick as possible BUT keeping comfort and safety as a priority. I figure four days travel, does that sound about right?

Jessi

I would drive as far in a day as I could, comfortably, if you're stopping regularly to let the horses rest.  Depends on the person/horses, how well they travel.  We've stayed at rodeo grounds also, they're welcome sights when you've had a long haul!  What I would do is go to the chamber website of the towns you plan on stopping at, you could find the rodeo/fairgrounds there, also you could check at PRCA.com or WPRA.com  Good luck and have a safe trip!

What about horse campgrounds,if they aren't far off course? Would 4h fairgrounds allow you to stay?

Good idea!  We have a lot of parks that allow horses and overnight stays with horses around here, so I would sure check on that too, if I were you.  You could probably go to that State's park website, ours is Texas Parks and Wildlife.

Jessi - Whew!  That is a long trip with animals.  Are you planning to travel alone?  I would really be afraid for you to stay alone overnight at an arena or even some campgrounds.

You mentioned stopping to let the horses rest periodically.  Does that mean you are going to unload each one and let them stretch their legs?  Have you considered that time into your travel time?

I have never travelled with a horse like that, so, unfortunately I can't be much help.  But as a woman that travels alone quite a bit, I have learned to be very cautious.  A friend of mine and her husband travel all over the US canoeing and they stay a a place called KOA (?) campgrounds.  She said that they are better security wise than a hotel or your average campground.  I think they have a network of campgrounds across the country.  You might check them out.

I'm with Vic and hope you aren't traveling alone!

Thanks everyone for the ideas! :)

 Nope, not alone. Craig is coming with me, and maybe my dad. They'll fly back to Az after we get to Ky.

WE have to stay at hotels, b/c of the cats. They need somewhere to get out of the crates, use the litter box, ect. So we'll stay in a hotel as close as possible to where the horses are staying.

When I say stop to let the horses rest, other than an overnight, they will still be in the trailer. I mean let their legs rest from the constant balancing of a moving trailer for a bit. That also gives us a chance to walk the 7 dogs for them to potty and for us to potty ;)

Thanks again!

Jessi

I am so glad that you won't have to travel alone that far!

Are you planning to come across TX and up through AR and TN to KY or are you going to come up through OK and through AR and TN or MO to KY?  One of my BIL's is a truck driver and he might be able to suggest places to stop if you are traveling one of his routes.  He travels from TN to CA and back almost every week.

How is the house shopping coming?

Hey Jessi - four days sounds about right. Are you hauling your big horses, or your minis, or some of both? (I know your whole herd won't fit into one trailer!)

I live within three or four hours from where you're headed, so you probably wouldn't want to stop here (Knoxville), but IF you find yourself at the end of a very long day and don't want to be unloading in the dark at a new place, you're welcome to overnight your horses here. I have a couple of paddocks with shelters (could put two big horses that get along or 3-4 minis) and one big corral that would comfortably hold 5 or 6 horses (possibly two, if I can get the fencing done that I want to). (I'd just put my two in the pasture.) There are also some motels within six miles of here, or we could kick the girls out of their rooms for the night. ;) You can email me if you're interested (noel 83809 @ yahoo . com  no spaces).

When I hauled my horses from southern CA to eastern WA, I went onto horsemotels.com or something like that, and made a list of all the places along my route (ran to four pages). Then when I knew about when and where I was going to want to stop, I started calling places. I did it that way because I didn't know how the drive was going to go - it was right before Christmas, and we did run into nasty weather. It was kind of hit and miss, but it worked and I was able to put the horses up at two great places for very little money. They were in a corral the first night and stalls the second, the establishments fed their own hay, and it cost me about $10 for each horse. My kids, dog and cat and I spent the night in a nearby motel. It worked great. There were a couple of fairgrounds that were listed on that site, just not where I planned on stopping.

How exciting that you're finally getting to move! I know you've been wanting to do it as long as I've been on the forum. Good luck!

Noel

Jessi, awhile back I was considering traveling to Oregon with the horses and wanted to know about how long a distance they could travel in a day.  This was the thread:

http://forum.equisearch.com/forums/p/6989/6989.aspx#6989

Also, David helped a family move to New Mexico from CA a few years back and they drove 2 horses and a donkey straight through with no problems.

Lastly, there is a book published with overnight horse stables although I can't remember the name.  I think it comes from this website:

http://www.horsemotel.com/

Thanks so much you guys! I'm going to check out the links :)

I'm taking the three mini moms with foals and my mini gelding Chili in my big trailer. In the little one we're hauling the goats (and they can stay in the trailer if there's not a goat safe spot to let them out). And it's a possibility I might take one more mini in there with the goats if I can rig up something to keep him/her from stepping on goats haha ;)

I'm going to discuss the route with my dad when we find a house, but the route that is suggested on websites is going through Albuquerque, northern Texas, Oklahoma, then in an order I forget (I'm bad with geography lol) Mo, In, and maybe one i'm forgetting, then into Ky.

I ended up finding a neat site that lists your route and all the hotels (well maybe not ALL but a lot) that are on your route, and how long it takes to drive to them. I know it'll take us longer than the time it lists, but that at leasts gives me an idea of where to stop, and then I can find a horse place in the vacinity?

Thanks again!

Jessi

I knew I'd miss some things...!

Noel, thank you for the offer! I will keep it in mind!

As to house shopping, Craig and I have quite a list from looking ourselves. I plan to go over it better this week, weed out ones that I wrote b/c they were ok but then I don't really like them. Realitor tried to send me a list of homes today but the link didn't work, so hopefully tomarrow. She says the homes are all over the place, so we need to try to narrow the location down lol I figure if I find more I like in in the same area, that's a good place to start! We're definately looking at a house we're really interested in that's close to Richmond, so I guess we'll try to concentrate a little more in that area, but if there is another area we really like a home in, we'll hit that, too. It's hard when your only location requirement is in a certain state lol!!! We prefer to be in the Bluegrass area, but don't want to miss out on the perfect place b/c it's over by Louisville or something, you know?

Jessi

Jessi, I moved my horses from WPA to Socal in 1998 and then to Middle Tennessee in 2003.

I don't think www.horsemotel.com existed in '98 or at least I wasn't aware of it.

Here is what I did:

1.  Got my TripTic from AAA and figured out how many miles I could cover in one day pulling my stock trailer, plus having the kids follow me with the Ryder truck and my car.  Keeping us all together going thru Columbus, OH was a nightmare - thank goodness for the C-B radios I had the forsight to have put in every vehicle - lol

 2.  Once I knew about how many miles I could cover (generally 500 to 650 daily and that depends on whether I was on the flats in New Mexico and Texas or trying to get up over the mountain ranges further west), I would look at my TripTic and see what area that mileage got me to.

2.1  I then went to the Internet and started looking for boarding barns, training facilities, etc.  Without fail, if a place I called couldn't put me up (one refused because he said he dealt with auction horses and did not want to expose my horses to anything), they sure did know of someone ethical that would.

2.2 Once I made my lay-up reservations and knew what it would cost (always pretty cheap).  I bought Thank you cards for each lay-up, and put CASH in every card BEFORE I left on my move.  I kept them in that over-grown purse that the kids referred to as my shoulder filing cabinet - lol lol  It was much easier than trying to struggle looking for change when I pulled in late and was tired:)

When I moved to Tennessee, the only thing that changed was I knew about www.horsemotel.com I still used the Triptic, but horsemotel.com made things so much easier.

I can honestly say, that on both those cross-country trips in my old "Grapes of Wrath" truck and trailer, my backyard horses were always treated as if they were of Royal Blue blood and competing in the Rolex:)  You can't beat horse people anywhere in this great United States, when you need help:)))

Hope this helps and good luck.

Also in that move, was the cat, who lived in the bed of my truck in the Rottweiler's training crate all that time.  The Rott rode with me, and the little Beagle/mix rode with the young man that drove my Saturn - lol lol lol

So if you're thinking it, you can do it ----- just need to be sure all of your equipment has been gone over and is road-worthy and someone in your moving group needs to be the Master Drill Sergeant of organization --- that was me in my case - lol lol

Ok Jessi, I just realized you are moving to KY.  Any place in particular?

Two years ago, my friend built a gorgeous home and even more gorgeous barn on 10 acres.  Now that she and her husband have both retired from the Corvette Plant in Bowling Green, KY, they have decided they want to move west and bought land in AZ, I think.

Her barn looks so good, that some people have asked her why she built such a nice house behind her other house - lol

I don't know what they are asking, but I can call her if you're interested and also find out what real estate agent has it.

I think the mailing address is Smithville, KY which is slighty NW of Bowling Green.  That would also put you pretty close to Land-Between-The-Lakes, which is a huge horse campground and trail riding place.  You also would be an hour or less from the Long C trails in Westmoreland, TN, which are slightly SE of Smithville.  They also have great horse camping facilities, but they don't have the restaurant/tourist shop that LBL has.

Let me know if you want more information.

CheyAut:

 We're definately looking at a house we're really interested in that's close to Richmond,

Jessi-

Richmond is closer to us than Lexington, just about an hour south of me.  Once you find a house dont forget you're welcome to send a few to our place if you dont have enough right right away.

 -Melia   (aka DukesMom)