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Regardless of the other information on our website such as Our
Equipment, Shipping Requirements, FAQ and Shipping Requirements, we
still get questions about just how we operate that may be best
explained here.
What
can you expect when we arrive to pick up your horse? What do I
as the hauler expect? And what can you expect during the trip and
when your horse is delivered? What are our policies that you
should know about? These and a few of my other ramblings
which I hope will let you know how we operate will be explained
here. Nothing here is set in stone as we are always
flexible and always willing to work with our customers to make your
shipping experience with us a pleasant one. Sometimes however
things don't always go as smoothly as you or we would like.
But, I have come to believe that most of these pitfalls can be
avoided by what I call full disclosure. Meaning we talked
about it and came to an agreement. Nothing can be more
annoying in this business than being surprised by some of these, so
please read
on. 1.
Our normal routine: Many
of our trips are overnight hauls meaning it takes more than just a
one day drive to deliver your horse. We normally drive for about 12 hours each day and then we get
all the horses off the trailer and put them in an overnight facility
enroute. There are many of these facilities around the
country and we tend to use the same ones if we like them and find
the facilities adequate. But since we don't have a regular
route - we're always finding new ones to add to our directory.
During the days drive, we will stop about every 3 or 4 hours to
offer the horses more water and hay, especially during the hot
summer months. If the heat is bad enough, we will adjust our
schedule to drive early in the morning and late in the evening or at
night, to avoid the hottest part of the day - as well as the
worst traffic in some cities. We will call our customers
and let then know as this usually will add significant time to our
trip. Most people will understand, but some will still
want their horse to get there on schedule regardless. We will
always do what we believe is in the best interest of your horses
health when they are in our care. Sometimes our customers will
not agree. We hope however you'll understand that its better
to be a little late with a healthy horse than on time with a sick
one. 2.
We never overnight your horse on our trailer! More
often than not, I sleep in my trailer's LQ, and besides the lack of
sleep it causes, we just don't believe in leaving a horse on the
trailer longer than necessary. Our method, of getting them off
each day, letting them stretch and run around for awhile we believe
helps your horse arrive in good health. Some horses will not
drink on the trailer for the first day or so and getting them off
every evening and into a stall or turn-out usually lets them drink
and replenish themselves and adds to a less stressful trip.
This brings me to my next point.
3.
Loading and unloading. Obviously, if the horse wont load, I
may not be taking your horse! When
I arrive to pick up your horse, it's always great when the horse
leads easily and walks onto the trailer. Some horses will take a little
more patience than others and
some a little bribery and that is fine. But if in my judgment,
the horse is not going to load and the trip requires an overnight I
may not be taking your horse. I've had people tell me their
horse loads easily when in reality it takes 3 people with a butt
strap and lots of pushing and pulling and over an hour to load their
horse. That is NOT a horse that loads!
I'll be prepared and ready for the challenge of a hard loader if
you'll just let me know up front. So please let me know in advance that your horse is a
hard loader. If you're buying the horse and you don't know,
tell me that too and ask the seller if the horse loads easily.
Otherwise you'll be angry if I refuse to take your horse and you'll blame
me for backing out on our agreement. There are plenty of
shippers who'll gladly bully your horse onto their trailer for a
buck. We try to leave the training to you and your horse
trainer. 4.
No paperwork! We won't move your horse. When
I arrive to pick up your horse. I expect you to have the
horse's paperwork ready. That means the original negative coggins,
health certificate and brand inspection - if they are
required. If you don't have these, I
will not be transporting your horse. If you wait until I get
there to tell me you don't have these, I'll be keeping your deposit
and not taking your horse. Please try to understand that
not only do I have a legal obligation to have these documents when I
pick up your horse, but I also have a responsibility to the
other horses I'm transporting and I should not put your horse on my
trailer if I don't have your horses health papers.
5.
What should you tell me about getting to the pickup or delivery
location? Everything
you would want to know if you were me and maybe then some! Are
there any steep hills and winding roads I should know about?
Will I be buying new brakes after I pick up or deliver your
horse? Will I have to travel over a 1/4 mile on an unpaved
road to pickup or deliver the horse? The
steep hills and winding roads are nice to know things that some
people take for granted because they drive it everyday.
However, when you're pulling a trailer load of horses, its nice to
know in advance. My route mapping program will usually
show me when the roads are winding but not that it's a 10%
grade and there's nothing like
first hand experience to help me get your horse there safely and on
time.
So please let me know about those steep hills that will make me say
never again! Now
a few words about unpaved roads. We have pretty nice
equipment- at least we think so. And, we do our best to keep
it that way. That means I take my time when traveling on
unpaved roads and even then I limit it to about a 1/2
mile. If I'll have to get off the pavement to pickup or
deliver your horse, please let me know in advance and expect to be
charged an additional $25.00 if its over a 1/4 mile. Any
distance over a 1/2 mile and I may not take my rig any further and
you'll have to bring me the horse if its a pickup or come get the
horse if it's a delivery. Please understand that what
you can drive your car or truck on doesn't mean I want to take my
rig there. Most customers don't realize just how big my rig
is, or what it takes to turn it around, bottom out or get stuck
etc. So please respect my right to decide what is best for my
rig and the horses on board when I must travel on unpaved roads to
pickup or deliver your horse. 6.
What can you expect during the trip and
when your horse is delivered? During the trip I may call
you to let you know that your horse is traveling OK and to update
you on our arrival time. More often than not, we are delayed
by traffic, weather, road construction and a host of other time
wasters. You can always call me on my cell phone for
this information as well, I really don't mind. Unfortunately,
cell phone coverage being what it is, you may have to just leave me
a message and when I'm in an area where I can get my messages, I'll
retrieve them and call you with an update. When
your horse is delivered, we'll hand you your horse's paperwork and
unload your horse from the trailer. If we've transported
anything else like blankets, or saddles we'll of course give you
these too. Please feel free to remind us as we can sometimes be
ready to get back on the road and may forget. Of course we'll
also expect payment at this time as well. Our preferred
payment method at delivery is cash. Do we make
exceptions? Of course we do, especially for repeat
customers. But please don't be offended if we insist on cash
if you're a new customer. If we're paid by check for a deposit
and check again when we deliver, basically we've completed our end
of our agreement and all we have from you is a promise to pay -
which is all a check is until it clears our bank. So, we
prefer to complete our transaction upon delivery with cash, even if
we've been paid by check as a deposit. Besides, this way we
get to use the cash for expenses while on the road and we don't have
to "finance" the whole trip ourselves and hope that
everyone's check clears later. If
we do not have a deposit from you, which does happen sometimes, the
only acceptable payment method at delivery is cash. Please let
us know if you need to use other payment methods. 7.
Credit Cards: We do not accept credit cards
ourselves. If however, you need to use a credit card, we will
accept payment using Paypal. Please let us know and we'll give
you our Paypal account. They do charge a fee, so we will have
to agree on who pays the fee. Usually we ask that you do, but
we're always willing to pay it ourselves, or meet you half way.
We also have an account that we only use for direct deposit if you'd
like to do a direct bank transfer to our account. If that is
your preference just let us know and we'll get you the account
information. Finally,
if you've read this far, I hope at least some
information here was helpful, should you decide to let us transport
your horse. And feel free to call or email us if you have any
questions.
email.
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