Flying My Horse from CA to the Midwest

When planning my recent cross-country move, I got a tip from a horse friend: “You should look into flying Knight. It might not cost that much more than having him shipped [via commercial horse trailer].” She should know–she transported two horses from the East Coast to California several years ago. So the see of an idea was planted.

(Thank you to Natascha and the team from IRT for flight photos.)

The Backstory on Flying My Horse

My friend said she used IRT and couldn’t recommend them enough.

“Call IRT. They were wonderful–I got pictures of my horses from the flight. It was door-to-door service.” Actually barn to barn service. She said her horses woke up on the East Coast and by night time were stalled in their new home near San Diego.

I thought about how when I trailered my previous horse DC from Illinois to California and then back to Illinois years later, the journey took a toll. He lost weight. The route was Chicago to Lexington, Lexington to Dallas, Dallas to Los Angeles (the longest leg of the journey). I’ve driven from Illinois to California several times and it’s a loooooong road trip. I wanted to spare Knight from that.

My horse Knight is a delicate flower with a history of ulcers and a bout with colic that landed him in a hospital for ten days. Thankfully he survived–didn’t even need the surgery–but that experience still influences how I make decisions for him.

After calling around and discovering that the flight from LAX to Indianapolis (I was hoping for Chicago O’Hare, but nothing was available during my window) was only $400 more than what the price of the 2,000 mile trailer journey would be, I was sold on flying my horse.

What I Learned When Flying My Horse

First, flying your horse is very much like awaiting a stand by flight. Horses are flown in a FedEx container/stall. There are three “compartments” which are like old-fashioned standing stalls. If you have an unlimited budget, you can purchase the whole container and it will be like your horse has a box stall. I believe you can then fly whatever day suits you.

I wanted Knight to be part of a shared ride, so I had to wait for other horses to literally get on board with my same time frame and destination. He ended up flying to Indianapolis with a show jumper and a race horse. This means my contact at IRT and I had many text and phone conversations with updates on if the flight was going to be a go.

Next, a word on destinations. My hope was Knight could fly into O’Hare as the boarding barn he is at now prior to our big move in January to Florida is about an hour from O’Hare. For whatever reason O’Hare was not an option during my timeframe, but Indianapolis was. It’s about four hours from Chicago.

Getting Knight ready for his flight was like preparing a kid for summer camp. I had to get a health certificate and Coggins and have those paper documents ready to hand off to the hauler who picked him up from the CA farm. I also had supplies I needed to send him off with:

• water bucket
• 5 gallons of water (I picked up a water cooler replacement from Lowe’s)
• haynet filled with hay
• extra flakes of hay
• bag of shavings

A few days leading up to his flight I gave him Ulcergard, and the day of his flight I gave him electrolytes. He got a PEMF treatment the day of his journey, for good measure.

One of the questions I had, and people have asked me about flying a horse is: Do they drug the horses? And the answer is no. I learned there is a medical kit on board the flight and in the event a horse needed little liquid “calm down,” it would be an option, but they generally don’t need it.

The Day of Knight’s Flight Recap

The California hauler taking Knight to LAX met me at the farm around 1:30 a.m. so Knight could be at the airport ready for his 7 a.m. flight. That was tough–but I got a hotel room nearby the horse farm and had both my phone and the hotel front desk do a wakeup call for me. Turns out the hauler was early and my phone rang with the driver telling me she was 20 minutes away.

By the way, IRT will arrange the trailering on both ends, or if you have your own trailer you can do the hauling to the airports/s yourself. They got quotes for me from haulers for the CA segment and I chose the most reasonable one. In hindsight, I probably could have asked someone I know who is not a commercial hauler to have done the trip to LAX and could have saved money, but live and learn.

The quotes I received through IRT for the Indy to the IL horse farm shipping were SUPER high, so I got a name of a wonderful shipper from my horse trainer in IL from days of yore. (I can’t say enough good things about my IL hauler–he was phenomenal.)

I met the trailer at the farm and handed over the health papers, hay, etc. and Knight to the driver. Once he was safely loaded and on his way, I returned to the hotel and slept a few hours then drove to San Diego where a friend was going to take me to the airport–my goal was to get to Illinois before Knight so I could greet him on the other end.

My flight from San Diego to Chicago went smoothly. Knight’s flight had several delays–the incoming aircraft was delayed, etc. The good news about it was IRT kept me posted with every change and kept the hauler meeting Knight in Indy apprised too.

According to the original schedule, Knight would have arrived at the farm in Illinois around dinner time. As it turned out, he didn’t get there until around 2:00 a.m. I was waiting in the parking lot, looking up at the stars in the country sky and catching a glimpse of a happy little skunk who kept walking in and out of the barn.

When the trailer rolled up the long gravel driveway with my bay boy, I was so happy and relieved. The driver led Knight to his new stall, following me down the long aisle. When Knight got to it, he didn’t even acknowledge me–making a beeline to his water bucket and then began eating hay immediately. Instead of feeling snubbed, I was thrilled to see him so alert and eager to eat and drink.

If I had to do it all over again, I would definitely fly my horse across the country. It made for one crazy day, but reducing the overall travel time was worth it. And we’re loving these views from the Midwest.

Question: Have you ever flown a horse? If not, what questions do you have about the process?

Thanks for reading and tally ho!

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