Winter is here time to think about heading south

View looking out our living-room window to the valley below.

Well it is time to think about heading south for the winter. Don't get me wrong I just love our new place with the views and mountain scenery it is just beautiful. We plan on heading south towards Arizona right after the new year. There are lots of things to get ready to leave. Coggins and health papers for the horses. Make sure you plan a head for the horses paperwork it can take up to a week or 2 in some places.  Another very important thing is have the truck road ready. Here is a great link to one of my PDF files on getting your truck ready Click here to print. You should find it very useful. Here is another great list with a PDF printable file Click here to print. This second list is important things you should always travel with. Of course once you are ready to leave check road reports to see what the best route is to travel down. Check road conditions Click here for Canadian road conditions.  Click here for USA road conditions. It is also good to travel with a GPS and maybe a smart phone. We travel with a wireless Wifi hub we got from Verizon . We bought our card or hub for just over $100 and just pay buy the month.  You can pop into any Verizon store just after crossing the boarder. It is a little pricy per month but it is great to have internet everywhere you go. One thing nice about having the internet well traveling you can google places to stay as you drive. Finding places that take horses is a little bit of a challenge but not impossible. Keep in mind almost every little town has rodeo grounds so you can always google rodeo grounds. I do not book ahead as we never know how far we will make it in one day travel it depends a lot on weather. About a hour or two before we stop I will call ahead to places we can stay at. There are lots of reference sites to find stop overs for horses. My web site has lots of info http://www.campingandhorses.com  there are others too. Here are some more web sites. If traveling through eastern Oregon some of the rest areas even have corrals so look for the horse pictures on the rest area signs.

http://www.horseandmuletrails.com/
http://horsemotel.com/
http://www.travelinghorse.com/Stables.html

Also follow our blog I have a bunch of places listed we stayed at on our way to and from Arizona in 2012 Click here to to see Blog

Other tips or suggestions when traveling with horses.
1.) I will soak their hay with water as they travel to make sure they get water. We offer them water at every stop as well. If they do not drink at least they are getting some moisture from the hay.
2.) I do not boot or wrap my horses up to travel as this can sometimes be more trouble then it is worth. I have seen horses get leg bows from the tension of the boots or wraps. This is a personal reason make your own judgement.
3.) If you are using hay nets to travel with use ones with smaller holes like slow feeders. I have seen too many horses get their legs hung up in the larger nets if they paw in the trailer.
4.) We do not travel with heavy rugs we travel with just a light cooler/sheet or nothing.
5.) Keep horses window locked in the up right possession with the window open for just a little air flow. DO NOT KEEP down in the open possession. I can not believe it when I see people driving down the highway and their horses heads are hanging out the window. Craziness.
6.) Your Coggins is good for 6 months but the health papers are only good up to 60 days. We get the 60 day papers and renew before heading out of state. Check online to find vets near your area to renew Health papers this can take sometime in Arizona now as the paperwork goes to New Mexico and back.
7.) Most horse people seem to travel with other pets. Make sure all your pets have a current Rabies shot and you have all the paperwork.
8.) If you do travel with a smartphone call your cell phone company about getting a USA plan for long distance and texting. You may have to call every 30 days to renew depending on your provider.

Trail riding out our back door. Both our weanlings got to go. 

Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New year see you in Arizona in the New Year :)