Did you know that you can, like, FedEx a horse across the country?
To say that things moved quickly once I decided to pull the trigger on bringing Marley East would be an understatement. I have a longer post queued up reviewing in detail my experience with selecting and then working with a long-distance shipper, but for this post we’re going to focus on the insanely fast process that had Marley leaving California on a Tuesday morning and rolling into his new digs almost exactly 72 hours later.
I reached out to Brook Ledge on a Sunday to officially inquire about getting Marley on a truck. They responded quickly, and by mid-day Monday I was at an airport, en route to a work conference in Texas, calling in my credit card. I was originally told to expect that he’d ship in perhaps one or two weeks, which seemed perfect.
Fast forward about 3 hours to me landing in Austin, firing up my phone, and seeing that I had a voicemail. The connection wasn’t great and I had trouble understanding the message, but I thought the very nice man was saying that they wanted to get Marley on “Tuesday’s trip”. Tuesday, as in, the very next day.
I immediately texted my friend and fellow CANTER volunteer, Jody, who was helping to coordinate Marley-related thing in Davis.
Cue a few hours of scrambling while we tried to confirm that we could get her paperwork, Jody performed miraculous feats of awesomeness to get electrolytes and Gastrogard, and Marley was fed a slightly rushed but delicious bran mash to try and get him extra hydrated.
The next morning, right on time, the van pulled up and Marley was prepped to start his journey.
By 6 or so in the morning California time, he’d pulled out of Davis and was Kentucky-bound. I was a NERVOUS WRECK. In retrospect, I’m so happy that this happened quickly, because otherwise I don’t know if I would have survived the anxiety. I was super confident in the shippers, but nervous that Marley wouldn’t handle the trip, or would colic, or wouldn’t drink water, or would somehow impale himself in the trailer, or would get to the East Coast and break down, or… I have a very active imagination.
Come Friday I was able to head out to the barn to meet my trainer and wait patiently (hah) for the trailer to arrive. As promised, Marley rolled up just after 9am and I was so nervous that I totally failed to take any pictures of him on the trailer. He was clearly ready to get off, and the driver asked that I unload him. In classic Marley fashion he marched off the trailer without any fuss, looked around, spotted some grass, and started pulling me in the direction of the green stuff.
My trainer had prepped a small paddock right near the driveway for Marley, so I got him in there pretty quickly and made sure he had food and water in front of him immediately.
He was definitely sweaty but overall seemed to be in very good condition. Within a few minutes of going into the paddock he had sucked down half a bucket of water and tucked right into his hay. I let him hang out for a while, pulled him into the crossties for a quick grooming session a bit later in the day, and generally just stood around feeling a little stunned that my Red Monster had found his way to the East Coast.
It’s going to be an interesting adventure figuring out how to make Horse Life coexist with City Life, but I’m so grateful to have the opportunity to try it.
Urban Thoroughbred 
Yay!! So glad he had a good trip. I agree, I think it probably is better to just get it done with!
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