Most homeowner's insurance policies specifically exclude large animals and "car pooling". Check your policies with your agent before you decide to haul.

Gard

 Say if you charged a dollar a mile for the round trip. 520 miles  x $1.00 per mile = $520.00 total.... You're going to spend $200.00+ of that on fuel. What if you blow a tire? loose a wheel bearing? It's going to take you approx. 10 hours or better to do the trip, not counting the time loading, unloading, hitching and unhitching from the trailer.  Your time is worth something...... What's the horse going to tear up on your trailer? Is he a kicker, stomper, cribber? Do you really want to do this?... Think about it.

You need to charge $1.50/mile to cover your fuel, wear and tear on your truck and maybe put a little money in your pocket

The best time to find out if you have insurance coverage is before there is an accident. Be very careful hauling or handling anyone elses animals, until you have proper, verified, coverage. Helping someone out, and just doing a favour could be very expensive.

gard

Well, I've never lied to an insurance company, but if I ever did it would go something like this...

I was haulling my daughter's lesson pony we sold to another barn out of state and XXX happened.  Here's the accident report.  Send me my check.

Keep it simple.  If it were me, I'd charge a reasonable price for hauling and handling...$1.00 sounds about right.  If it's a friend and you're doing a favor, keep the price reasonable.

Use Mapquest and determine the mileage.

Then using your known MPG, compute how many gallons of fuel. Add 5% to cover getting to the originating farm, getting lost, stopping for food, etc.

Then, add something appropriate for your time & wear & tear on your rig.

$1 a mile as been the standard for quite a while now. I'm not sure if that really covers all costs involved anymore.

I agree with the potential liability issues. You need to, AT A MINIMUM, have a verbal discussion about who pays for vet in the event of injuries to the horse, and who pays for repairs, in the event of injuries to your rig.

AND... if the pony has been sold to the buyer already - then you MUST make these agreements WITH THE BUYER - not your friend who is the seller.

Excellent point ... You'll have a legal responsibility to the owner of the pony at the time of injury. 

What does your gut tell you?.........If you want to help her, then do it. You sound to me like someone who if an incident occured in transit, would be able to word things accordingly as to minimalize any legal issues. One thing, have an open communucation with the seller about who pays the buyer (cost of the pony/vet bills etc.) if something were to occur in transit. Sorry, you don't want to ruin a friendship but certain aspects of this should be acknowledged. If she's a good friend she'll understand and won't be offended.

Exactly how I feel.  "certain aspects of this should be acknowledged"  

I've hauled friend's horses ... but it was always with the understanding that "stuff happens".

Your original post was about a mileage rate.

tom-tom

there are bunches of ads by commercial haulers in the classifieds of all the horse magazines.  You might call one or two and find out how much they charge.  Also, one of them may be going the same way as the pony and can add it to the van.  Really I kind of agree with HWBAR in that since I am now retired (from being a lawyer) maybe I should come get the pony.....

Anyway, I would do it for a friend for the cost of the fuel.  jmho