Honoka'a Western Week Celebrates Hamakua's Paniolo Heritage: May 22 - 30, 2011

Over 25 years ago, as I was preparing to move to Honoka’a, I was surprised to see a map showing a County park called the Honokaa Rodeo Arena. Little did I know then that ranching is a big part of the culture on the Big Island. It seems everyone in the Hamakua area has a relative or friend with a herd of cattle — and everyone pitches in when the time comes for a roundup. Roping and cutting are important skills and competitions are popular events.

The “oldest, biggest and best” rodeo in the State of Hawaii is the Hawaii Saddle Club Scholarship Rodeo held at the Honoka’a arena (this year will be its 55th year). As part of Honoka’a's Western Week, you can attend the rodeo this weekend (preliminaries begin Saturday, May 28 at 8:00 am) through Monday, May 30 at 4 pm. The rodeo draws over 300 contestants from all over Hawaii and the mainland with participants showing off skills such as bull riding, barrel racing, wild cow milking, roping and much more. The keiki events are especially popular with parents and family cheering wildly as the young ones try to ride a sheep or rope a calf.

Karen B. Clarkson, R

The Western Week golf tournament was held last Sunday, but there is still a saloon girl contest, a performance by the Honoka’a  High School Band and a paniolo parade followed by a block party to come this week. There are also special events and movies at the Honoka’a People’s Theatre starting tonight at 7pm. If you’re in the area, come join the fun in Honoka’a!

Read HONOKAA’S WESTERN WEEK “Rides Downtown Again” in the latest edition of the Hamakua Times

Shipping Your Horse To (or From, or Within) Hawaii

Maybe you are planning to move your family, horses included, to Hawaii from the mainland.

Or, your daughter’s horse has qualified for the nationals in barrel racing or western pleasure, and that means a trip to the mainland…for the horse as well as the daughter.

Or, maybe you just want to take your nice Kauai-bred Quarter Horse over to the Big Island and show those folks how a really good cutting horse works a cow.

Regardless of whether you’re going off island or out of state, you’re going to have to do more than just load old Blaze into a trailer and head off down the road.  Readers often call to see if we have information on horse transportation … so, here it is.

To/From Hawaii:  Sail or Fly?

The joys of living in paradise include the headaches of transporting horses over the ocean.  If you’re moving a horse into or out of the state, he’ll have to go by plane or boat.

The boat option means Matson Navigation, which has regularly scheduled livestock transportation between Honolulu and Oakland, and Honolulu and Long Beach, CA.  The trip usually takes six days on the water.

To book passage on a Matson livestock ship, you’ll need to work with a shipping agent.  Matson’s customer service folks can provide you with a list of shippers.  (Contact Matson customer service 866-662-4826 x5046.)

Matson provides trained livestock handlers who accompany each shipment of animals; owners aren’t allowed to travel with their horses.  The cost will vary depending on where, who, when and how many horses you are shipping, but you can expect to pay between $1,000 and $1,400 per horse.

To fly your horse to or from Hawaii, you can use either Pacific Airlift or a livestock shipping agent such as Air Equine.  Pacific Airlift flies horses twice each month–once westbound and once eastbound–between Los Angeles and Honolulu.

Air Equine works as a shipping agent, arranging passage between Los Angeles and two destinations in Hawaii, Honolulu and Hilo, on scheduled FedEx cargo flights.  They also use KLM and CargoLux for international flights.

Pacific Airlift employs a veterinarian to fly with the horses; Air Equine sends two professional grooms with each shipment of horses.  Both companies ship horses in specially made shipping stalls that accommodate three average-sized horses or two large horses.

Flying a horse from LA to Honolulu costs about $3,500.  That’s considerably more than ocean transport, but for many owners the lowered stress for the horses and the time savings are worth it.

“For a horse, flying to Hawaii is just like traveling in a three-horse trailer for six or seven hours,” says AirEquine’s customer service agent Maelani Worboys.

Hawaii Department of Agriculture requirements must be met regardless of how a horse arrives in Hawaii.  Shipping agents will make sure the arriving horses are presented for DOA inspection upon arrival in Hawaii, but it’s the owner’s responsibility to ensure the horses have the proper vaccinations, treatment for parasites, a negative equine infectious anemia certificate (Coggins test) and veterinary health certificate before transport.

Contact the Hawaii Department of Agriculture or visit the DOA website for more information.  The Pacific Airlift website also has a summary of these requirements.

From Island to Island

Young Brothers ships horses to all islands, but not to all ports. (Horses can’t be barged into Hilo, for example.)  Ports for livestock delivery include Nawiliwili on Kauai, Kahului on Maui, Kaunakakai on Molakai and Kaumalapau on Lanai, Kawaihae on the Big Island and Honolulu on Oahu.  You must provide your own shipping container (a van, trailer-and-truck rig, or trailer that can be lashed down; or a specially built, palletized horse stall that can be moved around the docks by forklift.)  The container has to keep manure and urine from escaping, and has to include some method of providing drinking water.

Prices vary depending on the length, weight and height of the load.  On the Young Brothers website, look for page 56 in the Tariffs document, which contains information about shipping and cargo restrictions.

Paperwork for inter-island transport. Transporting horses by barge or ferry requires a Certificate of Livestock Ownership/Movement (form DC-44), obtained from the Department of Agriculture, and a bill of lading obtained from Young Brothers.

The Young Brothers website explains how to ship goods and crate a bill of lading, but there’s not much there about livestock.  Call their customer service number, 808-543-9311, for more information.

You can manage this all by yourself, but unless you move horses from island to island frequently, you’ll probably want to hire someone to do it for you.

Interisland shippers will handle the transport details, pick up horses from the DOA quarantine station if they’re coming from out of state, provide feed and the trailer or shipping stall, and make sure your horse loads safely and has water for the journey.  Two well-known interisland shippers are Kea Among (808-221-5449) and Ralph Fukishima (808-372-9633), both based on Oahu.

Charters and Special Deals

If several people who want to transport horses to a major event on another island, they may be able to charter a barge.  Rodeo competitors on Maui and the Big Island occasionally do this.

And, Rope Maui offers rebates on inter-island shipping for Rope Maui competitions and U.S. Team Roping Championship (USTRC) events in Hawaii.  Off-island ropers receive a $100 per horse rebate towards inter-island shipping to Maui for Rope Maui URP events and Rope Maui USTRC events.  Maui ropers traveling to other islands also receive a $100 per horse rebate towards inter-island shipping to any state-wide USTRC events.  Check the Rope Maui website for more information.

Use a Checklist

Regardless of how and where you’re transporting your horses, you’ll need to do your homework to ensure a smooth, trouble-free experience.

• What kind of insurance do you need?  Does the carrier provide insurance, or are you required to purchase mortality or some other type of insurance?
• What paperwork do you need? Health certificate and recent Coggins, Certificate of Ownership/Movement, bill of lading, anything else?
• Plan any scheduled health checks, tests or treatments well in advance, and be sure to follow the timetable.
• If you’re not accompanying your horse on the same flight or boat trip, ask about care.  Who feeds, and how often?  How is water provided?  When is the stall cleaned?  What happens if the horse colics or goes down or there’s some other emergency?
• Who handles the paperwork and the inspection destination?  When can you pick up your horse?
• If weather conditions aren’t safe, what happens?
• What should your horse wear? A light sheet, protective boots, head protector, sturdy halter with unbreakable lead-rope?
• Will your horse need an over-sized stall or special handling?

And, most important:

• Have you taught your horse to load easily and travel well, before you hand him over to a shipper?

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Learn more about Sarah Blanchard at www.tactfultraining.com

The entire newsletter in which this article first appeared can be downloaded as a PDF.