X Tips to Prepare Your Horse for Long-Distance Traveling
Planning a road trip with your horse seems exciting unless any accident takes place. One misfortune can cost the disability or death of yourself, your horse, or your family. Not only accidents, but long journeys are also tiring and frequently result in terrible horse health. The horse can get out of control and also get several infections or anxiety which can even be fatal.
Well, there is not as such any guide or reference to learn about precautions to take before horse hauling. But there is a hefty checklist to confirm before scheduling long-distance touring with your horse. Through a lot of research, we have gathered many resources and safeguards to be adopted before the long journey of horse touring.
From hydration, clothes, and practices, you will get every single detail about preparing your horse before traveling. Let's see what are these Porsche precautions and tips to prepare your horse for long-distance traveling.
Hydrating your dear horse
Hydration should be your first sight check before and during horse traveling. A normal horse can drink up to 15 gallons of water according to its size. Water consumption increases in summer. The lack of water can lead to serious health problems such as increased respiration, heart rate, decreased appetite, and fatigue.
Provide sufficient fresh water to your horse for at least 12 hours before hauling. Make the horse's hay wet for more water intake through food. The trailer should have adequate water storage for horses. This is because water changes can affect horses' health and appetite. The horse can also refuse to drink water that doesn't taste like usual. In case of an emergency of less water storage, you can add flavors to the water to make it drinkable by horse.
The quantity of electrolyte
You can add a limited amount of electrolytes for further hydration. Make sure to add electrolytes only before 12 hours of traveling. After that, the electrolyte should be avoided. Always unload your horse at the time of providing water and hay to them.
Unloading the horse allows heat dissipation and lets the trailer cool. It also increases food and liquid consumption. The water should be given after every four hours. In case the facility of water storage is not available and you are planning to add flavors to a horse's drink then do it the latest before 8-10 days of traveling. The sudden addition of flavor or change in taste is often disliked by horses.
Recheck the dehydration signals
Since you have already taken all the pre-steps of keeping your horse hydrated, it's time to check whether your horse is sufficiently hydrated or not. There are two popular kinds of tests for the same. You can go for a skin pinch test or the upper gum capillary refill test to check the signals of dehydration.
If the test shows that your horse is dehydrated, you must consult a veterinarian as soon as possible. The horses should not be included in rides and races in such cases. You should always travel in cooler conditions or on days and nights.
Creating a stress-free environment
First of all, you should visit a veterinarian before hauling. If a veterinarian shows a green flag about horse health, then only you must proceed with traveling. Secondly, you should keep all the documents ready to show on the borders. Extra time can make your horse mad leading to anxiety.
The critical documents required include a negative Coggins test, brand inspection, and health certificate. Make sure that there is no stress on horse joints or feet while standing in the trailer. The trailer should be comfortable and quite big for horses. The next crucial thing for a trailer is proper ventilation.
Choosing horse companions wisely
The second thing to consider for long-distance horse hauling is to ponder whether you should provide your horse with a companion or not. The answer is NO. Now you might be thinking horses are social animals and they just love humans as well as other horses' company. But this behavior doesn't work for them when it comes to hauling in trailers.
Two or more horses in a trailer can devastate the trailer. If one horse catches anxiety then it may affect the other horse soon. That's why only one horse should haul at a time in a trailer. In case of any emergency, you can take two or more horses but a pre-visit to the veterinarian for mental and anxiety checkups is mandatory. Leg injuries are prevalent when several horses travel together.
The size of the escape doors
Do you know that large-size escape doors are often fatal for horses? Yes! This is because the sharp ends present hefty-sized escape doors of slant trailers. Horses may suffer cuts and injuries from these intense ends, which peaks to blood supply reduction.
A decrease in blood supply damages the vascular system, as a result of which, the horses may lead to sudden death or a lifetime disability. That's why the small size of the escape doors is often preferred over larger sizes.
The extent of windows inside trailers
Proper ventilation is equally important in a horse trailer as hay and water. A close trailer may restrict or suppress the horse's breathing process resulting in suffocation, anxiety, and outrage of horses.
Moreover, excess open windows in a trailer invite dust and flammable substances. Dust is known to cause respiratory problems in horses while flammable substances can cause the hay to burn and trailers will catch the fire. Both conditions are fatal.
Abrasions and eye injuries are other common effects of keeping the windows open. That's why you should go for a great one to allow sunlight and decent airflow. It also prevents horses from looking outside the trailer.
Heading in adequate weather
Choosing the weather before heading to hauling is another significant factor in our tips and tricks for the long-distance hauling checklist. You should avoid hauling in extremely cold conditions.
Similarly, travelling should also be avoided in summer. Excess heat in summer can lead to horse body dehydration and poor health conditions. You should start hauling early in the morning. In case the journey is very long, you should take a rest in the afternoon and then start again in the evenings.
Pre precautions to take before hauling
You should always decide the path of your journey beforehand. The journey should be pre-planned and as short as possible. The horse should take a rest of one or more hours after 8 hours of hauling.
There is no need to let your horse out of the trailer while resting. You can just keep the windows open and let your horse breathe some fresh air. It is advisable to check the weight of your horse before traveling.
Horses are known to lose their weight by up to 5% before hauling. So if your horse gets thin after traveling, you should not worry about that much. But you have to make sure that the horse regains its weight after 15 days or 1 month when the trip ends. If horses don't regain their weight, consult the veterinarian as soon as possible.
Organize some test drives
In order to prepare your horse for long-distance travel, you can organize some test drives of shorter distances. This makes things clear whether your horse is throwing tantrums while loading or not.
Moreover, it also becomes evident if the horse is not comfortable in the trailer. Several little drives before hauling prepare the horse well for the final long-distance travel day. Such struggles get lessened once your horse becomes an experienced traveler.
Pre practices before the journey
You can organize a training session or invite trainers to train your horse for long-distance travel. Make sure to hit a veterinarian at least 30 days before hauling. Moreover, the trailer in which the horse is going to travel should be clean and dust free. Several horses are allergic to dust which may lead to serious respiratory health issues. The rest stops should also be preplanned to avoid lingering.
What to wear or what not to wear?
There is no need to load your horse with several kinds of horse clothes available in the market linked to so-called big horse brands. The heavy clothes meant for show-off can make your horse feel uncomfortable in the trailer, as a result of which, the horse may become impatient. You can let your horse wear some leg pads to avoid leg injuries.
Wrapping up
Hence this was all about the tips and tricks to be undertaken to prepare your horse for long-distance travel. From trailer escape doors to window sizes, food to clothes, electrolytes to stress, and water to weather, we discussed almost every aspect to prepare our dear horses and avoid major accidents. Just follow these above-mentioned tips, and enjoy a happy and tireless journey with your darling horses.
Image credit: Depositphotos