Transporting Horses Long Distances

Have you ever wanted or needed to ship your horse? In order to do so, you will need to know the benefits and downsides. Well, you're in luck because I'm going to be listing some of those wonderful and not so wonderful things in this post. One of my favorite parts of shipping horses would be the long road trips or the happiness that follows after everything is said and done. Another benefit of shipping your horse is getting where you need too fast. But with all of those great things come a few bad things as well. Some examples are bruising on your horse from the trailer or there's always the possibility of overheating, which is never good. All of those can also lead to lots of weight loss. But wait!... Before you cancel your plans to go to that adventure a couple of hundred miles from home or the biggest show you've experienced let's talk about the things you can do to prevent all of that bad stuff from happening.

A common issue with shipping a horse from a cold place to a hot place. One of the main things to do when shipping a horse from somewhere cold to somewhere hot is to body clip them down a bit (we will cover that in a later post) otherwise they might overheat which could lead to weight loss from sweating. Another thing is to make sure you are stopping pretty frequently in shady areas to refill water or check in on your horse. One more thing to do is make sure you don't have a blanket on any of your horses especially if there are multiple horses in one trailer at a time. It would be beneficial to your horse’s health to put in one or two fans because as humans and horses alike, mammals in large groups produce lots of body heat especially in enclosed spaces like trailers.

Another thing is bruising on the horse's body and legs. Most bruising is caused by a clumsy horse loading and or unloading. But there are also other reasons for bruising...like a confined space/small stall on the trailer (even sometimes in box stalls horses get bruises from long bumpy roads or from wearing blankets or wraps/shipping boots and tripping), some people use bedding to prevent slipping on slick floors in trailers but with that comes downsides as well. This could include colic (again...we will discuss in another article) from dust. so one thing to do is spray your shavings/bedding down with a light mist of water but not enough to do the opposite of what you're trying to achieve...horses NOT slipping.

The last issue we will talk about is weight loss from travel. Now, this isn't the most critical thing that could happen but it's still somewhat very serious. Most of the time weight loss is caused by all of the other things we talked about which all lead to stress that then leads to well you guessed it...weight loss. One of the things you could do to counteract this is to make sure your horse is still getting feed and water on its normal schedule. Now I understand that this might be a somewhat hard thing to do when traveling across the country but it's still important for your horse's health to feed them normal amounts (plus needed supplements) around the same time if possible.

Prepare!!! Make sure that you are prepared for any accidents that might occur because the last thing we want is for you and your horse/horses to get stranded in the middle of nowhere without any of the needed necessities to survive. Your Veterinarian can help with this as there are many health emergencies to consider. Don't forget normal emergency auto and hauling travel kits (tires, flares, first aid (people and horse), water, truck, and trailer jack, etc...

Don't forget electrolytes and probiotics! These are very important to help your horse maintain good health and strength for long travel.

There are so many variables and important things to factor in when transporting horses. Be sure to do your research, speak with your veterinarian, and plan accordingly! I hope that you enjoyed and found this guide useful and I hope to see you again soon!

Check out our pics of Ladybug arriving in California from Indiana :). We made all the necessary precautions and our sweet baby horse arrived safely! She was hydrated, injury-free, on a normal eating routine, and settled quietly in her new home! We were very excited to meet for the first time!