trailers ‘n’ horseboxes Travelling the distance
If you’ve qualified for a Championship this season and are planning to travel your horse further than usual, perhaps with an overnight stay, it’s important to spend time on preparation and practical management to ensure your horse travels well, arrives feeling fit and is able to produce his best performance.
Before they travel, horses need to have a healthy gut and be well hydrated, so feed good quality forage and make sure they are used to electrolytes in their feed, as then it’s easy to be sure they’ve eaten them.
Try to stick to normal feed times when travelling and allow them a bit more hay or haylage than normal, so they always have something in front of them. If you have to change what they’re fed, remember to do it gradually.
Ventilation is also important so don’t close the lorry windows; most experienced competitors would rather put rugs on, as closing windows reduces ventilation and they wouldn’t think of doing so unless it was ‘minus something’ outside. If your lorry has
fans to help regulate the temperature that will help.
On any journey, you should stop every four hours or so for the driver to take a break, when the horses can be untied and fed hay and quite wet sugar beet (or similar) on the floor, so they can get their necks down. The scientists say that after as little as 1½ hours with their heads tied up, their lungs can’t drain properly and they are at risk of travel fever.
Many competitors will also drop the ramp as it helps ventilation and gives the horse on the end a bit more room, but only do this if the back gates are strong and the horses won’t try to come out. Ideally, you would want to unload and walk the horses about at every four hour stop but if that’s not possible, then at least every eight hours on a long trip. It can be difficult if you have a bit of an awkward loader so be sensible. Horses however travel with a huge space, not tightly partitioned and use tail guards, never tail bandages. Always have a thermometer with you and if I’m in any doubt, take a horse’s temperature and if it’s raised, get a vet, as that
can avoid getting into trouble with travel sickness.”
Always use a dust free bedding in the lorry, as most horses are happier to wee if they can avoid splashing their legs and avoid straw, as you don’t want to risk mould spores in the lorry environment.
Getting horses to drink can be another problem and one idea is to accustom them on a daily basis, after riding, to drink warm water with dark sugar in it, as this is the closest to molasses and they think of it as a treat. Some people use apple juice in water successfully and cutting up apples to float in water means even reluctant drinkers get some moisture. When you arrive, you don’t want them to drink buckets of water, so let them have one bucket and after a while, top it up. You can then leave them with two full buckets overnight. Most experienced competitors don’t use automatic drinkers, as they want to know what the horses drink.
The final consideration should be obvious, but don’t forget to drive them well.
TRISTAR Manufacturers of quality horseboxes We are one of the UK’s largest horsebox manufacturers, building quality horseboxes for over twenty years Lightweight range - low maintenance - high strength - smart appearance
Tilt cab facility retained on all Tristar Horseboxes
Phone, fax or visit our workshop - Tel: 01570 422250, Fax: 01570 423842, Email:
sales@tristarhorseboxes.co.uk Esgairgoch, Ffarmers, Llanwrda, Carms, SA19 8QL.
www.tristarhorseboxes.co.uk
Please mention farm ‘n’ equine when replying to advertisements Equine Page 35
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44