PrintCheck back every Wednesday through May 26 for our continuing series on Towing and Trailer Safety.
Getting into a car and driving down the road doesn’t concern most of us. We have to drive in order to go to work, make purchases, visit friends, engage in social activities and function in general. Most of us enjoy and appreciate our cars.
For horses, however, taking a trip down the road in the horse trailer isn’t always the most pleasant experience. Trailers are often dark with varying temperature extremes, and even careful drivers sometimes leave them scrambling for footing.
“A lot of people don’t fully appreciate how much stress and anxiety is involved in shipping,” said Midge Leitch, VMD, a former U.S. Equestrian Team veterinarian and a staff veterinarian in radiology at the University of Pennsylvania’s School Of Veterinary Medicine New Bolton Center. “The best thing you can do for your horses is to teach them that none of these things are horrific. Horses ought to be as calm as they can be. Every effort should be made to make sure they are as comfortable as possible.”
The Nature Of The Horse
Perhaps the most important thing to remember when shipping your horse is that trailering, in general, goes against a horse’s natural instincts.
“Horses are prey animals, and they have a flight response,” said Neva Scheve, author of The Complete Guide To Buying, Maintaining, and Servicing A Horse Trailer. “Their mode of survival is running away, because if they don’t get away, they’re going to be dinner! They are claustrophobic, so if they are stuck in a situation where they can’t run away, there’s going to be a lot of stress, and then you’re going to have a lot of problems.”
Stress is defined as an external stimulus that’s beyond the control of the animal. When a horse is stressed, his endocrine glands flood his body with adrenaline and cortisol. This response also occurs in people.
“When any living creature is exposed to stress, the central nervous system kicks in to physically prepare the animal to react to the stress,” said Scheve. “For horses, the reaction is to run away. If a horse is in that situation for a long time its health can deteriorate. The trailer is absolutely against everything the horse is.”
Signs Of Stress In Horses
- Elevated heart rate
- Elevated respiratory rate
- Elevated blood pressure
- Uncharacteristic pawing, biting, kicking, bucking, striking or rearing
- Tensing of the muscles or lips
- Sweating
Make Your Trailer Horse-Friendly
Creating a comfortable environment in the trailer for your horse begins with selecting the right trailer.
“The horse comes first, the trailer second, then the tow vehicle,” said Tom Scheve, co-author of The Complete Guide To Buying, Maintaining, and Servicing A Horse Trailer. “You have to look at the horses that you have—their size, weight, discipline—then you know what kind of trailer will fit the horse comfortably. I’ve had so many people who have bought the vehicle first, and then they get a different horse than they thought they would.”
