Travel Procedures

A friend asked me to write a blog post about prepping the horses for a journey across the continent and what is involved, obviously it's not the same as popping your horse in the trailer for a trip down the road, for those of you who are on the road frequently with horses this will be a fairly generic and boring post but for those who haven't traveled cross country with a horse it might be of interest.  The prep for the journey really begins about 3 weeks before we hit the road, first and foremost the horses have to have current coggins and health certificates in order to cross the border, so I schedule a vet check approx 2.5 weeks before we are to head out of town (health certificates are only good for one months time so you don't want to get them done too soon, coggins are good for 6 months so not such a worry) at this time I also have a full body checkup done on Nico to make sure that he is in good shape, have to make sure the horses are in tip top condition physically, this means not only having their muscles and joints taken care of but also making sure they are in good healthy weight to travel (horses tend to lose weight on long trips so you don't want to start the trip with an underweight horse-consequenlty you also don't want your horse so overweight that they're completely out of shape when they arrive).  As the days get closer I begin the process of packing the horses equipment, have to make sure we have a good selection of blankets for our time down south, also updating the first aid kit (a first aid kit for this kind of travel has to be extensive, not only with bandages and wound dressings but also some critical elements in case of emergency-sedation and banamine just in case someone were to get sick enroute-hopefully not but always best to be prepared, also a few farrier tools just in case someone gets a shoe half off or something that needs immediate attention).  The horses also start on ulcer guard prior to travel and they stay on it through the traveling days and for several days after arriving, the stress of hauling often creates ulcers in horses and it's best to treat these things proactively rather than waiting until something is really wrong.  A few days prior to travel I also like to load the horses on and off the trailer a few times just to make sure they're relaxed and easy about the loading procedure, it's been a few months now since they've traveled so I like to double check that they're easy getting in and out, only takes a couple minutes but it's a good thing to do as there's nothing worse than driving 10 hour days and getting held up because of a last minute loading issue that could have been addressed prior.  I also have to start to determine the route we will take down south, I plan the first couple of days to be shorter as we will be in winter driving conditions on those days so they are roughly 9-10 hour drives, also have to find suitable "horse motels" where the horses can offload and rest overnight.  During travel there are several things to guard against, shipping fever is a serious issue for many horses, I take the horses temperatures every morning during travel to make sure no illness is developing and for several days upon arrival to make sure everyone is healthy, also making sure the horses can put their heads down during travel, trailering with the head tied up is a major cause of shipping fever so it's important to me that the horses have mangers to eat out of when trailering long distance and not hay nets, hay nets have to be hung up high so the horse spends most of the time with their heads up eating, in a manger they have to put their heads down at chest level to eat allowing their sinuses to drain properly, I also make sure to feed them on the ground at the overnight stops to make sure that they get everything drained and this also promotes stretching of the back muscles which get tight while standing in a trailer all day.  This year I will also be weight taping the horses prior to departure, during travel and on arrival, Nico dropped too much weight during travel last year so this year I will try to avoid that happening again.  Water intake also has to be monitored very carefully during the travel, it's important to know how much the horses are drinking normally as different horses drink different amounts, as the horses obviously don't have waterers in the trailer I take a big sealable bucket of water in the back of the truck and at the stops offer them a bucketfull, some horses get used to this and drink as soon as they are offered on the road, Tango is a great traveler like that he drinks whenever offered.  It's important to pack enough hay and grain for the horses to last the trip down and for the first while to transition down there, the hay and grain in Florida is different than the products we have here so I like to gradually transition them onto the new feed, I particularly like the Purina horse feeds in the US.  I also make sure to take enough of their supplements down as you never know if you will be able to get the same product down there.  Upon arrival it's important to allow the horses some down time to rest from the journey and acclimatize to their new environment, being that Florida is such a humid environment it is important to keep watch for fungal and bacterial infections which develop easier with the horses in such a climate, I usually give them a couple days to rest and then start back with some very light riding, only stretching for the first few days and then gradually easing them back in to full work, and providing all goes smooth, life is good!:)