travelling long(ish) distances & leg protection

helenc

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Nov 27, 2003
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Quick Q everyone

My horses are due to travel from England to Northern Ireland next week - they usually travel in boots but I'm toying with the idea of pads & bandages as they will have a 2 1/2 hour road journey followed by a 8 hour ferry crossing followed by another hour road journey.

what do peeps usually do when travelling long distances, furthest they've done previously is about 2 hours & I'm a bit stuck with what to do. My folks are really not very horsey but if they're booted then my mum & dad can get them ready and I can meet the horses off the ferry, if they're bandaged then I need to fly home, bandage them & fly back before they get off the ferry :confused: help, don't know what to do lol
 
To be honest I would stick with the boots - the horse are used to them, personally I never travel mine with any boots/bandages even for long distances but that is because I am paranoid about them getting the boots caught on something and panicking.

I would say though stick with what you and the neds are used to. Will they be having a walk around before the ferry crossing?
 
Mine came naked apart from his headcollar from Hungary. I believe a lot of transporters prefer them to travel without anything on long journeys. I currently just travel horse in brushing boots, but then he's not shod and travels on his own in a trailer with no partition, so not much to bash himself on!
 
Both of mine that travelled long distances travelled naked. One was about 7 hours from Sussex and the other I'd guess around 24 hours total travelling time from Shetland. Both arrived absolutely fine and without a mark on them.
 
Mine came naked apart from his headcollar from Hungary. I believe a lot of transporters prefer them to travel without anything on long journeys. I currently just travel horse in brushing boots, but then he's not shod and travels on his own in a trailer with no partition, so not much to bash himself on!

hhmm.. one of mine isn't the most fantastic traveller - he likes to move around a lot so I think i need *some* protection but maybe boots are the way to go
 
I personally use both because I find on big cob legs, the boots slip down a lot. So I stick bandages on underneath, too. You could go the whole BHS route - bandages, over reach boots, knee boots and hock boots!! :D
 
I never travel in boots or bandages i think they hinder the horse and they are more likely to get caught on something.

Also if a horse is going to have a dreadful accident a bit of padding isn't really going to help them
 
I never travel in boots or bandages i think they hinder the horse and they are more likely to get caught on something.

Also if a horse is going to have a dreadful accident a bit of padding isn't really going to help them

It's not to protect against a 'dreadful accident' - it's when you have clumsy horses like mine who like to stand on themselves and slice their legs up in transit.

And actually, a friend of mine had a so-called 'dreadful accident' when her HW show cob went through the hanging partition in the lorry. He put his leg right through the wood and managed to work it all the way up to his stifle - luckily, he had boots and bandages on, and they moved with the partition so he came off unscathed. The boots and bandages were, however, torn to shreds - that would have been his leg, had he not been wearing them.
 
I'd go with boots, I would be worried about pressure with the bandages.

If you are anything like me the bandage is either so loose it doesn't stay up or so tight it cuts off the blood supply :rolleyes:
And Forest rubs the bandages off, but is fine with boots.

If not, another thing it brushing boots, knee boots, over reach etc, instead of traditional travel boots :)
 
When I had my horse shipped from USA to where I live in Canada, it was going to be an 18-24 hrs trip. He had been trailered only one other time as an 8-month old (he was 3-1/2 yrs old when shipped up to me). He was not used to trailering or to wearing boots or bandages.

For those reasons, and at the advice of the VERY experienced shipper that I used, he went naked.

He did fine. He was unscathed on arrival, and no swelling or stocking up.

You will hear stories of horses that were not bandaged and were badly hurt. Of horses that were bandaged and the bandages (or boots) slipped and caused them to be injured because they had slipped (i.e., getting caught on something, stepping on a loose boot with one foot and loosing balance with the other, etc.). Of horses that were bandaged and the bandaging (or boots) protected them from more serious injury after a mishap.

In other words, you'll hear stories that give their own pros/cons for all options (long-distance shipping with boots, with bandages, or with nothing).

In the end, you need to consider what YOUR horses are used to, what they like/dislike, how spooky/tolerant they are, what your shipper recommends and is experienced with (it does NO good to put bandages on your horse if your shipper isn't experienced in how to adjust said bandages if need be, or if your shipper tells you that they won't adjust bandages), and if your horses have any medical/leg issues pre-existing that would be helped or hindered if they were bandaged or put in boots.
 
Hoofytrot
I have had the same happen to me with one of my old tb he got caught up in the partition and it fell over between him and another horse he had boots on that got caught and he panicked and ended up going over and nearly breaking his neck. Ended up with horrendous injuries all over him that took months to heal.

If he didnt have the boots on he wouldnt have got caught and wouldnt have panicked.
 
I think there's a lot less issue with the partitions in boxes used by the big professional transporters than those used in a lot of other boxes.

Certainly some of the local transporters I've seen or in privately owned boxes, the partitions don't go down to the floor or fully front to back or are relatively flimsy. The ones I've seen in the boxes used by professional long distance transporters are very secure and substantial, so the risk of any accident or injury is very greatly reduced.

In some boxes I'd never travel my ponies 5 miles without them being bandaged (though I'd have to be desperate to put them in the box in the first place!). In others I'd be happy with them travelling 500 miles without anything.

Ultimately, it depends what you are happy with, what your horses are happy with and what the transporter recommends. The ones I've used have advised travelling naked, but someone a friend used to travel to NI provided travel boots as they wanted to use what they were used to and knew worked well rather than something provided by horse owners.
 
lol - yeah, I'm having difficulty understanding some of the broad accents I've come accross so far!

Horses are on their way now, will be getting on the ferry in just over an hour

so excited :D
 
who is doing your transport if you dont mind me asking have been waiting on mine a week now and let down for the third time:confused:
 
A family friend imported a horse form the US and it went by road naked, but then was suited and booted with bandages for the flight and then stripped down for the road trip. Dad's horse came over on the meat ferry via italy naked and didn't suffer for it...

Speak to the transporter/shipping company - some are particular about how they do things and I know a fair few prefer horses to be naked (but with possibly short over-reach boots) as it is less to get tangled up, but it is their job and they do it day in and day out and have experienced most types of travellers so have their way of dealing with each situation :)
 
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