What does your horse wear for traveling?

Mary Poppins

Mary Poppins

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Oct 10, 2004
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What do you put on your horse for traveling? Do you use travel boots? Rugs? Bandages? Tail guards?

Does it matter if you are traveling in a lorry or trailer?

Does distance matter?
 
Womble wears boots front and back and a tail bandage as he likes to rub on the bar. June doesn't go anywhere but if she did she would have some little wraps on and a tail bandage. If we were going on a long trip they would have a fleece on as well
 
I don't use anything, she just overheats. She has feathers and a thicker coat so on the times we have travelled, I use nothing.
The furthest travelled is 45miles.

But, I would have something though for in case. I want a lightweight cooler or summer thermatex.

Even bringing her into the stable she is too warm!
 
I have travelled Rubic many different ways!

She has travelled in small and large lorries with nothing on.
She has travelled in a trailer with nothing or with brushing/tendon and overreach boots on or with travel boots on.

Generally if the journey was 30min or less it'd be nothing or whatever boots we might be wearing for jumping. If it was a longer journey I'd put her travel boots on (when she went from glasgow to edinburgh and back for her MRI she had travel boots but trips to the vets in glasgow were all with no boots).

I rarely bothered with her tail.

Depending on the weather she'd be naked or have a fleece but I'd always bring her fleece with me
 
Travel boots, tail guard, travel/cooler rug (depends on weather and length of journey but if doesn't wear it there pack anyway for journey home when needs it after being worked).

Have only had him out a couple times and one journey was long about 2hrs and other wasn't far maybe 30mins.

From now on he will also have a tail bag on after pooing down his beautiful (freshly washed night before) white tail before a show :giggle:
 
All the showjumpers wear close-fitting boots or leg wraps in front. Some of them also wear them on the back legs, but some of them don't like it so only wear fronts. We have one whose back legs swell when he travels, so he wears a full set of bandages rather than boots.
They're fully clipped in the winter, so travel in thin fleeces at each end of the season as they don't have much hair. The rest of the time they travel naked - though the fleeces occasionally have to come out if we're leaving at 4am and it's still chuffing cold!
We don't put anything on their tails as a rule, but a couple of the horses we have at the moment are bum-rubbers so I will pop a tail guard on those for protection.

Everyone else (broodmares, youngsters, and the ponies) travels nude.

Mode of transport doesn't change anything as they are all used to going in all 3 of ours (6-horse HGV, 2-horse lorry, 2-horse trailer). Journey length doesn't make much difference either, though we rarely travel them for more than 2 hours anyway as we have so many venues nearby.
 
Ive boxed May once the grand total of 6 miles but she went naked, she gets hot and itchy too quickly although if we were going further i might protect her tail because no doubt she would take opportunity to have a rub!
 
No rug in the summer at all. In the winter a thermatex.

Legs Ginger wears mud guard boots as he hates travel boots and I don't like to travel in bandages. Chanter wears travel boots.

Both have tail bandages on
 
For messing about non of them wears anything apart from a headcollar. For shows Charlie wears light fleece bandages to stop him pooing all over his legs. That's it.
 
Haven't travelled Chloe yet. Storm and Joe both used to wear boots and tail bandages. They went in the big lorry twice and then a trailer - poor Joe had to be sedated to load when he was off to the hospital. He was poorly but still scared and wouldn't load so vet gave me some sedolin for him to ease things.
 
Travel Moet in nothing except her front tendon support boots (which she then wears when i ride, so basically i put them on before we leave then they remain on her until after riding, then travels home without them on)

Major has never travelled in anything at all.

A couple of people on my yard have had incidences where travel boots have slipped down and the horse has slipped over in the trailer. Personally i prefer them to not wear anything. I travelled them from Cardiff to Wolverhampton with nothing and they were fine.
 
Nothing - fleece if its really cold, but nothing on legs.

I remember a lady who did race horse transport saying that travel boots and bandages were accidents waiting to happen. So I bowed to her massive experience and have never used anything.
 
sjp1 said:
Nothing - fleece if its really cold, but nothing on legs.

I remember a lady who did race horse transport saying that travel boots and bandages were accidents waiting to happen. So I bowed to her massive experience and have never used anything.
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WE have travelled 100's of horses with Eric Gillie, All types and never had a hair out of place, one of his drivers said boots and bandages were a vexation.

4 that came in from Iceland had nothing but a headcollar to their name on arrival.
 
Mine are both feathered and sweat if we put rugs on, so generally we travel without rugs or boots. They are also both extremely placid and the box has padding above and at the sides.

occasionally I put a tail bandage on to keep them clean if its a show.
 
When I first got my lorry I went to town with travel safety, travel boots, tail bandage, travelling rug etc

Now I very rarely travel them in anything....

boots wise - in winter nothing, because there legs are wet/muddy. In summer I will go for brushing boots/tendon boots on fronts & backs.

I have never had any of mine injure themselves in the lorry, but i am so very careful when driving the lorry, i go very slowly & smoothly round corners/round abouts etc
I cant believe how some people drive lorries/trailers though, its amazing how the horses don't fall over.

Anyway i digress lol.....they will often wear a fleece/cooler on the way home though, as usually sweaty or have washed them down. :smile:
 
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Thanks everyone.

I am surprised about how many people do not use travel boots. I always thought of them as an essential safety kit, but now I am not so sure.

As with all things horsey, I need to make my own opinion on them and I am feeling a little stuck. Do they make traveling safer or more dangerous?
 
Mary Poppins said:
Thanks everyone.



I am surprised about how many people do not use travel boots. I always thought of them as an essential safety kit, but now I am not so sure.



As with all things horsey, I need to make my own opinion on them and I am feeling a little stuck. Do they make traveling safer or more dangerous?
Click to expand...


This depends entirely on the horse!

Some horses are fine with them on and don't bother, others panic.

I wouldn't have any issues travelling silver in boots if I had to (though I always travel mine without), but I would never put them on piggy - he is likely to dance, tread on them, sit on them, rearrange them you name it and for that reason they would be dangerous.
 
Do they make traveling safer or more dangerous? Good question - and the jury's still out on that one! I've heard about horses having bad experiences with travel boots, but I've also heard about horses having bad experiences with everyday stuff like headcollars, rugs and haynets, and most of us don't think twice about using those things.
Have I seen a horse being saved from injury because they were wearing travel boots? - yes, many times. Have I seen a horse get injured because they were wearing travel boots? - no, but sometimes I think I can see it coming! I've lost count of how many times I've seen people using boots which were the visibly the wrong size/shape/style for their horse and/or not fitted correctly, that to me is risky. I've also seen people leading/loading horses in boots that the horse was clearly not happy wearing, that to me is risky also. Some horses don't like them and in those cases you are better off going without, or bandaging instead.

As I said on the other thread, if I was travelling a horse like Ben who had nice hairy legs for protection, I don't think I'd bother using boots. Same as I don't use them on Dessie and Mouse as they are so fuzzy, and the youngsters and broodmares don't wear them as they live out and have hairy legs also. But we travel the showjumpers in boots because they have fine legs and not much hair to protect them. They travel very regularly and spend hours on the lorry, so they're used to wearing their leg protection, and are clearly comfortable in it. The reason we opt for the leg-wrap kind rather than the traditional chunky padded kind is that they are usually easier to fit correctly and tend not to move around like the chunky ones. When I was in the middle of loading Jam the other day I got called to help a livery in an emergency so I chucked him in the lunge pen... something wound him up and he spent the next five minutes zooming around the pen bucking and twisting and leaping around, and his boots did not move an inch.
 
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