keeping a horse cool in a lorry.. help!

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mrussell

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My horse need your help !

His horse area has drop down windows at the head end and sliding windows at the tail end. Ive also got tinted glass but by golly, its like a sauna in there !

Any ideas how to improve the ventilation. Ive looked at aircon systems but really cant stretch to that sort of money.

Has anyone fitted roof vents that work when the vehicle is stationary ? or fans ?

Suggestions welcome !
 
We had one of those small turning black fans added in and that seems to have helped a lot. Thorpe Horseboxes in Essex did ours who built the lorry and it really made a difference. I can't remember how much it was but don't think it was vast amounts of money.
 
I bought a plug in to the lighter socket clip on fan, and we have it aimed at the horses when moving. It's quite effective and didn't cost a lot either. I think it may have been Lidl but if you google portable fans perhaps it will show up? It's about the size of your hand opened out fan area and has a tough looking clip handle and a very very long lead.
We also never shut the door when travelling but hook it open with a bungee clip, if you have your window open in the living bit it creates a good draught through.
 
We had the door open into the living too but its when we were parked up. It was BOILING in there.

In our old lorry we had a solar powered fan in the roof and the horse area was old and thus not white and shiny. Never had this problem before !

So HH, this fan, do you run it through into the horse area and leave it running while the box is stationary ?
 
Are you talking moving or parked?

At Salperton last weekend we moved the lorry round so that the sun was shining onto the cab rather than into the back where the horses were standing. Keeping the jockey door and door into the horse area open to create a draught with any breeze helped. We took them off the lorry regularly and offered water as often as we could. Even if the horse area feels hot so long as there is sufficient fresh air available it is better than having the horses in the direct sun.
 
mrussell said:
My horse need your help !

His horse area has drop down windows at the head end and sliding windows at the tail end. Ive also got tinted glass but by golly, its like a sauna in there !

Any ideas how to improve the ventilation. Ive looked at aircon systems but really cant stretch to that sort of money.

Has anyone fitted roof vents that work when the vehicle is stationary ? or fans ?

Suggestions welcome !
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Im goin to fit it properly, but for now I have a electric cooling fan of a motor bike radiator fitted over one of the vent ( ofside) windows it shifts
quite a lot of air and runs of a 12 volt batery... or you could fit pop up caravan roof vents some even have a built in fan ....
 
parked up more than anything... although to be fair on Sunday even with the windows all open, he was still hot travelling along. I now its not normally a hot summer but would like to improve ventiliation as it would have been even worse if we had 2 on board.
 
Some horses, like some people seem unable to cope well with heat. If you know that you have one who sweats up when travelling/standing unrugged in a a box where you have done all that you can then you have to consider not taking them somewhere if you know the weather will be excessively hot.

There is only so much you can do and if they are unhappy on the lorry then you have to wonder how well they will cope with being ridden in the same heat.
 
peper harrow did mine when they serviced my trailer , they are in the back of h and h a lot but assume any coach builders can. definitely helps, although the equitreks are very light and white any throughfare of air helps!
 
MysteryGirl said:
Some horses, like some people seem unable to cope well with heat. If you know that you have one who sweats up when travelling/standing unrugged in a a box where you have done all that you can then you have to consider not taking them somewhere if you know the weather will be excessively hot.

There is only so much you can do and if they are unhappy on the lorry then you have to wonder how well they will cope with being ridden in the same heat.
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Hes normally fine but unfortunately we didnt account for getting stuck in traffic and then finding the event was running an hour late. Put that together with horse flies and heat of bibilical proportions...

Have just bought a 12v fan from Amazon so thanks for the input all !! Youre all stars...
 
Fans will definately help but if the air is warm then you are just blowing warm air around but absoulutely better than nothing.

If you can park in the shade or with a cross breeze, fantastic, ensure that your horse has cooled down before putting back in after working and make sure your roof is insulated.
A lot of conversions or older wagons do not have proper linings on their roofs which makes them hotter in summer and colder in winter.

Offer plenty of water and regularly washing down points of the horse like between the legs, under the dock, behind the ears and face etc should all help.
 
Probably not possible but our lorry has insulation in the roof (both human and horse parts) and the horses stay cool even in the worst hot weather.
 
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