New Horsebox!! steaming sweaty horses! please help

[enders]

New horsebox-fantastic!! loaded up, drove great, returned to find two VERY sweaty horses, what am i doing wrong??

 

[Mbronze]

Open windows???

Or maybe they wound each other up being in a new environment...

 

[Ravenwood]

How far did you go? - It's been insufferably muggy here today.

 

[kerilli]

if the windows were all open and the horses weren't rugged, then i guess you might need roof vents putting in?

 

[Jane_Lou]

What ventilation does the lorry have? If roof vents, were they open, windows open etc?

 

[Shilasdair]

Studies show that horseboxes reach really high temperatures with hot horseys in them...open all windows, remove rugs, consider extra ventilation.
Avoid handbrake turns, too

S

 

[Donkeymad]

[ QUOTE ]

Avoid handbrake turns, too

S

[/ QUOTE ]


You are such a spoil-sport sometimes!

 

[enders]

yes windows open, no rugs on and travelled about 8 miles, no handbrake turns, sharp stops etc??

 

[Laafet]

I am slightly ashamed to admit this, but I took Tarquin out for a ride at my friends yard last weekend when it was very hot in the yard's new two box and forgot to open the windows in my excitement that he loaded so well. When I got to my friend's yard, which was 20 minutes down the road I had one very sweaty horse that had pools of sweat around his feet and he was black, not bay. Bad mummy. He is also he nervous on his own and a free sweater. He never sweats on a trailer which I put down to the huge drafts that horses are subjected to in them.

 

[Laafet]

What sort of lorry is it?

 

[Jane_Lou]

Are there roof vents?

 

[Shilasdair]

[ QUOTE ]
yes windows open, no rugs on and travelled about 8 miles, no handbrake turns, sharp stops etc??

[/ QUOTE ]

Sounds as if you don't have air circulating enough...is there anyway you can increase the ventilation?
S

 

[LCobby]

s the floor slippery?
How high is the roof?
What body, size and layout?
Some find herringbone very different if not used to it.

 

[borris123]

is the roof lined/insulated as the plastic roof material in box vans act like a green house in the summer

 

[pathelschoice]

[ QUOTE ]
yes windows open, no rugs on and travelled about 8 miles, no handbrake turns, sharp stops etc??

[/ QUOTE ]

hmmm sounds like you need a couple of roof vents fitted ( the push up ones which can be opened during transit) and do you have vent windows to the off side? What is the horse section Roof lined in? You may need a minimal aperture False ceiling fitted to reduce the heat effects.

 

[FMM]

Have you got windows on both sides. It appears that in order to cut costs, many lorries have windows only on one side. It makes a massive difference to have them on both sides.

 

[irishdraught]

Windows on both sides create a through draught aloowing the air to circulate more freely. Also make sure your roof is lined. Ours has polystyrene sheets beneath the roof and then is lined with boards. This ensures that consendation does not form and as already stated, if notlined, roof can act as a greenhouse.

Were the horses cool before being loaded up? If horses aren't allowed to cool down sufficiently, their excess heat can heat up the wagon. Also, if horses aren't used to being travelled, stress can cause them to sweat up. Once they get more used to it, this should lessen.

 

[enders]

thanks everybody i think i need extra vents as there are only windows to one side and no vents in the roof or the other side.

 

[SunshineTallulah]

Also, our lorry seems to be lined with a vinyl hardboard in white in the horse area, great to wipe down but it seems to aid with sweating, even with windows open, and the roof vents open.

My old lorry was wooden and he never ever sweated up in hte lorry. EVER.