Travelling a litte further afield - is it wise?

[Joyous70]

My girl has had issues with loading, and i have spent 3 months of training with her to get her comfortable going on, and being taken out, she has only done a handful of trips all local, no further than 20 minutes at a stretch.

I have been invited to take her to friends at the end of July, but this would involve a trip of nearly 2 hours, i would dearly love to take her over but am concerned at trip of this distance would blow her brains and possibly set us back again with the loading and travelling, what do you think? She would be staying over for the weekend so not travelling for 4 hours in one day.

 

[Sukistokes2]

you do have a bit of time to get used to a bit more time in the box. I have found that as long as they have plenty of food to munch they are not as bothered by a longer trip as we might expect.

 

[eggs]

If it is just the loading that she has an issue with and not the travelling then you should be OK

 

[Joyous70]

If it is just the loading that she has an issue with and not the travelling then you should be OK

If im honest im not sure what the issue was/is, she had been out a few times 15 minutes down the road a couple of times and then i took her a bit further afield on faster roads on two occasions, after hesitating about loading to go home the 2nd time for a few minutes she loaded but then after that was when she downed tools and point blank refused to load, this was when the 3 months training began in earnest, she is quite claustrophobic, but im not sure if that was the issue or if traffic whizzing past contributed to the problem.

When she's loaded, she does travel really well, she likes to look out of the two windows that are either side of the trailer, so you do feel her move but only because she's so busy looking from one to the other, she reminds me of an eager child keen to know where theyre going and are they there yet

 

[Joyous70]

you do have a bit of time to get used to a bit more time in the box. I have found that as long as they have plenty of food to munch they are not as bothered by a longer trip as we might expect.

Yes i did think i could try taking her a little further each time, but really need to offload her and have a play somewhere before bringing her home again otherwise she gets wise to this and you can see her face thnking, err what was the point???

 

[Laroxes]

I'm a horse transporter so transport lots of different horses. As long as they are comfortable being in the box the journey time doesn't seem to matter, even the young ones who have never travelled before quite often travel between 2-4 hours to their first time and cope brilliantly.

Make sure she has plenty of soaked hay or haylage (to keep her occupied and hydrated) and water on board in case of any emergencies. Also make sure you don't dress her up to warm so she doesn't get sweaty and uncomfortable.

 

[FfionWinnie]

Hide her watch/phone and she won't know the time difference.

Load her multiple times a day and leave her standing on the trailer eating hay so it becomes a boring experience like being in a stable to her. Then distance will never be an issue.

 

[Joyous70]

Hide her watch/phone and she won't know the time difference.

Load her multiple times a day and leave her standing on the trailer eating hay so it becomes a boring experience like being in a stable to her. Then distance will never be an issue.

LOL - will definately have to hide her watch

The loading side is fine, however, shut her in and leave her with a net and she will have a complete meltdown! but start the car and start driving she is fine! yes she is a contrary mare, she's the same in her stable as well, last night i popped her in her stable whilst i showed someone around the yard, she was absolutely fine, quiet as a mouse not a problem, however, tonight next week whenever she will suddenly decide she doesn't want to be in and will throw herself about kick the walls and dance like a mad thing, she is quite difficult sometimes.