Travelling a young horse

[Caramac71]

We have recently bought a 5 year old who hasn't really done a lot. She travelled to us fine in a trailer and with a couple of practices she loaded and travelled well in our 3.5T box. Over the last 6 weeks or so we've travelled her very short distances (twice to a venue less than 10 mins away and once for about 30 mins). On the longer journey she arrived quite warm and sweaty but did not seem stressed.

We took her out last weekend and she loaded fine but got a bit panicky when we closed the ramp (she was fine as soon as we started moving) and when we came through the gate on the way home she did the same. Although it was a hot day she didn't sweat up on the journey, but it was very short.

I have 2 questions. Firstly I'm not sure if I have enough ventilation in the box. There are 2 roof vents, no opening windows. Is that sufficient or should I be looking at having more ventilation - in which case, would a roof fan be an option and how noisy are they, as I've had a cost for putting in 2 windows and it's going to be around £500 which seems a bit steep. It was never a problem with our last pony, but thinking back I dont think we had many very warm days that we travelled her.

And secondly, should we be doing lots of loading and short trips with her to get her more used to it? Or as she is young, should we be limiting the amount of times that we travel her? I've been given conflicting advice on this!

She's been loading and travelling so well, until her little paddy last weekend, so I'd like to make travel as positive and stress free as possible.

 

[CIJ]

My 3.5 lorry has 3 opening windows and 1 roof vent and on hot days my horse is still warm when travelling with all the windows open so I would def get some windows if you don't have them already.

Do you travel her with travel boots on? These can also make them hot. If I'm travelling mine only 10mins down the road, which I do alot I either have no boots on or only brushing boots and over reach boots, if I'm jumping when I get there. I found my mare stomped alot when we had travel boots on as they slipped down but she travelled much better with bandages on instead, but she only wear's them if the journey is 30mins or longer.

I don't think 5 is too young for travelling, I have a 4 year old at the moment and she will be in the box 2/3 times a week all year. We vary it, so she may go jumping, go to the beach or have a flatwork lesson. As long as she travels well and has fun when she goes out, she is very willing to go into the box. If your mare has had 1 paddy but loaded and travelled fine then I wouldn't be too worried. I knew a horse who would bang around leaving the yard and arriving home again but would travel fine inbetween that's just how he was. Enjoy your horse

 

[Caramac71]

Thanks for your reply. She doesnt wear travel boots yet - we bought a set but she couldnt even stand in them on the yard so it seemed a bad idea to attempt to travel her in them! We plan to do lots of boot-wearing practice in the near future just in case we ever do need to take her on a longer journey. Meanwhile, we travel her to dressage (10 mins away) with no boots and to the sj clinic with brushing boots.

I feel reassured now that we aren't overdoing it with her, as we plan to get her out more over the summer for lots of fun stuff.

I'll see if I can get some alternative quotes for more ventilation as I was concerned there wasn't enough.

Thanks