What protection do you use when traveling your horses?

For me it depends on the horse, the vehicle and the journey. Less than half an hour means we'll still be on bad local roads and so mostly they'll be booted up, no rugs unless it's below zero, leather headcollars on, safety clip elastic leadropes. On trips of half a mile to the field and back for those that aren't trustworthy in traffic the horses are booted and the ponies go naked, rugs are done at home so they may well travel fully rugged up.

If we're going any distance then I remove headcollars and use stall chains across the front as well.
 
Genie travels in leather headcollar, travel boots, rug according to weather (in the heat of summer it may just be a mesh cooler), two tail bandages (I bandage the bottom half up to keep it clean if going to a show) and tail guard. She won't let me put a poll guard on her.

Titch only tends to travel in summer in the moment and isn't clipped anyway so would travel naked in winter, but if we're showing she'll wear a fly sheet just to keep her a little bit cleaner. She also wears travel boots and leather head collar, with the tail done with two tail bandages like Genie's, but no tail guard.

I tend to use travel boots mainly because I don't trust myself to do travel bandages correctly!
 
I have some fantastic travel boots from Lidl! Had a set of Woof Wear ones but they were so chunky and stiff and kept slipping, they were a hinderance rather than a help. Even my suicidal sec d keeps them on.
They always wear a tail bandage and guard- sec d travels with no partition in trailer and no back bar, leaning on the back (this is the only way she will stand up for an entire journey). They will have an appropriate rug on for the weather too.
 
None. Only exception is some vet wrap around a tail if the horse is prone to rubbing.
Having travelled thoroughbreds worth millions that do not wear protection because they seem to travel a lot better without, my motley crew get the same treatment. Over too many years to remember, I have never had an injury while travelling on anything that is nude but have often had to stop to take off boots and rugs owners have insisted upon for their darlings which were making the horse uncomfortable and restless which sometimes resulted in a tread injury. They're better off without IMV unless they have a kamikaze driver when they need all the protection they can have without being uncomfortable.
My only exception is for hunters that are clipped going to meets then they have a day rug over their tack and a tail bandage.
 
I prefer to travel him naked in overreach boots and brushing boots. I don't thin ktravel boots do a lot of good for a clumsy oaf like mine.
 
it depends on where i'm going, how much time i have and what i'm likely to meet the other end of the journey as to whether i put boots, wraps or bandages on.

my big lad will have a fleece in colder weather, and either travel boots, stable type wraps/boots or bandages on.

i did have the WW boots for him and after one particular journey i opened the rear ramp and found he was standing on the one boot and was slightly caught up, luckily he is chilled and didn't mind me getting the boots off and lifting his legs up while still in the box. after that i now prefer to use bandages and gamgee.
 
After a nasty incident, my preference is bandages and knee / hock boots rather than travel boots. An idiot flew around a corner towards me in the middle of the road meaning I had to do an emergency stop even though I'd only been doing 20 mph and my girl had to stamp about badly to regain her balance. She somehow managed to get her back foot up above the top of the opposite (full length) travel boot and scrape her shoe down the inside of her leg, giving herself a really horrible gash of about nine inches. It needed stitches and weeks off work, and the vet said we were incredibly lucky she hadn't gone through tendon etc. I know it's probably a pretty unusual situation, but I did realise that if she'd been in bandages that wouldn't have happened.
 
I've always preferred brushing boots or over reach boots to any of the travel boots I've found, but the Lidl ones I bought recently have more straps than most, and are nice and light and flexible so will be trying those out.

Other than that...tail bag, tail bandage, fleece cooler...layered if needed...leather head collar with poll guard.
 
I don't use any protection for mine when they travel. They all came over to Ireland fine and never had any problems with other shorter journeys. Mine are not shod btw.
 
peerielee said:
Question in title really.

What do you travel your horses in? Vinnie is 3 and I normally use full length travel boots and a tail guard. But i noticed when i travelled him a short distance without any protection he travelled alot better. I also puta fleece on him if im travelling in the winter. :)
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I have travelled horses across Europe and have never used boots or bandages. I will put a tail guard or bandage on if travelling in a trailer as they tend to sit back. As for rugs-depends on the season and depends on the horse. I absolutely hate booting up and very few horses travel well when booted. Ive witnessed a good few non loaders loading fine when travelling boots have been removed. Horrible, useless bloody things.
 
On our trip down to Florida - two thin rugs, taken off as we reached warmer climes; it's been so cold this winter his whiskers would freeze within 30 seconds of him having a drink!
Very thick sheepskin lined head collar, attached to break-away points; meaning that if anything went wrong or he got stuck he could get out without damaging himself too much (touch wood!)
Leg wraps and bell boots; again, if anything were to happen and he ended up pulling back/falling over, chances are he'd end up stand on himself and on the off chance that happens I'd like to think I'd protected him.

He travels fine with all this on (clearly traveling back to Boston or other journeys we don't use two rugs!)and perks up as soon as he sees it!
 
Nothing. Bots etc. tend to cause more problems thatn they solve. Mine go to England in a headcollar only. And the broodies go off nudey as well-and are the happier for it i think. Al the thrashing about some of them do i'd be woried sick if they had boots/rugs on to catch on things. Even the headcollar is removed sometimes. I had a 16.2hh 3 yr old come out the jockey door like a dolphin, which was half her size, and remain attached to her headcollar. She was grand but To this day we still can't figure out how she did it.
 
I hate travelling and avoid it at all costs, but I have to make sure my mare is booted and suited up to the nines when we do go. It's called paranoid mother syndrome, or something :p
 
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