Why do people travel horses on long journeys without hay??

hihosilver

hihosilver

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I recently purchased a new horse. He is lovely but unfortunately had to travel 8hours to get to me. The transporters were excellent but it is their policy not to allow hay. Now he has ulcers which vet says were most likely caused by excess acid in the gut due to not having any hay/food for such a long time. Is there any reason not to travel with hay??? I think it is because it takes time and is a hassle.
 
More likely that when travelling if they start playing up the last thing you want is it strung up by its haynet, when you can't see it. We don't travel with hay either.
 
hihosilver said:
I recently purchased a new horse. He is lovely but unfortunately had to travel 8hours to get to me. The transporters were excellent but it is their policy not to allow hay. Now he has ulcers which vet says were most likely caused by excess acid in the gut due to not having any hay/food for such a long time. Is there any reason not to travel with hay??? I think it is because it takes time and is a hassle.
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Don't know, we always have hay in with the horses. Some competition horses travel to shows without if they are going to be performing straight off the box, not something I would do. 8 hours without hay as a once off would not necessarily cause ulcers, a lot of horses are without for longer overnight.
 
it may also be due to the fact that if the horse turns out to be allergic, or the hay is bad quality and like above if they get caught in it that at the end of the day it won't be put on the transporters,
when my boy was sent down he came without hay and it was 5 hours, what i did when he came back was give a little hay at a time so he didn't colic because he is prone to thst because of his windsucking addiction!:eek:
 
I can see hay might cause a problem. However he had lost a lot of weight as well. I would not travel a horse for this long again without hay. I just don't think it fair. He passed a 5 stage before....no sign of any ulcers. Now I have to put him through starving again for 24 hours to be scoped and expense of gastroguard... He is of course insured.
 
Unless he was scoped as part of his 5 stage vetting, you can't know if he had ulcers or not.

I imagine they were more concerned about choke, colic or potentially triggering an allergy. Did they really travel him for 8 hours with no break though? I'd have thought that if thy stopped (which I'm sure they'd have had to do due to the time limits on driving for that long?) they'd have given him something then.
 
I doubt very much insurance would cover him as it was a pre-existing condition.

I would never travel without hay personally especially for that long a distance - better they are occupied than the very slight risk of haynet danger especially if you tie it up high and tight enough.
 
Also I am no expert but how much weight can a horse lose in 8 hours and can they really get ulcers that quickly? I would be very surprised if this 8 hour journey was to blame for either of these issues because as someone has already said a lot of horses go this long overnight without hay.

OP how much time was there between the vetting and him finally getting to you?
 
I found this very strange when I moved over as well. Horses worth millions travel on planes and on the road with hay at all times. Then I get here and hear about colic and injuries if they have hay.

Best thing to do here for long hauls is by a tube of gastro gard and give half before shipping and half after. Yes I know they won't die but it gives the stomach a coating.

Terri
 
To say he has lost loads of weight and developed ulcers in 8 hours is a bit dramatic. 8 hours is the same as 10pm till 6am and i am positive there are plenty of horses out there that are finished up by 10 pm and not fed before 6!
 
mutley75 said:
To say he has lost loads of weight and developed ulcers in 8 hours is a bit dramatic. 8 hours is the same as 10pm till 6am and i am positive there are plenty of horses out there that are finished up by 10 pm and not fed before 6!
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agree with this comment. I always travel with hay not my horse ever touches it lol
 
I would be very caution on the insurance paying for this unless the horse was purchased/insured 2 weeks prior to travelling the horse to you. Most insurance policies I know of and certainly mine have a a standard clause that no illness that show up in the first 2 weeks on ownership are covered. The only exception I have seen with this is when I bought my horse from a friend and we were customers with the same insurer I just transfered the policy from her account to mine and they specifically wrote in the policy that it was excempt from this clause as it was continued cover.

With the Hay thing I have no idea I always travel with a haynet and my horse always eats her way through it.
 
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Lost a lot of weight in 8hours? Tucked up yes (which could also easily be due to travelling itself), but a large weight loss?

I travel with if sensible, if not then without. However this is for circa 1hour journeys. Longer I'd travel with and at 8hours would have breaks to check water. If wasn't an individual load I expect water and possibly forage was done at the other stops.
 
Everyone's saying that plenty of horses go for that long without hay - but isn't the latest research suggesting that ulcers are an epidemic?

As far as I know, the horse's stomach empties in 6 hours max - if there's no food going in after this time, ulcers are likely to start forming, surely?
 
TwoTurtleDoves said:
Everyone's saying that plenty of horses go for that long without hay - but isn't the latest research suggesting that ulcers are an epidemic?

As far as I know, the horse's stomach empties in 6 hours max - if there's no food going in after this time, ulcers are likely to start forming, surely?
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This may be the case... but does a horse honestly lose a large amount of weight in as many hours? I think there is more than meets the eye with this story.

Personally I agree that there seem to be a lot of horses with ulcers and a lot left without feed. I wouldn't leave mine without for this long but don't think the correlation is simply down to this.
 
I was going to write a comment saying because it makes the horsebox a mess (we have a 3.5 and gathers go over the tack/small seating area) however my true answer is I don't know why people dont i always have and always will travel with nets gives them something to do so they don't prat about.
 
Surely when you buy a horse to be delivered to you the transporter can get the owner to provide hay for the journey, that's what I did or she would probably not have travelled as well. That would discount allergies kind of, and choke... well its no more likely than a horse in a stable is it, and getting caught... make sure it is held high up so that can't happen? Don't think I'd bother using a transporter that didn't allow it anyway, there are so many to choose from!
 
The journey was split he travelled 2 hours and then stopped overnight. The next day he did 7 hours. By law the driver has to stop every 4 and offer water but no food or hay. He had run up badly and took a while to look better. I think if you read all the latest research on ulcers they can form quickly and vets say the worst thing to do now is to starve them of high fibre. I have just bought some Dengie healthy tummy so am going to try this. In the light of this new research I think the long journey transporters need to re-think their policies.
 
Mine mainly travels for team chasing (unless to local shows/schooling) and I don't travel him with hay - he wouldn't eat it anyway as he knows where he's going and ususally stops eating hay in his stable as soon as he sees me hitching up trailer/getting kit ready! Probably furthest we go is 2 and a half hours but he will then be stood on the box for up to a further hour whilst we walk course etc


I would rather he didn't have a belly full of hay before going round and he is of course offered hay (always take nets with us) and water as soon as he cools down after competing. He's completely chilled once he's done his stuff so can stand and munch quietly to his hearts content then! :)
 
It sounds odd that the horse lost so much weight and got ulcers from one journey especially as it would have had hay overnight so the longest part of the journey was 7 hours. other than safety if a horse were to get caught up some transporters do not travel with nets because of allergies and also because the horses have their heads up and with the dust that the nets would cause some horses can get what I call the travel snots as they cannot put their heads down to clear the lungs. Most do at least give a small net after a few hours if the journey is a long one though
 
I suppose he is a bit of a worrier. I did question it at the time but this is how it is done all the time when transporting a horse from Scotland to the south. I was pleased with the service, lorry was huge and driver very experienced. It would surely make the journey more pleasant if horses could have a bit of hay???
 
Most transporters will not allow hay during the journey due to the risk of choke. If you've ever seen it it can be very scary and fatal. They are travelling a horse they don't know so won't risk it.
You all know how your horses travel so a haynet for a calm horse is no problem.
I think a one off of 8 hours without hay causing ulcers is pretty far fetched. Day after day after day will not be good and is probably why so many fat horses on restricted diets drive owners crazy trying to find ways of feeding continual forage in tiny amounts.
Feeding horses is very complicated and what's right for one thing is wrong for another. Laminitis verses restricted forage for example.
Choke is a very nasty thing and I would prefer a horse I didn't know to be without hay for a one off 8 hour period travelling than risk it.
 
TeamChaser - it's actually better to compete with fibre in the gut: it prevents splash ulcers. Many people feed chaff before competing for this reason. A horse can exercise safely after eating hay - it's just cereals etc you need to be careful of.
 
Damn phone, posting to soon.

As others have said, law states drivers can't do an 8 hour journey without a break but if horse is not calm and happy during that break hay will still probably not be given to be on the safe side.
 
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