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

The vet at the Clyde vet school advised me not to give hay when my horse was travelling to and fro - for respiratory complications. Combination of lack of movement & the hay not being low enough down left their airways open to pathogens, he said.
 
My horse can't concentrate and seems if she's hungry so I make sure she has had her small feed of chaff fairly recently before we do things, only a bit though, wouldn't think a huge amount would be good before team chasing!

I don't think it is really plausible for a horse to get ulcers in that 7 hour time OP, and if it was one of their policies its your decision which transport company you use.
 
We had a choke case when we moved a friends horse it was less than a 30 minute journey and he choked on his hay.
I dont travel mine with hay but they do get a sloppy feed of soaked grass nuts after every 3 hours if we go any distance
 
I don't travel to comps with hay. They get it once they arrive. Several reasons- choke/getting tangled/stropping once it has finished.
 
Depends on the horse as to which I travel with hay. Having had a horse that choked every time something brushed the side of the lorry which was scary as he would go epi and we had a couple of emergency unloads until he grew out of it then I wouldn't travel an unknown horse with food automatically.
 
Mine travelled from Herts to Aberdeenshire with transporter, and had hay and haylage and neither touched either the whole way - 550 miles. So Im not sure its always detrimental not to have it as mine didnt touch it.
 
Ours have always had hay when travelling, but I can definitely see how the benefits to not giving hay while travelling/the dangers of giving it. The past few times my horse has been out she hasn't touched it other than a few small bites. She had hay available, took her to a mock hunt over 6 miles. She was out of the field for 8 hours, got home and she had a paddy round field but it still took over 10 minutes for her to go near her hay. She wasn't hungry.

As others have said, I'd say the weight that's come off and the ulcers is most likely due to the stress of travelling/new home rather than a few hours without food.
 
I never travel mine with hay, mainly due to the dust risk, no matter how good it is. At work we ship horses worldwide and they do not get ad lib hay. The mares in transit from France to Ireland have hay given on the floor at the point where they leave us but the ones that are going to Japan etc get nothing, they have a stop in Amsterdam before they fly and maybe one other stop on the way. FWIW when I travelled back with my horse from Ireland, we did 20 hours from pick up to drop off, I was with him so saw exactly what went on. He had nothing apart from water and a scoop of mix. He lost no weight as did none of the other 15 on the box. 8 hours is nothing given that most horses go longer than that between evening and morning feeds. The weight loss is not normal at all, some do lose a bit of weight through travelling regardless of whether they are fed or not.
Given that recently our own horses have been confined to stables, I noted that unlike myself, a lot of the other liveries did not space out their visits, most still came at 8am (or later) and were back at 3-4pm, this is a far great space of time between feeding than I would deem normal, mine was done at 6-7am and 6-7pm.
 
Regandal said:
The vet at the Clyde vet school advised me not to give hay when my horse was travelling to and fro - for respiratory complications. Combination of lack of movement & the hay not being low enough down left their airways open to pathogens, he said.
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He said that to me as well, when I took a horse of mine and one belonging to someone else down from Angus. The other person's pony had hay; I had haylage for mine, but didn't give him any on the journey. The vet can't understand why people confine horses to a small box and put them at risk from dust and spores. He pointed out that racehorses travel extensively without hay in transit.
 
ribbons said:
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.
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Couldn't agree more than with this and of what the Scottish vet says further down..
 
Regandal said:
The vet at the Clyde vet school advised me not to give hay when my horse was travelling to and fro - for respiratory complications. Combination of lack of movement & the hay not being low enough down left their airways open to pathogens, he said.
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Yes exactly what I was told by the vet my horse has a partial tie back and the vet advised to travel without food I have ignored this.
Interestly I know that on long journeys abroad competion horses are often travelled with no forage but they stop every four hours and feed alfalfa from a bowl on the floor.
 
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