The challenge of transport - the practical considerations for transporting horses

By Des Leadon
First Published: 16 July 2009 - Issue Number: 13

Short-distance transport of racehorses is, as every trainer knows, almost always of very little consequence. The only significant exceptions are the “bad travellers” that may or may not respond to repeated exposure to transport and a patient approach.

Longer distance transport presents a much greater challenge and months of work and planning can be undone in the course of a few hours.
There is much focus on the duration of the journey. However this often fails to take door-to-door time and allowances for delay into consideration. In fact, there is a personal maxim – “the only certainty in transport,.........is delay.” Scientific evidence shows very clearly that measurable journey effects can be detected after eight hours of transport. These effects include weight loss and changes in the cells and biochemical components of circulating blood. The longer the journey, the greater the challenge.
Some of the adverse effects of transport can be related to the “head-held-high” position that horses have to adopt, when they are confined in road vehicles and in jet stables for air transport. Horses are, as every trainer knows, by nature free-ranging pasture grazers. Roaming and constant eating is a pre-requisite for normal clearance of the respiratory system of the horse. Interference with this clearance system, by holding the head high for protracted periods, allows the micro-organisms that normally inhabit the throat to spread downwards into the deep respiratory system, resulting , ev...

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