Re: RideCamp: overnights in a trailer

[Lynn Kinsky <lkinsky@silcom.com>]

>Hi all
>
>This business of leaving horses either in trailers or tied to trailers
>overnight is not something we do in the UK at all in fact a lot of us would be
>horrified. We would always arrange stabling or a field for the night or
>corralling.
>
>It sounds like a very different matter travelling to rides in the U.S. since
>you travel much much greater distances to places that are more desolate. Even
>so I think it can't be a good idea to leave a horse in a trailer all night and
>then expect it to do distance the next day. Surely it's better for the horse
>to be able to move around a bit in the night even if it is only in a loose box
>or a small corralling area.
>
>Mind you when I was having trouble loading my mare one time the driver wanted
>her to stay in the horsebox overnight because he didn't want to have to reload
>her the next day. I said no way but he would have done it if I had let him.
>Call me a softy but I couldn't leave my horse in a strange horsebox far from
>home while I checked into a hotel.
>
>I think corralling has to be the fairest safest thing to do when dealing with
>overnights.
>
>Annette

While I wouldn't recommend leaving a horse in the trailer overnight and
then expecting them to be rested for a long ride the next day, it's also
not going to kill them.  Years ago I had a mare who got a bad cut on her
hip during the height of the rain/mud season and I didn't have a barn or
stall to put her in to keep it clean.  My vet told me to put her in the
trailer (2 horse straight load) as her stall.  We were letting her out to
give her her penicillin shots but she was feisty enough that she wound up
injuring herself further, so the vet said to put her in and leave her in:
it actually made giving the shots much easier <g>.  She spent two weeks in
that trailer and except for some slight stocking up that went away as soon
as she got out and about, she was none the worst for wear, and showed no
fear or reluctance in future trailer loading either.  Obviously not what
you'd want to do routinely, but it is something the horse can tolerate.

Lynn Kinsky (Santa Ynez, CA)
http://www.silcom.com/~lkinsky



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