haying while trailering?A.before sport? B.after sport?

[kennewman]

it is a question often posed to me , even by very experienced trailering folk. folks who make the short hour or two jaunts to their destination like a cow working, or semi-local meet of some sort, casual go for a ride with friends down at the state park, or help get those heifers outta the corn trips. this short jaunt stuff seems to create the greatest concerns because of all the horror stories you hear. then of course you have the serious, some for hours on end to breeding farms, contract work, rodeos, various competitive events, sulkey racing, barrell racing, foxhunting, polo matches, weekend shows, trail rides, ropings, endurance meets, as well as a those local, few minute rides out to the neighbor's mare pasture, or down to the fairgrounds trips. it always seems that each different sport or discipline has its own theory on the "best" answer. if you care to join in here , all we would like is your own practice as to what has worked for your horses under various conditions. no judgement here, merely an exchange of information perhaps helpful to a reader's existing or up-coming situation. please, no clinical findings by the 'university of all veterinary nutritional intelligence', or some well intended 'feed manufacturer'. just your own good practice and ideas. be not unduly influenced by this oleman newman's practice that an active, working gut is a healthy gut, and just keep offering them water every couple of hours. equally, before sport as well as after sport. this is posted to E H bulletin board because a wonderful lady farmer, horseman asked me to do so, and you basically are my kind of people. just what it takes. apologies, to this moderator, move thread at your will, you may have a better slot for this subject.

[BuckarooMan]

Me personally if its 3am and I am loading I will saddle and throw hay at them for two reasons is that they get something in the belly before a 12hr day and 2 when there coming home and there cinch is loose they have something to eat after that and then when i get home i will feed him in the corral and adjust to what he has left in the trailer to what he gets after i un saddle.

In the summer when were hauling long distances i put cut up water melons in there mangers so t hey have a little bit of whistle wetting stuff to keep them from getting dehydrated along with a flake of hay to keep them pacified

[Scout]

Watermelon! What a good idea!

I haul loose when I've got just one. I give them hay. I used to bed for long hauls and don't anymore because it gets so dusty. Used to wrap legs and all that biz and I don't anymore. I took out the divider between first and second slot so I've got an open box for more room when opportunity permits. I don't grain in the trailer. I do offer water after several hours, but it's easy for me to get in among my horses with a bucket.

I'm incredibly lucky in that they're good travelers.

[red]

Having a neat and tidy gelding, who poops and pees in one spot...(yipee)...is a good thing for me...so I just put bedding in one spot...I load, and haul loose, as does Scout...and throw some oat hay, a mix, in the hay bag...and he picks at it all day long...no sweet feeds, ..but I have been known to hit him with a little electolyte paste, if the weather is above 90 or I know our ride includes some heavy hill climbing..heard years ago, it can help you if you think a horse may "tie up", mine, or anyone else's..I have a friend who hits her fractious appendix mare, with probios paste, for digestion, before she travels anywhere.. so I just keep a tube in my emergency bag, and try to keep some bran with me, wet it down in a bucket, and let him slurp that, before I load to go home..have a girlfreind who installed mysters for desert trips...in her stock horse trailer...what will we think of next? Here, we fight dehydration, with the low humidity, and high temps...yeah, Scout, Cantaloupe and Watermellon, with some carrots for color, is a good salad bar for travel.

[FrancaV]

I will saddle and throw hay at them for two reasons is that they get something in the belly before a 12hr day and 2 when there coming home and there cinch is looseNow I'm curious how many people haul with horses already saddled up? I never have - been worried about both my horse and my saddle, LOL. But I've seen horses heading on down the road saddled, and I considered it one evening when I was getting a ride home from a clinic. The trainer (good guy) was going to haul her loose and asked if I wanted to just leave her saddled up for the 10-minute ride. I opted to unsaddle but I imagine it would have been OK to leave the saddle on for such a short trip. Thoughts?

[Scout]

I don't mind hauling saddled and sometimes do it.

Long time ago a mare I was hauling saddled in a little stock trailer (did I mention it was 3 weeks old?) had a 'splosion inside the trailer. Maybe a bee sting, maybe a moment... Anyway, she started bucking inside the box, stuck her back leg out a back slat and the horn of the saddle tore a hole in the steel roof -- not on a weld so I was particularly impressed. Trailer was totaled (didn't look that bad but torqued the frame). Checked her, wrapped the leg (cut not on an artery, thankfully), headed to the vet to get her patched up. She didn't hesitate getting back in the trailer when leaving the vet, or any time into the future -- unsaddled by now! Nothing remotely that exciting has happened since and the saddle wasn't the issue as best I could tell.

[red]

I always unsaddle..it is about respect for my pony.. I like him relaxed, and free...not mentally thinking he might bump into something, have a saddle string get caught on something..have stirrups swinging, while we are in motion...trailering is risky, boppin down the road at 55, not being so careful as I could..on a corner,(it could happen!!) or having to avoid something created unexpectedly by another driver...extracating a pony from a turned over trailer is difficult..trying to dislodge him, while he is saddled, is next to imposible...leather is not condusive to helping you roll a horse out, stirrups get hung, etc etc...no, it has not happened to me personally, but a trailering accident is bad business. Having family in the "rescue" fields, I have heard it all..takes two minutes to unsaddle, and can save you in the long run.

[BuckarooMan]

I don't go no were not saddled its really a pain in the butt to saddle usually were I unload. I get the leather warming in the morning in front of my tack room and leave the cinches loose to let him blow and when i get to were we are going to be branding or gathering or what ever i cinch up and go every thing i need to take with me is all ready on my saddle my chinks my bridal every thing not tied down is in my cantel bag. Once were done for the day i will loosen my cinches and put my jacket under my saddle pads too cool his back. When your working buckaroo you excepted to ready to work one the hoofs are on the ground. Also all of my trailers don't have tack rooms as there usually hauling in our stock trailers so we can either bring back cows in front horses in the back of the trailer so its really a big hassle to not be tacked an ready to ride when the jigger boss says time to work

[AWSpinks]

I trailer to pastures 4 days a week in the summer. A few are 20 mins away and one is an hour away. I grain my horse as I saddle and let him in. I was able to get an 18 ft half top gooseneck style last summer, the axles are slid back a little further than normal so the rear doesn't drag when I cross a ditch or something so I don't gate him. I don't put any hay in as he was out on grass all night and has had grain.

If I have a horse saddled in a trailer I am fully confident it will be alright. By the time I am taking the horse somewhere with a saddle he is pretty good about the trailer. I prefer to haul horses loose. I will put 2 per 8 foot x 6 foot compartment. The only time I have had troubles with saddles on horses is when they were tied.

In the horse trailer we have it is a little different. It is a 4 horse and the horses ride facing each other. That is two in the front riding backwards and two in the back riding forward. It is kind of a neat deal and the horses seem to like it. It is an 1983 model that I have had redone. I like it except there is a large wasted space in the middle. In this one we do not have the horses saddled and they are tied. We try to always have hay in front of them in this situation. Mostly because we are going to a show or something. Our horses aren't stalled at home and so they tend to stress a little and we have found that something to chew on helps to keep them a little "fuller" looking.
AW

[BuckarooMan]

One problem too is i think people tend to snub there horses too short in a trailer if and when i tie i tie long enough for them to move there head around and not feel like there traped.

[lmullen]

Short hauls-no feed. Feed before you haul. Before use.
Long hauls-a little hay for entertainment. Be sure horse can get his head
down in case of choke. That is probably why most people say don't feed. I don't tie if horses have feed in trailer. Then I leave long lead rope trailing.
By the time he uses that bit of hay, it's time to stop and check everything anyway.
If saddled for short hauls. Make sure stirrups, ropes... are tied up.
curious horses may put jaw through stirrup and get stuck. Panic, wreck.
This is also a good reason to have your horses cue off you before they
come out of trailer, and do it slow.

[lmullen]

Short hauls-no feed. Feed before you haul. Before use.
Long hauls-a little hay for entertainment. Be sure horse can get his head
down in case of choke. That is probably why most people say don't feed. I don't tie if horses have feed in trailer. Then I leave long lead rope trailing.
By the time he uses that bit of hay, it's time to stop and check everything anyway.
If saddled for short hauls. Make sure stirrups, ropes... are tied up.
curious horses may put jaw through stirrup and get stuck. Panic, wreck.
This is also a good reason to have your horses cue off you before they
come out of trailer, and do it slow.

[lmullen]

Short hauls-no feed. Feed before you haul. Before use.
Long hauls-a little hay for entertainment. Be sure horse can get his head
down in case of choke. That is probably why most people say don't feed. I don't tie if horses have feed in trailer. Then I leave long lead rope trailing.
By the time he uses that bit of hay, it's time to stop and check everything anyway.
If saddled for short hauls. Make sure stirrups, ropes... are tied up.
curious horses may put jaw through stirrup and get stuck. Panic, wreck.
This is also a good reason to have your horses cue off you before they
come out of trailer, and do it slow.