Inside Your Horse Trailer

acuity than humans but there are also indications that their eyes may take a bit longer to adjust to changing light conditions. We all know that sudden flashes of light can easily spook horses as can dark shadows.
Keeping this in mind it makes sense to maintain a constant level of light inside our trailers. Commercial transporters know this and so provide artificial lighting inside their rigs especially at night when streetlights and headlights from other traffic can turn the inside of a dark trailer into a chamber of horrors. Interior lighting helps immensely when loading at night. Horses naturally gravitate toward sources of light so loading from a dark yard into a brightly lit trailer is actually rather inviting to Dobbin. Ive used this trick to work with hesitant loaders in the past and have had very positive results.
The interior of the trailer itself can lend to or detract from its ambiance. The inside should be bright and lightly coloured. White ceilings and upper walls have a tremendous impact on the sense of security felt by horses in transit. Lower walls should be lined to absorb or at least deflect impacts from hooves while helping to deaden the sound of those blows and scrapes. Rubber matting is by far the most common material its relatively cheap easy to handle and work with and has reasonable longevity. Ive also used puckboard which is the same stuff they line the inside of ice arenas with it is very light very tough difficult to cut and fit lives almost forever but can splinter in very cold temperatures. And Ive used hardwood tongueandgroove planking the cheapest of all the options tough enough to handle all but the most violent kicks but extremely heavy.
Horses moved in standing stalls experience higher degrees of transport stress than those moved in box stalls. Horses need enough room to move so they can posture for balance and for urinating. Horses moved in box stalls will frequently find their most comfortable place to be and stay there. Box stalls also reduce stress associated with confinement and allow the horse to move around more thus reducing the possibility of stocking up.
Shipping Fever pleuropneumonia
Shipping fever seems to be one of the least understood ailments associated with transport so I will attempt to clear up some myths. The term shipping fever is a misnomer the condition is not a fever per se but