Reduce Your Horse’s Transport Stress

When things just dont feel right you may experience a hollow feeling in the pit of your stomach or you might actually manifest physical symptoms such as gastric distress perspiration or muscle tremors. In humans and in horses stress can create a multitude of psychological reactions ranging from mild anxiety to debilitating near panic and severe depression and reduced immune response which can invite illness. Long term stress can produce ulcers musculoskeletal disorders heart irregularities and create a host of psychological vices. Prolonged exposure to stress can negatively impact essential hormone production needed for digestion metabolism reproduction and growth. Minimizing stress creates a healthier environment reduces illness and fatigue and helps maintain performance levels. In terms of our horses reducing stress also protects our investment.

Defining stress on behalf of our horses requires an understanding of the various types of stressors and their individual effects on the horse. In studying medical reports on this subject I made a number of discoveries not the least of which was that those who have conducted the myriad of tests to determine equine stressors discovered what experienced horse people already knew horses react to stress in much the same way as humans and suffer from similar effects. 
Every horse is claustrophobic some just hide it better than others many horses internalize their anxiety making us believe that traveling is no big deal to them. The most commonly perceived stressor for horses in transit is of course the loading phase but separation from herdmates unfamiliar sounds elevated noise levels disrupted schedules changes of food and water confinement and restraint all elicit stress responses in horses. Proper training of horses creating a loading plan using suitable vehicles and proper driving and handling techniques are also easily controllable factors which combine to create a less stressful experience for our eq
Contrary to what many might believe stress is frequently cumulative meaning the more often a horse is exposed to the stressful situation the harder it becomes for him to cope. While a confident horse will build on successful experiences and increase his selfassurance each time a more nervous horse might simply regard each attempt as just another horrible thing the human does to him. Eventually the nervous horse can no longer deal with the stress and refuses in an initial attempt to control the situation. We frequently misinterpret this as recalcitrance and force the issue thereby adding another brick