Reduce Your Horse’s Transport Stress

single right answer for all situations. On longer trips I may remove andor replace blankets when the temperature dictates. With sufficient forage and water a horse can deal with moderate cold more efficiently than excessive heat. Be mindful of weather changes and make adjustments in the ventilation blanketing and feed and water as necessary.
Confinement Restraint and Novel Environments
Even for the most experienced road warrior all it may take is a ride in a different trailer or a trip with unfamiliar horses to set him up for a stressful experience. Aggressive horses can make even a relatively brief trip unpleasant for others through little more than threatening body language very timid horses can feel threatened in the presence of unknown horses. Tying horses in a situation like this exacerbates their fears and compounds the stress they feel. This is particularly true of horses unaccustomed to restraint. Experiences such as this can hamper future efforts leaving us wondering why a perfectly quiet traveler suddenly refuses to load.
Whenever someone calls me to help in situations like this I try to get to the root of the issue. Refusal to load is seldom the problem but more commonly a symptom of the true reason. Horses never forget everything they encounter is recorded so when a horse mysteriously balks at a common task step back and look at what happened last time. It could be an event that seemed insignificant but to the horse it may be enough to warrant the fightorflight response.