I don’t know about you, but for me summer means riding season has arrived. Maybe because it’s the only time I can access my favorite backcountry trails. I ride year-round near my home, but there’s a brief window between one winter’s snow melt and the next winter’s first storms when I can get into the high elevation mountain ranges that I especially love. However, hauling equines during the heat of summer presents challenges you need to be prepared for. Here are some tips to keep in mind to make long-distance trailer journeys safer for you and your horses during the hottest days of the year.
Plan Your Route
Carefully plan your trip in advance, especially if you will be on the road for more than five or six hours total. Although I am no more than a day's drive from just about anywhere in California, I regularly haul my horses and mule to ride in other states—the northern Cascades of Washington, for instance, or Glacier National Park in Montana, the Wind River Range of Wyoming, or Colorado's San Juan mountains. It can take me two or more long days of driving to reach these places.
I always map out my route and know where I will stay overnight. Rodeo grounds, a horse motel, a campground, a friend's ranch, or dispersed camping on BLM land are good options. Even think about refueling stops because not all fuel stations are trailer-friendly - especially if you have a large rig. If I'm on a new route, I might calculate mileage and check out options via Google Maps to know what I'll find along the way.
Researching the weather forecast is also important. You can't do much to control what you might face, but you can adjust to deal with it so you won't be caught off-guard. If you are likely to face extreme heat—such as prolonged stretches with triple-digit temperatures or very high humidity—consider altering your drive times to take advantage of cooler hours in the morning or evening.
Vehicle Maintenance
Encountering vehicle issues on the road is always stressful, but things can quickly turn dangerous if you become stranded on a highway in the mid-day heat with your horses sweltering in the trailer. Ensure your towing vehicle and trailer are road-ready before you head out. This might mean taking your truck in for an oil change, doing an overall safety check, and ensuring all fluids are at the proper levels, with belts and hoses in good condition. It's also advisable to keep a fire extinguisher on hand.
You want your truck and trailer brakes and tires in optimal shape for any long journey, so this is not the time to try to put off a needed repair or hope that worn tread will hold up. This applies as well to spare tires and any equipment you might need to change a flat on the road; you don’t want to have to wait for emergency services to arrive if you can quickly change the tire yourself, even if it’s just to get safely to a better location when a more extensive repair is required.
Prepare Your Horse or Mule
One of the best things you can do to help your equine cope with heat stress in the trailer is to maximize hydration before leaving home. Horses cool themselves through sweating, and an animal that begins a long, hot journey without sufficient fluid reserves risks becoming overheated as well as dehydrated, which can also cause further complications such as colic.
Adding electrolytes to the feed rations at least one day prior to a trip during warm weather encourages horses to drink more water so they’re fully “tanked up” before they hit the road. There should at least 8 hours between the last dose of electrolytes and the time you plan to depart, to ensure your horse has plenty of time with free access to water before having to load.
Optimize Ventilation
Horses, like humans, are among only a handful of mammals capable of sweating over their entire body, giving them an evolutionary advantage in temperature regulation. But it’s the evaporation of sweat through air circulation that produces the cooling effect, which means adequate ventilation is crucial to keeping your horses comfortable in the trailer. The more air flows through your trailer, the better equipped your equines will be to deal with excess heat. Open every possible window and vent when driving, and even the doors when you are stopped, such as when refueling.
If you have large drop-down feed doors, try installing screens so you can leave them fully open during travel, or put fly masks on to protect your horses’ eyes from wind-blown debris (of course, make sure bars or screens also prevent the horses from putting their heads through the open doors). If you have to stop for any length of time, park in some kind of shade or shelter; just as the interior of a closed car rapidly heats to dangerous levels, horses left standing on a hot day in a trailer—even with the doors and windows open—have no way to shed excess body heat and are vulnerable to serious distress.
Water To Go
It’s important for your horse not only to start a long trailer journey well-hydrated, but also to stay that way. Horses lose body fluids through sweating as they attempt to regulate their body temperature; they also expel water in digestion through manure and urine. Thirsty horses stop eating, and dehydration can result in constipation or impactions. Even when not exercising, most mature equines require 10 to 15 gallons of water daily for normal functioning, and more if exposed to heat for long periods. Always bring sufficient water in your truck or trailer to take care of your horses’ needs during your travel.
How often you should stop to offer water to your horse or mule depends on the weather, the length of the trip, and your animal’s willingness to drink; most horses will eventually take water if they really need it, but many won’t drink as often as we might want them to. I find my horses turn up their noses at anything I try to give them until we have been on the road for at least 5 hours, but after that they start being interested. Even then, when I know they want it, I’ve had them turn down water that was too warm; in that case, adding ice purchased from a gas station to cool the water makes it more palatable.
Recovery
Whenever my horses are going to be on the road for a full day, or sometimes more than one day, I always schedule a rest day before beginning my ride. I want them to be able to stretch their legs and move around after long hours confined in a trailer, and to eat and drink as much as possible to recoup what they may have lacked during the journey. If we have multiple days of hauling, I’ll be sure to stop at the end of each leg for a minimum of 12 hours, but even with those breaks, I still want them to have a full day out of the trailer to recover. Keeping my horses healthy and fit along the way means we can enjoy our rides when we finally arrive at our destination, which was the whole purpose of travelling in the first place. It might take a little extra time and planning, but the satisfaction of knowing my equines are well taken care of makes every effort worthwhile.
Gillian Larson is proud to represent Tucker Saddles as a sponsored trail rider. She has traveled more than 14,500 miles on national scenic trails and other back country routes since completing her first long-distance journey in 2014. Visit www.gillianlarson.net for details about her rides, workshops, and other information.
