What is the best for your horse when trailering so they don’t hurt their legs, wrapping or boots and what kind do you use? I have a mustang/draft who is very claustrophobic and is in a two horse straight load.
I use BOT quick wraps. With a really claustrophobic horse, you should be working on the claustrophobia outside of the trailer as well, so that he learns that he’s alright. In severe cases, it may be worth it to give some happy juice so the brain can realize that it’s possible to relax while in there.
All that, and lots of practice. Load him, feed the other horses or go sweep an aisle, unload him. Do it every day. Take him everywhere weather permitting. Give him a buddy if you can. They do eventually learn to settle.
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In my opinion it is really dependent on you and the horse.
I use both wraps and boots depending on the situation. My mare is not the best for shipping so she goes in wraps and bell boots. This protects her legs from scrapes better then boots and provides support as well. My gelding is a good shipper. For short trips he ships in shipping boots, but long trips he goes in wraps to provide the extra support.
I use just regular cottons and standing wraps, measured to cover from the bottom of the knee all the way down to cover the top of the bell boot (no turn bell boot). We also have a set of Woof shipping boots.
I find shipping boots tend to slip down, and it is easy for the horse to step on the back of the front boot and pull the whole thing off. Wraps provide more cushion and support and are harder to get off, the bell boots provide extra protection to the hoof and heels. If the horse steps on the back hell just pull off the bell boot not the whole wrap. But, wraps should not be used by someone who cannot wrap well, especially going long distances.
So, you say your horse is claustrophobic. Im guessing he might paw in the trailer and have a difficult time loading. I would suggest wraps if you can wrap well, and if you have a safe space to wrap outside.
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I really don’t like shipping boots. As another poster as mentioned it is too easy for the horse to step on them and pull the whole boot off or partially off. For longer hauls I may use standing wraps - I like the the protection and support they provide to the legs. I used to wrap religiously, but have been gravitating to no wraps in the trailer unless we are coming home from a show or XC Schooling and I’ve poulticed and wrapped. I’m just not sure the benefit outweighs the risks or wrapping in the trailer. So I’m kind of on the fence at this point.
I believe that professional haulers put horses bare legged in the trailer. I recently had a horse shipped down from Washington (800 miles) and he arrived with clean (and bare) legs.
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Polo wraps and bell boots all around for my Appendix gelding who doesn’t trailer well, no matter if we’re only going a couple of miles–he’s a scrambler and steps all over himself, and breaks a sweat half a mile down the road. My little mare goes bare; I think she naps back there–nothing fazes her. I only do short trips of an hour or less.
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if you must have something, no bows and standing wraps with bell boots on front. if the trip is longer than an hour I wrap otherwise I haul with naked legs
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My horse has hurt himself twice while unloading so I do use shipping boots. He would stand with his toes on the bumper while backing out and then both feet would hit the ground heel first - Ouch! Second time he ended up with an abscess. So far, so good with the boots. I use the Weaver brand and seem durable and don’t slip down.
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Thank you all so very much. It looks like wraps and bell boots. I really appreciate all your feedback.
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For years I used quilts, and wraps than ran from below knee to top of hoof, and under heels. Finally switched to Woof boots, and or a similar Dover boot.
I consider those little velcro waps trash.
Woof boots, the inexpensive neoprene ones, either in front or all around, and bell boots in front. My mare does not like “stuff” on her legs. I can’t imagine putting her in shipping boots; I’ve seen a few horses panic in them. and I don’t feel like I wrap consistently well enough to do standing wraps.
We just haul barelegged, short hops and five hour trips the same. I don’t think wraps are going to support the leg in the trailer anymore than they do riding, and they are one more thing to potentially come loose or get caught on things. Plus with all wraps, you are heating the tendons, which isn’t necessarily something you want to do. As said above, pro shippers don’t use them even for multi day trips, and they are shipping some very high dollar horses.
Our horses are however all barefoot, so much less worry about them stepping on themselves. Plus we put the work into making sure they load and unload very very calmly.
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Thanks so much for all the advice.
I prefer the Dover boots. I don’t think any wrap can provide support. For certain horses I can understand using standing to prevent stocking up as I don’t think that shipping boots help with that.
For me I like the shipping boots as the cover the knees and hocks. A friend trailered her horse to a show one day and the mare decided sitting down on the butt bar was the thing to do. She pulled the butt bar off the wall of the trailer. It was both screwed and welded. The sharp edges cut the top of the shipping boots over the hocks to shreds. The mare got a few minor scratches. It would have been worse if she was bare or in standing wraps.
I mostly use the boots to protect the legs in case I am in an accident, if the horse steps awkwardly off the back edge of a step up/off the side of a ramp or if they scramble when I have to brake hard for an asshat driver.
I can see with the professional shippers they don’t want to have to be trying to fix somebody’s bad wrap job that is slipping or coming undone partway through a trip. I think the bigger rigs such as the ones used by Brookledge have more protections for the horse in case of an accident. I wouldn’t keep a horse in standing wraps for a few days straight at home even due to an injury. I always try to take them off every 24 hours to let them breathe and re-wrap.
I tend to do only shorter trips so the boots are fine for my needs. There have been a couple of times in the last year that by the time I was done my trail ride it was really hot so I decided I didn’t want the extra warmth of the shipping boots on the legs for the trip home. It was a toss the coin and decided that during the short trip home I preferred the distant risk of an accident or hard slam of the brakes due to somebody cutting me off.
Bare-legged w/ Bell Boots…long or short haul. Unless horse has an injury.
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I don’t travel with my horse very far. for short trips under 20min and being the only horse on the trailer she goes bare legged. for slighter longer trips still usually under 1hr very max 3 hrs she wears stable boots. I like that they aren’t as bulky as proper trucking boots, specifically she is in the horze supreme pro stable boots. I like to have quite a bit of the lining poking out the bottom so it hits her coronet band in case she steps on herself, she has done this before and I only knew because of a small tear which i prefer as I know if she did really scramble she is very unlikely to step on her boot and pull it down/get tangled as the material is thin enough to rip.
main reason I don’t bandage is I am not super confident in my bandaging and know of horses who have had bad injuries due to grooms improperly bandaging (one of them being a 4* level horse who had to be on stable rest for months which he hated) plus my horse always poos down her legs which just makes bandaging horrible.
