I had to transport my not-experienced-with-travel horse yesterday. While on the road, following the hauler, I had a thought about road noise, and how that might affect horses. Does anyone use ear poms for their horse while traveling?
I have, but they she always rubs her ears and gets them out. When I unload her, I find them in the ears of the fly mask she wears while hauling to protect her eyes from the flying debris in horse trailers. I think about how the painful the pressure of ear plugs are in my ears and sympathize with her. But road noise is not fun either.
{shrugs} I have never used them, but I imagine they get used to the road noise.
Keeping their balance probably takes up enough of their attention, so noise is not a problem.
I also do not wrap legs unless I am hauling over 4hrs.
Most commercial shippers will not allow wraps or shipping boots, I figure if they know what they’re doing, why argue?
Yes, absolutely. I have a noise-reactive horse and I have used them for a lot of situations where noise might exacerbate a stress response. I also recommended them to a friend whose horse was always a little on edge trailering (though not an explicitly noise-reactive horse) and she reported that they helped immensely. So, two case reports here that they help 
Most commercial shippers do not allow them because they are hauling over 4 hours. If you’re hauling for a long time, it’s not worth the heat risk/risk of horse getting tangled in them.
For short hauls, I put brushing boots on. Bell boots if the horse is shod. Anything longer than 2 hours, they go naked.
OP, the biggest key is to have a quiet trailer to start with. I do wonder though - is it as loud in the trailer as it is in the car with the windows down when a semi comes by at highway speeds? It’s deafening!
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I have a horse who always ships in ear plugs. He can be a true weirdo otherwise.
I do not use ear poms for hauling but I have used them on a horse. I would offer the soft rubber-golf ball dimple typed stayed in place the best.
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I have not, but I had a horse who liked to have his ear balls for a variety of experiences because he was super noise sensitive, so I wouldn’t think it weird at all. I would probably put a fly mask or something on so you don’t lose them. I would do that if I had to leave ear plugs in for any extended time in the barn (high wind days, hail, introduction to turnout from a long layup, etc.), so if one got shaken out it would stay in the mask.
Understood, but I stop at least once on a long - 4h+ - haul & check horse(s).
So I could redo a loosened wrap.
I use cottons & standing wraps for the support, wrapped low to protect the coronet.
Even in Summer heat, I never had a wrapped horse arrive with excessive heat in the legs.
Their circulation works different than ours - same reason they can stand in snow, as they sure don’t have fat insulating anything from the knee down.
I get that commercial haulers can’t stop as often (if at all - my WB came to me from FL nonstop. 1200+mi) to check on wraps or boots.
