Horses are amazing animals that humans have been involved with for centuries. Like humans, horses can become stressed by many things. One of the biggest stressors for horses is noise. Horses have remarkably sensitive hearing—they can hear the sound of footsteps from a mile away. With this in mind, noisy horse trailers are very stressful to horses. Many trailer manufacturers have recently taken this into consideration. Within the past decade, makers have incorporated alternative fastening materials to reduce noise pollution. This makes for a safer and less stressful environment for our horses and a more appealing product.
Visual Signs of Horse Stress
However, no matter how well-designed and manufactured a trailer is, it will have normal wear and tear. Trailers develop squeaks, rattles, and other signs of age over time. Though you can fix problems when they occur, not much can be done to prevent them from happening. In short, your horse trailer will eventually cause noise stress in your horse. It is inevitable. Likewise, there are many visual signs of horse stress.
If you see your horse displaying any of the following behavior then you should take steps into reducing your horse stress during long stints in trailers. Behavioral signs might include unwillingness to work, decreased appetite, flightiness, depression, or some other change in a horse’s usual demeanor. One of the best ways to help with trailer noise stress is to have your horse ride with another horse. Their is strength and confidence in numbers.
Noise is a primary stress factor for horses, as it is for most prey animals. Stress increases fatigue, reduces the effectiveness of their immune system, and long-term exposure to stressful situations can cause permanent psychological and physiological damage. So by managing the noise levels in our trailers we can effectively reduce the degree and amount of stress our horses experience during transport. For help with finding horse property for sale, contact one of our horse-person realtors at Colorado Horse Property.
Photo by Mikael Kristenson on Unsplash.
