Trailering: Safety Tip #6

This is part of an ongoing series of posts about trailering.  If you're an old hand at hauling horses, please chime in!  

Here is another safety feature that you might not have thought of to include, or do, when hauling your own horse. 

I choose to travel with shavings.  Not everyone subscribes to the shavings inside, though.  This is definitely a personal preference kind of thing.  For my trailer, it makes things safer.  

The mats in this trailer have very little texture, and I discovered early on that when horses leave fresh manure piles or pee, the floor becomes very slick.  

The shavings help absorb the moisture created by manure and urine which gives the horses a non-slippery surface to move around on. When traveling over curvy roads, and during loading/unloading, I feel that the horses need as stable a footing surface as possible.  

And since shavings are stirred up while traveling, the horses wear fly masks to protect their eyes from the dust and debris that shavings can hold. 

Safety Tip #6: Use shavings to eliminate slippery surfaces.

---