The welfare challenges of transporting horses, from competition transport to international live export, and best practice standards.
Horse transport welfare involves complex interactions between journey duration, trailer design, loading stress, and the individual horse's transport experience. Poorly designed trailers with inadequate ventilation, inappropriate partition spacing, and no social contact are common welfare problems. Long international journeys to export markets expose horses to cumulative stress over days or weeks. The live export of horses for slaughter - often involving journeys of 24+ hours to countries with lower slaughter welfare standards - is a significant welfare concern that several countries have moved to restrict.