Long-distance horse transportation causes significant physiological and psychological stress. Evidence-based practices minimise welfare harm during unavoidable journeys.
Horse transportation welfare depends on recognising that transport is inherently stressful and managing that stress through preparation, travel conditions, and post-transport recovery. The physiological demands of maintaining balance in a moving vehicle, combined with social disruption, unfamiliar environments, and variable temperatures, produce measurable immune suppression. The practical welfare responses — adequate ventilation, hay and water access throughout, appropriate journey duration limits, rest breaks for long journeys, and post-transport rest before competitive demands — are all evidence-based and achievable. Transport-related respiratory illness (shipping fever) is both a welfare outcome and a welfare indicator for journeys conducted without adequate precautions.