Veterinary case
Does transport still stress an experienced horse?
⚠️ This information is provided for awareness only and does not replace an examination by a veterinarian.
🤖 Summary produced automatically from the scientific publication cited at the bottom of the page.
Even a horse used to transport for years can still show stress signs on every trip.
What happened?
A 10-year-old Belgian Warmblood gelding, used to dressage training and road transport, was taken twice a week to a riding school 13 km from his stable. Vets wanted to know whether this experienced horse was still stressed by transport after so many trips. Over 10 weeks, the same trailer, vehicle, driver, and handler were used for 17 journeys, always at the same time.
What did the vet find?
Vets measured saliva cortisol and heart rate at seven set points before, during, and after each trip. Even before loading, the horse's heart rate was higher than normal resting values. Cortisol rose after the outward trip and stayed slightly elevated until return. On just one trip, the fifth, cortisol spiked unusually high, far above all other days, with no identified cause. Over time, from around the tenth trip onward, cortisol tended to decrease, showing partial adaptation, but heart rate did not follow the same pattern.
What did the vet do?
ℹ️ Treatment given to THIS animal, decided by its veterinarian. It is not a prescription: never apply it without veterinary advice.
This was not an illness to treat, but an observation of normal transport-related stress. No treatment was given: researchers simply monitored the horse with saliva samples and a heart monitor, without changing his usual housing, feeding, or training routine.
What happened next?
The horse remained healthy throughout the study. Results showed some adaptation over time for cortisol, but transport-related stress never fully disappeared, even after 17 identical trips.
Advice for the farmer
Even a very experienced horse deserves welfare monitoring on every trip: experience alone should never be assumed to remove all stress.
Source
- Source
- PubMed Central
- Title
- Case Report: Physiological Stress Responses to Repeated, Standardized Short-Distance Transport in a Transport-Experienced Horse.
- Authors
- Pellens L, Freson L, Buyse J, Driessen B.
- Year
- 2026
- DOI
- 10.3390/ani16091293
- Licence
- CC BY
