Do horses get holidays?

[LurpakAspirations]

Inspired by reference to the Olympic horses on another thread but I was thinking, they work pretty hard.

Imagine doing all the training and then being shoved onto a plane and taken abroad to compete, winning medals, being shoved on a plane again and taken back home...

What if they wanted to see the beach, actually, while they're there?

Try some local horse food?

Go for a hack along some rice fields or visit the leaning tower or Pisa?

Just seems a bit unfair really, to go all that way and not enjoy the sights.

Horse owners - you ever take your horses on holiday so they can enjoy somewhere different?

Mine point blank refuses to load to go anywhere unless sedated, so no. But she has been to the beach before, she hated it.

But working horses do have holidays. Hunters have the summers off, Eventers usually winter off.

They are herd animals and largely like routine. Your average horse won't thank you for being taken somewhere new. Quite a few of the international horses travel with a friend to make them happier. In my old village we had an Olympic equestrian yard and they had a shetland that went everywhere with the competing horses.

Depends. Working/professional horses (cavalry, police horses, hunters, elite sports horses) get breaks. Much needed for their mental health as well as physical health. Riding school horses and most horses owned by "normal people" don't really get breaks as they don't need them.

Fascinating thread .

How on earth do they cope on an aeroplane ?

There's a few youtube videos if you search on this very topic, mostly about racehorses which would be the most common type of horse to be flown around the world although other types of elite competition/sports horses are too as well as pet horses occasionally when the owner relocates. Here's a few:

Essentially most cope very well - they are walked into a travel container/crate which is set up on the inside to look very much like a lorry or trailer or a windowless but well lit and ventilated stall, so a horse used to travelling (as most are these days) won't be afraid of it. The container is then hoisted smoothly onto the plane like cargo. The horses have feed, hay and water inside for the journey and wear protective head and leg gear in case they bang themselves, as well as blankets to keep them warm. In the case of the very valuable racehorses or Olympic horses they may well have their own groom with them to keep them happy and calm, or otherwise it will be a very experienced travel groom who knows very well how to keep them safe and relaxed. They will usually eat and doze on and off throughout the flight until it's time to get off. The only issue is the claustrophobia which some horses do experience, it isn't natural for them to be in an enclosed space for a long time and some can panic - as I say most horses these days and especially competition animals are used to being stabled and transported in a lorry regularly (often from very young babies) so they aren't bothered as to them it's no different except for the length of journey (they don't know they're on a plane lol!), but some will require light sedation and some will be assessed as just not suitable for plane travel at all and if feasible might travel on a boat or lorry instead as then if they panic the driver can pull over and they can be taken out into a more open area - or they may just not travel at all which obviously limits their value but is better than risking their own and the people around them's safety as there are very rare instances where a horse has had to be euthanized on a plane due to panicking and becoming unsafe - I think increasingly though we as horse people understand how to (a) assess which horses will cope with travel in the first place and (b) how to train and prepare them to cope well. It's worth it in the hard line commercial sense as usually a horse being a good traveller increases it's value a lot although there are some notable exceptions - the most famous racehorse of the 21st century, Frankel, never travelled outside the UK as he was felt to be too highly strung to cope with the journey.

I'm loving these replies - that they do, in fact, get holidays has made my day!

Thanks for the links as well, I'm off to find pictures of Cavalry horses at the beach in Norfolk.

Am also very pleased to learn that Olympic and race horses get so much time off :)

I can just picture a couple of horses eating gelato and watching the sunset from the Rialto Bridge. Or examining the Mona Lisa. Or buying their Big Thunder Mountain ride photos, with their front hooves in the air and their manes blowing in the wind.
🤣🤣

Just passed a farm. Saw a few horses keeping cool on the sofa watching old episodes of Neighbours on catchup.
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@Hotenoughtoburnasausage 😆

😂😂😂😂