Horse Travel & Transport Checklist
Plan the trip around the horse, not the clock.
Before you load a horse: the vehicle checks that prevent a roadside emergency, the paperwork a journey needs, and how to make the trip itself easier on the horse.
Run the vehicle checks every time, not once a year.
Plan the trip around the horse, not the clock.
The vehicle, before every journey
- ✓Tyres: tread, pressure and age. Check for sidewall cracking and check the spare
- ✓Floor checked from underneath: rot is the classic cause of a serious accident
- ✓All lights, indicators and brakes working
- ✓Trailer hitch, jockey wheel and breakaway cable. Lorry fifth wheel or coupling
- ✓Partitions and breast or breech bars secure, padded and not worn
- ✓Ramp springs, hinges and rubber sound. Jockey and grooms’ doors working
- ✓Ventilation flaps open and working
- ✓Tow vehicle serviced, within its towing capacity, and legal for your licence
Documents & legal
- ✓Passport travels with the horse: a legal requirement for movement across most of the EU
- ✓Vaccinations current to the standard the destination or event requires
- ✓For longer journeys tied to a business, transporter authorisation, a certificate of competence and a journey log may be required: check the current rules for your trip
- ✓Breakdown cover that includes the horse, and a plan for getting it moved to safety
- ✓Leaving Mallorca: a ferry crossing with livestock capacity and weeks of lead time. Treat an off-island move as a project, not a journey
Kit for the journey
- ✓Leather headcollar, it breaks in an emergency, lead rope, and a spare of each
- ✓Travel boots or stable bandages over padding, or nothing if this horse genuinely travels better bare
- ✓Tail guard or bandage. Poll guard for a tall horse or a low trailer
- ✓A rug matched to the temperature inside a moving box, not outside it
- ✓Small-holed haynet, tied high and safe
- ✓Water and buckets. Horse and human first aid
- ✓Tools, torch, hi-viz, warning triangle
Loading & the road
- ✓Load in daylight, calm and unhurried, give the job time
- ✓Never wrap the lead rope around your hand
- ✓Tie only after the breech bar is up, and always to a quick-release or breakable string
- ✓Drive as if carrying a passenger standing on a moving platform
- ✓On a long trip, stop every three to four hours to offer water and check the horse
- ✓Keep air moving. Travel early or late in hot weather, never leave a horse standing in a closed box in the sun
Arrival & after
- ✓Let the horse stand a moment before you unload
- ✓Offer water straight away
- ✓Walk it in hand and let it stretch and lower its head
- ✓After a long trip, check all four legs and take its temperature
- ✓Expect it to be tired and perhaps off its feed for a day: that is normal after a long haul
- ✓Re-run the full vehicle check before the return journey
Moving a horse between Mallorca and the mainland means a ferry with livestock capacity, veterinary health certification, and planning measured in weeks. Start with your vet and the ferry operator well ahead, and budget for it.
Lift the mats and look at the floor from underneath. It is a two-minute job that prevents the worst thing that can happen in transit.
Vehicle first: tyres and spare, floor from underneath, lights and brakes, hitch, bars and ramp, ventilation.
Documents: passport with the horse, vaccinations current, transporter paperwork if it applies, breakdown cover.
Kit: leather headcollar plus spare, travel protection to suit this horse, a weather-appropriate rug, hay, water, first aid.
Road: load in daylight, tie after the breech bar and to quick-release, drive smoothly, stop every 3-4 hours.
Arrival: water immediately, walk and stretch, check legs and temperature after a long trip.
Horse care and welfare · British Horse Society
Not legal advice. Rules on transporter authorisation, journey logs, passports and animal-health certification, including any Balearic–mainland crossing, change with the purpose and length of the journey. Confirm current requirements with your vet and the relevant authority.
