Travel trauma in the form of motion sickness in horses is believed to exist, but difficult to prove, as horses do not have the ability to regurgitate like other mammals (dogs, cats and people). They instead tend suffer from stress and dehydration that can lead to colic.
Joe Wilson of D-Day Wear®, a clothing brand out of Guelph, Ontario, started posing questions about equine motion sickness to people in the equine industry, from veterinarians to professional riders. “I learned it has a direct connection to static electricity and the build-up of static in a horse trailer that affects the horses vestibular system which, in turn, directly affects their balance and equilibrium,” he says. He began by developing a car seat mat for a young woman who suffered from motion sickness made out a specific blanket material made from a polyester blend with a carbon fiber strip that dissipates static. The results were very encouraging.
“It is a patented material made right here in Canada that was created for removing static from chaff in grain elevators that could spontaneously combust,” he says.