Here’s the whole horse show packing checklist in one breath: a folder of health papers, your tack, a grooming box, the horse’s own hay and feed, water from home, a stall kit, two first-aid kits, and your show clothes. Pack it the night before, and check the trailer a full 7 days out.
It’s Jack here. A first show is a lot, and the packing is where most of the stress hides. The good news is that the University of Kentucky’s extension folks wrote a really practical three-part series on traveling with a horse, and Maryland’s extension has a trailer checklist that’s just as good. I’ve leaned on both, plus the show rules a couple of states publish, and put it in the order you’ll actually do it.
One thing up front. I’m not a vet, and the health paper rules belong to your state and your show, not to me. Where this list says “ask your vet,” that’s because your vet is the one who signs the paperwork and knows your horse.
Start a Week Out, With the Trailer
Kentucky’s advice is to hitch up a week before you leave and make sure every system works. Check the brake lights and turn signals. Check the air in every tire, the spare included, and the tow vehicle’s tires too, since towing has its own pressure. Then look inside: a clean trailer with the mats and floor intact, and no sharp edges anywhere a horse can lean.
The week is the point. If a light’s out or the floor’s gone soft, a week gives you time to fix it. The night before, it gives you a cancelled show.
Maryland’s extension sheet adds the details I’d never have thought to look for. Run your eye over each tire for bulges, worn tread or slices. Check the safety chains and the electrical connection. Test the breakaway system, the little cable and battery that brakes the trailer if it ever comes loose from the truck. And carry a roadside kit: flares, a fire extinguisher and a flashlight.
My favorite line in that sheet is the simplest. Any time the driver gets out on the trip, walk around the trailer and check the tires, the lights and the hitch. Gas stop, bathroom stop, doesn’t matter. It takes about 60 seconds, honestly. If you’re new to towing, our piece on towing a horse trailer with a Volvo XC60 walks through what a tow rating does and doesn’t mean.
The Paperwork Folder Goes in First
No papers, no show. A lot of first-timers learn this at the gate.
The big one is the Coggins, a blood test for equine infectious anemia. Penn State Extension says that as of 2022 every state wants proof of a negative Coggins for a horse crossing its state line, and Pennsylvania wants that test from within the last 12 months. Plenty of shows ask for one even if you never leave your state. The American Association of Equine Practitioners actually recommends that owners only go to shows that require it, which tells you how seriously they take it.
Then there’s the health certificate, the official name being a Certificate of Veterinary Inspection. It’s signed by a USDA-accredited vet, and it doesn’t last long. Louisiana’s 4-H and FFA horse show rules are a good example: an out-of-state horse’s certificate is good for 30 days from the date it was issued. Their own in-state show season certificate runs 60 days. Your state and your show may say something different, so read the prize list and call your vet’s office early. They book up before the big spring shows.
Here’s how Kentucky says to carry it, and I think it’s smart. Put the Coggins, the health certificate and your vaccination records in clear plastic sleeves in a three-ring binder. Keep the originals safe at home. Make copies, and keep one set in the trailer’s dressing room and another in the truck. Tuck a spare copy of the showbill in there too, so you always know your class times.
Tack, Loaded the Same Way Every Time
The trick Kentucky gives for tack is to say it out loud as you load it. Saddle, saddle pad, girth, bridle. Then whatever extras your class uses, like a breastplate or a martingale. And the cleaning supplies, because tack that rode through a dusty warm-up ring doesn’t look like show tack anymore.
Even better, put each item in the same spot in the trailer every single time. After a few trips you’ll glance at the tack room and see the gap where the girth should be. A checklist taped inside the trailer door does the same job while you’re still learning. Check things off as they go in, not from memory once you’re on the highway.
One more thing I’d never have thought of: a laundry basket. If you school your horse before your class, the sweaty wraps and hairy pads need somewhere to go that isn’t on top of your clean show pad. And if it’s the first show of the season, Kentucky suggests trying all of it on, on you and on your horse, before you pack. Bridles get adjusted over a winter, and you don’t want to find out at 6 a.m. on show day.
A Grooming Box That Never Leaves the Trailer
Kentucky’s suggestion is a full second grooming set that lives in the trailer and only comes out for shows and outings. Curry comb, hard brush, hoof pick, mane comb, the whole kit. If you’re showing outdoors, add fly spray. It sounds like an extra expense, and it is, but it means nothing gets left in the barn because you used it Tuesday.
Then there’s the show-ring box, which their sheet says should never leave your trailer at all: coat and tail shine, hoof polish, face highlighter, baby oil and a stack of rags. Add spare banding or braiding supplies too, in case your horse rubs a braid out against the stall overnight. Y’all know a horse will find the one rough board in a whole barn.
If you’re still putting the everyday kit together, our horse grooming kit guide goes brush by brush.
Hay From Home, Feed in Bags, Water in Cans
This is the part I’d circle twice. Kentucky’s sheet puts it plainly: an abrupt change in hay is the leading cause of colic in horses. So bring the hay your horse already eats, and enough of it for the whole trip. Maryland’s sheet says the same about feed and hay for the entire trip, for every horse on the trailer.
Pack it the day before. Fill and hang the hay nets 24 hours early, so you find out then if you’re short, not at the show. Bag each meal, supplements included, in its own resealable bag, and put the bags in a tote with a lid. When you hang a hay net in the trailer or the stall, tie it high and tight. A net hung low is one a horse can put a leg through.
Water is the sneaky one. Some horses won’t drink “strange water” with a taste they don’t know, and a horse that won’t drink can get dehydrated and colic. Kentucky’s fix is to bring water from home, in new gas cans or any spill-proof container that’s only ever held water, and enough for the whole time you’re away. A container with a spout makes filling buckets a lot less messy.
You’ll want buckets, too. Kentucky says a stalled horse should have at least one 5-gallon bucket (that’s about 19 liters), and preferably two, hung up rather than sitting on the floor where they get kicked over. Some folks flavor the water instead of hauling it, but that only works if you’ve trained the horse to drink the flavored water at home first. Don’t try it for the first time at the show.
A Stall Kit and Two First-Aid Kits
If your horse is staying over, you’re the one keeping that stall clean. Bring a fork and a muck bucket, plus spare snaps and hooks, and a couple of straps. Kentucky’s sheet also says baling twine has many uses, which is the truest sentence ever written about horses. Pack a good hammer, and before you unload, walk the stall and look for nails or sharp edges.
Now the first-aid side. Kentucky says to bring one kit for your horse and one for yourself every time you leave home. You can buy the people kit at any store. The horse kit you’ll mostly put together yourself, in a toolbox or a tackle box you can grab in a hurry.
Their equipment list is a good start: a flashlight with fresh batteries, a rectal thermometer, a stethoscope, exam gloves, duct tape, bandage scissors with rounded ends, wire cutters, a sharp pocketknife for a horse tangled in a lead or a hay net, an instant cold pack, a clean bucket, clean towels, and a 10 oz bottle of saline for flushing. They also say to keep an extra halter and lead rope in the truck, apart from the ones in the trailer, in case an accident blocks the tack room.
What goes in the medicine side of that kit is a talk to have with your vet, not with me. And Kentucky makes one point I want every new owner to hear: before you put anything on a fresh, open wound, call your vet. Some products make it harder to see the wound or to stitch it. Save your vet’s number in your phone and write it on the kit lid too.
What the Rider Packs
Clean everything before it goes in the trailer. Kentucky’s list for the rider is the show coat or shirt, a vest, boots, your helmet or hat, gloves, plus whatever your class calls for. Polish the boots the day before, not in the parking lot. If you’re still shopping for those, our guide to riding boots for beginners covers what to look for.
Then the tiny stuff, which is what actually goes missing. Spurs, number pins or string, a medical arm band if you wear one, gloves, hairnets, jewelry. Kentucky’s tip is one small case, like a makeup bag or a clear box, that keeps all of it together, stored somewhere you can reach without climbing over hay in your clean breeches.
And don’t forget yourself. Snacks that don’t need a cooler, a cooler for drinks, a few water bottles and drink mix that live in the trailer for good. Sunscreen, lip balm, bug spray and a lawn chair. Show days are long, and a rider who skipped lunch rides like it by the last class.
Show Morning: One Last Look Before You Load
If you packed the night before, the morning is short. Do one more once-over of the trailer with your list in hand, load the horse, and go. Allow extra drive time, since you’ll be going slower with a trailer behind you, and put the show grounds in your phone the day before so you’re not hunting for the gate.
Kentucky ends its packing sheet with a photo caption I love: check the tack room before you leave, so you’re not picking up any hitchhikers. Every barn has a cat that likes a warm saddle pad.
If I were packing for a first show this weekend, I’d print the list, tape it inside the trailer door, and check the trailer this Saturday, 7 days ahead. Then I’d fill the hay nets the day before and go to bed early. Saddle up, have fun out there, and happy trails.
A Must-Read:
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Riding Heavy: The Best Horse Breeds for Carrying 400 Pounds
Why Do Horses Sometimes Walk Sideways?
Speed & Style: A Mystery Behind Why Race Horses Wear Red Masks
Galloping Western Style: A Beginner's Guide
