# Horse Scrambling in Trailer



## Ladytrails (Jul 28, 2010)

Have you tried a slant load? Some horses travel better on the slant. Or, take out the middle divider in your straight load, and let your guy figure out what angle to stand so that he can spread his legs out. On the slant, they can kind of brace themselves in a different way than straight load, especially on corners and curves. 

Good luck - that's a tough one!


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## xXEventerXx (Nov 27, 2010)

Horses can still get stuck in a slant load, when he was travelling was hes alone?
I have a straight haul and prefer it to slant. It has alot of padding in it so its safer too


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## HorseCrazyforSure (Feb 20, 2011)

My saddlebred actually also has trailer balance issues. She is fine in the arena, and has gorgeous form and balance, but she always gets caught up in the trailer. My first step was to make sure that her trailer had a nice, new rubber-like floor to help her grip a little more. Not sticky, but good enough that slipping is no longer an issue. Do you tie your guy when you trailer him? My horse we used to tie, for safety, but we found recently that if she is in the smaller half of the trailer and NOT tied, she can figure out what position to be in. It must be the smaller half though, you dont want your horse to turn around or face with their butt to the divider. This just makes it easier for them to find their footing. If you dont tie him, try it. I would also do this in the smaller half of the trailer. Whenever possible, I use the smaller half so that I can focus a little more on driving and less on if my horse is wandering around the trailer. I hope that helped, a little. Always go for a test drive first. When you do something new, gently go up and down the street and work on turns to make sure nothing goes wrong.


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## haleylvsshammy (Jun 29, 2010)

Thanks! We have checked our trailer over 1,000 times after the accident! We wanted to make sure it wasn't the trailer that caused the issue. Before we even started trailering him, we had our trailer serviced and got new tires (the tires were pretty old) to make sure everything was safe. He fell when he was by himself, and he tends to do better when he's with another horse.

He gets tied in the trailer, and we have a trailer tie with a quick release in case anything goes wrong. Since it is a two horse, I don't think he'd be able to turn around... 

He seems to be able to more easily find his balance after the turns when we speed up. Does anybody know why that is?


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## natisha (Jan 11, 2011)

Without knowing your trailer, horse or driving habits I'll just throw a few out things out there that could cause the problems you're having. I'm not saying any of these apply to your situation.

Trailer too small for horse-claustrophobic, unable to spread legs for balance. may back into butt bar & panic
Horse tied too short-hits end of rope & panics
Slippery flooring
Front manger- can limit the horse being able to use his neck for balance
No window-some horse need to be able to see outside for equilibrium, think sea sickness
Driver- stopping or starting too fast. Accelerating around corners before the trailer has completed the turn & is tracking true behind the tow vehicle

I hope this helps. Trailering can be nerve wracking.


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## haleylvsshammy (Jun 29, 2010)

Thanks natisha. I think that he's claustrophobic. He has plenty of space in our trailer though, we double checked it before we got it, and it's extra tall considering he's 17.2hh, so it's over 7ft tall. He has a window on the side, but not in front of him. He really likes to look out the window, when we open his face door he keeps pushing the door open because he loves to take in the view. 

Nothing really seems applicable to us besides the window issue. Is there anything we can do to make it easier on him without a window directly in front of him? He has one on the side that he can still see out of, and we open it too so he can get fresh air.


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## NorthernMama (Mar 12, 2008)

My girl likes it when she has the two-horse all to herself -- if room is available she will turn herself right around and face backwards. 

Maybe give him more room by taking out the divider when travelling alone and don't tie him. I don't tie my horses in a trailer at all, but I would emphatically not tie a horse that has balance issues. How in heck did he manage to end up on his back without a broken neck if he was tied? Luck was with you guys.

If you have a camera available, why not take out the divider, don't tie him and record what he does while driving. That will give you some kind of insight I'm sure. Then maybe try it tied and with the divider (though again, I really advise against tying this horse).


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## natisha (Jan 11, 2011)

^^ Agree, take out the divider. If he's too big to easily turn around then tying will have to be done so he doesn't get stuck & really panic. Tie long enough so he can somewhat move into a position of comfort but not long enough to get a leg over the rope.


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## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

My friend says her horses much prefer to ride backward as it allows them to use their stronger hind end to absorb the start/stop momentum.


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## mom2pride (May 5, 2009)

I had an Appy who scrambled mainly on left turns...not sure why, but no matter how slowly you entered or exited a left turn he would scramble slightly. 

I made sure he was always adequately wrapped: if normal trailer wraps slide down his legs (they did on my App), use the thicker polos. I would rather have some protection than none. I also made sure to have those fleece halter protectors on the halter as well, so if he went down a bit, the halter didn't rub his face too badly. I also liked to have a light sheet on, to protect from scrapes from the divider...better the sheet than the horse. Most importantly I drove in such a way that he wasn't 'forced' to scramble as much; meaning I took longer to slow down, took a little longer to turn, etc...I could care less what other drivers think, my horse is WAY more important to me than getting somewhere in a hurry, they can pass me, or I will pull over and give people a chance to pass if I'm in an area that is hard for people TO pass easily. 

I am fortunate, now, though, that my current mare is one of those that you don't even know she's there...haha. But I'm still careful with my precious cargo!

I tried both bedding and no bedding in the trailer, as well with the Appy, and neither seemed to make a difference, so I usually made sure he had a lot of bedding so IF by chance he ever did go down he didn't slide onto a hard floor; he never did go down which I am very thankful for.


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## dressagebelle (May 13, 2009)

I would definitely recommend bedding if you don't already use it. The first horse trailer we had, was a straight load, and you could leave the top half of the doors open. My horse was always making lots of noise while in the trailer, and finally one day I was following my dad I think with my mom, because the tail light was broken on the trailer, and I was just curious what my horse was doing. I ended up finding out that for whatever reason whenever we stopped, he'd just about sit down on his butt. We slowed down very slowly, my dad is a cautious driver normally, add a trailer, and he's even more careful, but it didn't make a difference for my horse. So if you can have the top part of the trailer open, I would suggest driving the trailer, make sure whoever's driving is the person that is normally driving, drive like normal, but stick to the surface streets, and then have the trailer followed, either by you, if you don't normally pull the trailer, or by a friend, or family member, and a passenger armed with a camera, to take video while driving around, and then watch it when you get home, and see how he's moving, and exactly when he starts to shift and why. That may help clue you in on what needs to be done to make it safer for your horse. Good luck to you. Fortunately my mare has so far not had any problems once in the trailer, except for the fact that she can not back out. I feel very lucky that I'm not constantly hearing noise when my horse is being trailered.


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## haleylvsshammy (Jun 29, 2010)

We were thinking about putting bedding in the trailer, so maybe that will help. We drive extremely cautiously when pulling the trailer, everybody pulls around us because we go so slow!


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## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

Once my friend let me ride in her trailer while she drove on the farm roads and that was an experience! Good to know what the horses are feeling.


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