Angle of travelling horses! Help

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ellis9905

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I'm having a bit of a panic! For one reason after another my horsebox (3.5t) has been of the Road since the summer... New pony has now arrived, box has now been mot'd and back on the road..... The issue now is if new pony can fit in it!!

Lorry currently is set to travel sideways on- new pony is defiantly to big for this... Luckily partitions are on a track type system so are change able....

So I'm thinking he will have to travel diagonally.... Now if I put him head first diagonally then it will put his weight behind the rear axel...which I'm thinking isn't ideal ( or am I worrying for nothing?)

Or the other option is diagonally but facing backwards- is there any reason he can't travel this way?? Would mean his weight is 80% in front of the rear axel


Help!! I'm so worried that now the lorry is finally back on the road that I won't be safely able to travel him in it!!

Tia
 
I'm not sure it would matter. My friend had a 3.5 lorry with a breach bar at the front. She had no partitions and only travelled 1 horse, facing forward. If the horse has enough room to spread his legs he should be able to balance. If you travel in a herringbone fashion, I would opt to have horses bottom nearest the front of lorry and his head to the rear.
 
It is usual for the hindquarters of the horse to be nearer the cab end of the lorry and the head towards the back ramp thus if you brake suddenly for any reason the horse will be thrown onto its hindquarters not its head.
 
Many years ago I did my dissertation on this. There was quite a lot of research to show that when travelled loose, horses most often choose to travel at an angle with head facing the rear. I have no idea how it relates to axel loads though!
 
From 6 month old my filly has travelled rear facing herringbone. Through her choice and she loads and travels no problem. I always thought this was the best way to travel them and she seems to agree with me.
 
Many trucks I've seen with a herringbone set up have the horse turned towards the rear of the truck.

I turned around the set up in my truck, when I bought it the horses stood facing forward and you could hear them constantly moving around to keep their balance. Facing to the back and I don't hear them at all. My truck is side loading and it's easy to face them backwards
 
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