Can old horse overcome fear of travelling?

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becky_bongoose

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Good Evening

My 18 year old horse does not travel well at all as is claustrophobic and I was wondering if there is anyway to improve this as I would like to take her to shows etc in the future. She used to travel fine as used to compete etc.

When I bought her she was delivered in a trailer, she had scrambled etc, ended up pulling shoes off and cutting legs, so was told that she was used to lorries rather than trailers.

She has since travelled again in two lorries a bit better but still scrambles, sweats etc and generally seems to be petrified although she will load fine.

Can it be improved or will this be it considering her age?

Thanks :)
 
My old mare used to have to have the partitions moved right back or taken out in a trailer or she would throw herself on the floor, sweat, close her eyes and wait to die. She fell out hacking and my neighbour came to rescue her in the lorry as it was that or pts where she was. She stayed on her feet, made a slow recovery and has travelled quietly ever since. She was 29 though and is now 32.
 
i had amare who travelled as you describe. i have found with age some horses find it harder to travel due to ballance issues. my answer was to travel in a 505 with the partition out. this aloud my mare to open her legs out and stand more square. we then moved on to a larger box 510 size which we travelled with only the front division partition in.
 
I spent about 27 years trying to get my boy to travel well. Think 4 hours to load and then sweating the entire journey. He had room and I drove very very carefully.

4 years ago a miracle happened, he was 32 at the time. Our warmblood outgrew the old trailer and I had to buy a 510. The old guy loves it, he loads himself now and practically runs up the ramp. I would not have believed the difference.

In the 27 years of trouble I had various different trailers and borrow a few wagons, non of which he liked.
 
thank you for replies :)

Ive been having a look on the internet, and it seems that a rear facing trailers may improve her travelling issue.

Anyone had experiences of this?

Thanks
 
When I bought my mare I had to hack her home as they said she would never load in trailer.. Well after a lot of practice and the Fab dually headcollar
 
Pressed send to early .. And the dually head collar we finally got there.. Now I have a amazing loading pony.. She will only go in ifor though.. She's a bit fussy lol
 
we got one of ours travelling well again when he was about 15 - he is 17 now. just took a lot of time building up confidence - feed in trailer every day for a while - then short trips etc. keep him in a routine so he knows whats happening. used bandages rather than boots and use a calmer. i think it can be done. he travels front facing in an ifor.
 
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