converted vans and bad vets

tinkandlily

tinkandlily

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I have just read a story about a horse accident involving one of those vans that are now horse boxes, the horse was fine then all of a sudden it tried jumping the breast bar and got stuck, the woman phoned for the vet , the fire service had arrived but 45 mins later still no vet, so she phoned again, by this point the horse was really starting to panic, after another half hour still no vet and the horse had seriously hurt it self. Luckly an off duty vet stopped to help but it was too late the horse had fatally wounded its self and had to be put down. I have read many storys about these vans and i don't unterstand why the breast bar doesn't collapse, don't get why people are using them, a guy on my yard has one and has had a few near missess, as for the vet it is disgracfull that what started out as a minor incident, ended with a horse dying.:(
 
I am really suprised to hear your story as I thought that the fire brigade now had access to contact details for local large animal vets in their localities in the event that they came across a horse related incident. I can remember seeing this on tv but can't google any info on it.

The Animal Rescue Forum were meant to be rolling out courses over the country advising on horse related rescues to the first service and liaising with vets nationwide:
http://www.liv.ac.uk/news/press_rel...n/rescue_story.pl?story=20100428140811.rescue
 
That is so sad. I can't believe the vet never showed up?!

I had heard good things about the conversions, though, provided you get them done by someone who knows what they're doing.
 
well surely that depends on how far away the vet was? and where the caller was as it was the owner not the fireservice who called him. Vets dont have the choice to put blues and twos on unless escorted I suppose.

the fireservice (well ours do) do have local vets phone numbers for use in emergencies.
 
Hi All

I read about that incident!

however i have recently just bought one of the transit conversions, and it is absolutely fab. I had a choice of breast bar or foal gate, all of which are easily unlockable if the horse did try to jump- just has catches you flip and then is off!
I was a bit apprehensive at first of buying it from the stories i heard but have found my one to be made really well with horse safety definitely an important part of the conversion! i think as long as you are sensible with these type of horseboxes they should be ok e.g. horses face backwards do to prevent them trying to jump out- do not keep the back doors open for a prolonged time so the horse has no reason to try to get over the breastbar.
 
OP I think the most important part about the story is your acknowledgement that you "read" it.

We all know how accurate the press are ALL the time don't we!

I would save judgement after I had heard the facts from a reliable source personally.

I am honestly not getting at you, the story has obviously upset you, but there is generally more to it IYKWIM?
 
A friend of mine had exactly the same accident with one of these boxes, with a horse getting stuck, the horse panicked so badly that it smashed part of the box up, the fire brigade arrived and had to cut the box to free the horse, luckily the horse was ok bar a few cuts and bruises.
 
There are many conversions. You need to make sure that the breast-bar is easily collapsed if you get a problem. If you buy one without checking.....then I guess it's only a matter of time before a problem occurs....

Be careful naming names of companies on here, many ARE decent coversions WITH removable breast-bars and won't be too happy if their companies are discussed in a bad light!

It's the same in every sphere, you get good 'uns and bad 'uns...
 
I have one of these boxes and I know several other people who have them. They are brilliant, the breat partition is solid in mine and quite high. My mare fortunately has never attempted to climb over it, BUT WE NEVER GO AND LEAVE HER ON HER OWN. Also as some one else on here has said always make sure that you close the back door if you are not around your horse, that way they should not try to climb over. I have heard of them climbing over and coming out through the back door which would be very tight for a horse to get through and I can imagine they would pick up quite a few scrapes on the way.

A lot of this is about common sense, years ago we had a Rice trailer, for 18 years in fact, now if it wanted to, a horse could climb over the breast bar there and I have seen them do it and one tried to get out of the jockey door and got stuck, all because the owners had left it on its own on a baking hot day and the horse obviously got too hot. You dont hear anyone going on about the way trailers are designed though do you and they have been made that way for years.

Also in the 3.5 ton conversion lorries you can, if you have a problem, have a weaving grill put in which should stop a horse climbing over, but please use common sense when leaving a horse in a horse box.
 
i think those specific boxes are coachbuilt from scratch, rather than converted vans as you dont see delivery vans that shape. if the breast bar was high enough (as they are now starting to be then i think they are much better. and with a big back door so you could get the horse out if it did get into trouble

having driven a transit (conversion) with the floor high up and feeling how much it sways around corners, and having driven my friends 7.5t this weekend, im really considering doing a 7.5t or full lgv test as it was lovely to drive, very stable and no swaying!
 
I had a renault master 3.5 ton and it was fab and safe!! It was very low to the ground and felt solid and stable. The 'breast bar'....I'm not sure which bit you are talking about. There was a partition at the back between the horse area and the small tack area and it was very high up. Unless you left the doors open at the back for a significant period of time, I don't see how likely it is that a horse would try and climb out??

I have seen a horrific injury to a horse's face when he tried to get out of a 7.5 herringbone over the partition so I think they are no more likely than in larger boxes.....although, as always on here I am ready to be corrected ;)
 
There are many travelling 'horror' stories out there and think it is a bit unfair to blame a particular type of transport.
I have seen horses stuck fast in jockey doors of trailers, horses slipping under herringbone partitions in larger, purpose built lorries - at the end of the day transporting horses can be risky whatever you travel them in.
I own a van style conversion which my two love travelling in. I have a high breast bar that my cobs would never be able to get their front legs over. I think the only downfall of these type lorries is that they are advertised at taking 16.2hh, but I would never travel anything over 15.2hh in mine. Also, if I remember the incident you are talking about right, the horse was 16.3hh so more fool the person who tried to squeeze it in....
 
I adore my Vernon the van. It is a vauxhall movano 3.5tonne. It doesn't have collapsible breast bars, but as my horse is 16hh it would be impossible for him to get up high enough to get his legs over. My only issue with it was the bulkhead which if you've got 500kg of horse behind your head and you have to stop, a little bit of wood behind the metal isn't going to help stop the beastie coming through. For the sake of £100 I got all mine reinforced with steel bars on the horse side and it makes me feel much safer. On the negative side it has cost me a fortune in repairs - I think it has a virtually new engine in it now after all the repairs!! And it wasn't a particularly professional conversion either. Nothing fancy, just a solid, safe van. I love it - cheap to run, insure and tax.
 
I don't think the 3.5t boxes are inherently any more dangerous than other types of horse transport. I'm sure there must have been some horrific accidents in the old style trailers that only had rear unload ramps if a horse had decided to go over the breast bar.

I've seen a horse that was loaded into an Ifor double trailer in the usual way arrive at its destination facing backwards, down, in the other half of the trailer. 15hh ish fat cob! This was the new style ifor with the central partition pole, so I don't think it could have gone under the partition! Your guess is as good as anyone's as to how the hell it got itself in that predicament. (Luckily it was extracted unhurt)

I've also seen horses get their legs stuck up on the shelf you get in some lorries with external tack lockers.

BUT - there are some seriously dodgy 3.5t conversions out there, especially floating about on Ebay. Remember - you get what you pay for! If it's cheap there's probably a reason for that.

Like Sidney I have a Movano conversion and I love it! It has an entirely removable breast bar, and a double back door, so plenty of room to exit the horse out of the back in an emergency. But I paid a decent amount of money for it, and had it converted by someone who knows what he is doing, and is happy to show you vans in all stages of conversion so you can see for yourself the safety cage etc.
 
Wasn't there an article in H&H not that long ago about the safety aspect of some of these van conversions? I think there had been a couple of horrific stories concerning horses that had gone over the breast bar into the small grooms area at the back and as the vans in question didn't have double doors at the back the horse was stuck.

I think that what they were saying was that the vans need to have double (ie horse size) doors at the back in case of emergency and not just the single groom/jockey door.
 
That would be my worse nightmare. It is supposed to be quite common horses going over the breast bar in these but also in normal trailers too. I think the problem is that there is a grooms area, then a door mostly with a window to the outside, so the horse sees it as an exit. I have seen a 3.5t done with no breast bar but a solid wall seperating it from the grooms area. This is owned by a transporter who requested it that way. Also some firms now make them that there is a breast bar but the grooms area is totally split from the horse so its head overhangs a solid half wall, sorry cant explain it.
 
I think it would be much better and safer if the horse area was boxed off from the grooms area and just a big external tack locker at back under the horses head with vent windows in the back wall and the living bit at the front rather than the open area at the back that the horse might or could get into and then stuck!!! as is the case with a lot of the 3.5 tonners ... IMHO.....
 
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Could someone please look at the links posted on Page 2 and tell us which type of boxes you are talking about??
 
Thank you! Some people are talking about different vans...
I agree that these little vans can be quite unsafe, I'm not sure they all have breast bars though. I'm sure I've seen one with a solid partition. Not too keen on them myself, but I love a good Renault Master 3.5.
 
Tinypony said:
Could someone please look at the links posted on Page 2 and tell us which type of boxes you are talking about??
Click to expand...
People are saying the black one but surely that would be the safest as it has still got the twin back doors so if the horse did get over into the grooms bit at least you could open both doors and let him out??? where as the other silver one most likely has a 22" wide grooms door at the back and no way to get the horse out if he was stuck apart from the way he came or cutting the back out of the van!!
 
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