Distance towing a trailer

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Darcey22

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So I have a Jag f pace and a hb506 trailer. I potter about locally about 1/2 hour distance. In June I was planning on hiring a 3.5t box to take me and my friend and our horses 16.1 ISH and 15.2 Connie 170 mile trip up north for a pony camp. I have now found out the payload will be too much, so having to resort to trailer again. My horse is used to travelling alone with partition - I haven’t travelled her with another horse before. Do you think I should cancel the trip or do you think they will be ok travelling in a trailer that far together.
I haven’t a license to travel anything bigger than 3.5t
 
Gloi

Gloi

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Darcey22 said:
Is 170 miles too far for a horse to travel in a trailer though?
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When I was showing I'd do it several times a year without problems. Well apart from the cylinder head gasket blowing on the way home from Peterborough and the tyre blowout in a contraflow on the M6, but pony had no problems.
 
Birker2020

Birker2020

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Darcey22 said:
Is 170 miles too far for a horse to travel in a trailer though?
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I don't think it is. I used to do 70 miles to event at Milton Keynes which used to take about an hour and a half and 100 miles to Cricklands in Wales which used to take about 2.5 hrs.

A journey of 170 miles would probably take around 4 hrs I'm guessing. If you stop half way and let the horses have a drink and maybe a sloppy small feed of sugar beet or similar to keep them hydrated they will be okay with a nice net each. Put the heavier horse on the off side.

To be fair its probably more taxing for you, the concentation level when towing tires you quickly.
 
TheMule

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It's not too far, but what you should do depends on what kind of roads you will be on IMO. 170 miles of nice straight dual carriageway will have minimal impact on the horses. If it's twisty, slower roads, the horses aren’t used to travelling further, and they have a busy few days at camp then I would aim to add a day to your trip so they have an easier day before camp starts and/ or when it ends
 
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Annagain

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It would be fine, I'm guessing that would be about a 4hr trip depending on the roads you're taking. Stop for a break half way to offer water and replace haynets if necessary (unlikely they'll have eaten so much that you'd need to do that) and so you get a break - don't underestimate the stress on you if you're not used to it.

I'd maybe add a day on so you all get a chance to chill before you start your camp or even recover and get a good night's sleep before you drive home so you're nice and fresh. Camp itself is pretty tiring too.
 
Cortez

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Too far? Good lord no; I used to regularly travel from Ireland to UK, France, Portugal and when I lived in the US a 500 mile trip to a show was fairly routine. We'd overnight for that one though.
 
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Orangehorse

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TheMule said:
It's not too far, but what you should do depends on what kind of roads you will be on IMO. 170 miles of nice straight dual carriageway will have minimal impact on the horses. If it's twisty, slower roads, the horses aren’t used to travelling further, and they have a busy few days at camp then I would aim to add a day to your trip so they have an easier day before camp starts and/ or when it ends
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Good advice.
 
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