Help! Mini Crisis

K

Koda

Well-Known Member
Joined
28 August 2009
Messages
379
Location
Ireland
Visit site
I know its long but I'd be super grateful for any suggestions.
I have a lovely quiet mare on loan who is going very nicely and I have had no probs with her at all....until now.

Tried to take her to a show nearby last week. She loads no prob, then I get a call from the girl driving the two horses to the show (mine and a friends) that they are going mental and she has to turn back. So they arrive back at the yard. other horse perfectly calm, whereas my girlie is hyperventilating, soaked in sweat and has drawn blood on legs from kicking and shredded back travel boots.

Owners suggest she travels better on the left hand side and say she never gave any trouble before with or without another horse in box. So i tried yesterday on the left and on her own. 5 mins round the block and again sweat and panick and blood.
confused.gif
Lucky no major harm done.

Next trial run will be no partition but won't have time till weekend. But if that doesn't work...any suggestions/ solutions?? Otherwise I have a loan horse that I can't take to any events
frown.gif
Thanks 4 reading.
 
Years ago we had a good traveller go "bad" had to go back to the beginning, loading him and unloading again, to loading closing ramp and left on his own in lorry for a couple of mins, next step was to load drive down driveway (20 yards) stop unload, and keep building it up. Just really take each step slowly (so no qick fix) just to regain confidence, Took us about 7 weeks befor he was happy travelling again. We found our boy traveled best with lots of room.
 
Was it in a trailer or a wagon?
Our mare won't travel in an ifor with the partition in (like yours, worked herself into a frenzy) but since we bought a rear facing trailer she has been perfect and doesn't even sweat up anymore. We did travel in the ifor without a partition for a while and she stopped climbing the walls but was never happy in there.
 
I agree: you have to take things slowly with bad travellers- one step at a time. It is essential that you build on positive experiences little by little. This horse might not have been a bad traveller- you were not with your friend so you don't know if she was scared/spooked? What ever, you'll have to re build her confidence after this scary episode.

My mare once freaked as the travel boots slipped down, she stood on them and was un balanced. Perhaps try good old fashioned bandaging next time.
 
Was it an Ifor? I have had problems with one of mine, she can't travel on the left hand side of my Ifor williams. she ended up with a nasty coronet band injury.
 
Thanks for replies. I hate seeing her so stressed out! The boxes were double IFOR Williams. I forgot to mention that when I took her around the block yeserday, she seemed to react and kick primarily on the corners. That's why I'm thinking the no partition might help, since I know they often to travel at an angle for their balance.
 
My friend has a horse that wouldnt travel in trailers as she hated the partition touching her and also if there was a section of hanging rubber under the partition as in the Ifors. She would throw herself on the floor and thrash about. Didnt matter what make of trailer. She had to go to Newmarket for surgery so she hired a professional horse transporter who gave the horse the whole of a 7.5ton lorry with no partitions. She travelled like a dream. The driver said that she will find her own balance which she did, had nothing confining her and did 2 x 60 miles trips without even sweating. Maybe some horses are just claustraphobic.
 
Try without a partition, I think you will be pleasantly surprised. My horse fell over in the trailer, I found he was scrabbling around trying to keep his balance in a trailer that wasn't long enough or wide enough for him. Dad moved the breast bar forward for me, and altered the partiioning so the trailer is 3/4 to 1/4 and the horse had loads more room and travelled fine afterwards. More room = more able to stretch legs to keep their balance, think about you standing on a bus as it moves - you spread your legs to keep your balance. x
 
We had one that wouldn't travel with partition, too - he just couldn't spread his feet enough to get his balance, and didn't understand why the partition was in the way, so he just kept trying to spread his feet out and ended up kicking through the partition
blush.gif
 
Thanks all! I will try the no partition thing ASAP. I will try to make time before the weekend cos the suspense is killing me. I will let you know if I have any success. Fingers crossed! x
 
My mare is ultra sensitive with her travel boots. The stiff shaped ones she hated esp behind. I therefore started her with brushing boots behind as she was used to those with the chunky neoprene overreach boots on her back feet. Now she has the soft poly pad type travel boots and is fine....just a thought but also sounds like she might have lost her balance or gone down in a previous trailer journey and is panicking.
 
A friend of mine had this happen, turned out one of the Mark Todd travel boots started to slip and the horse freaked out. I won't travel my horse in travel boots now, they have brushing boots and over reach boots if at all necessary, never had any mishaps as a result.
 
I had a pony who could not travel in a trailer - he would load fine but then fall over and scrabble when we went round corners. The only solution was to travel him in a horsebox instead. We bought a forward facing 2 horse/pony box and he travelled like a dream in that and later on when we bought a herringbone style 3 horse box.

Some horses just cannot travel in trailers.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top