horse going down in horsebox

Pinkvboots

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It's not my horse a friends horse has now done this twice first time was last year and she did it again today, she has been travelled in the same lorry for 5 years without any problem its like she can't cope with corners or when the lorry slows down she starts scrabbling about then just goes down, I don't really have much knowledge of this as it's never happened to me before but I would think she needs more room, yet my friend is making the partition space smaller as she think's she has got too much room to move about.

Has anyone got any experience or advice it frightened the life out of my friend today she is terrified of travelling her again incase it happens again, she also said the horse doesn't even really panic and once down lays calmly.
 

Sukistokes2

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Is the floor getting slippery under foot. My horse was having trouble, solved when I added a strip of new covering on the floor. Ffin didn't go down but I could hear him moving about more.
 

Red-1

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I have known a few do this, and it has later been discovered that they had a condition that was so far unknown. Such as bone spavin, or ringbone. The corners or braking was causing them pain.

I also know of two that got over it. However, they did both also go on to have conditions.
 

Slightly Foxed

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IME horses need more space to spread their legs and balance. But if the horse has travelled fine for the past 5 years in the same lorry there may be some physical problem?
 

Pinkvboots

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Is the floor getting slippery under foot. My horse was having trouble, solved when I added a strip of new covering on the floor. Ffin didn't go down but I could hear him moving about more.

the floor was all replaced a few months back and it's got all new rubber mats down, the first time she did it last year was before it was all done so we kind of thought it had nothing to do with the floor, but I suppose it wouldn't hurt to put some shavings down I do on a long journey when I travel mine.
 

Pinkvboots

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IME horses need more space to spread their legs and balance. But if the horse has travelled fine for the past 5 years in the same lorry there may be some physical problem?

I too thought they needed more space to balance and I know when my horses started rubbing his bum on the back of my lorry he went lame a few months later with a damaged suspensor, I will mention this to her it is a strong possibility thank you
 

Pinkvboots

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I have known a few do this, and it has later been discovered that they had a condition that was so far unknown. Such as bone spavin, or ringbone. The corners or braking was causing them pain.

I also know of two that got over it. However, they did both also go on to have conditions.

I suppose it makes sense really if they have something going on I will let her know, it's such a shame her grand daughter is finally big enough to ride the horse and is doing so well with her and now this.
 

Red-1

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I suppose it makes sense really if they have something going on I will let her know, it's such a shame her grand daughter is finally big enough to ride the horse and is doing so well with her and now this.

Sometimes they will cope better with more space, or travelling facing a different direction. I think they an stabilise themselves better, and a different direction can mean they are not using the same joint in the same way.
 

Pinkvboots

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Sometimes they will cope better with more space, or travelling facing a different direction. I think they an stabilise themselves better, and a different direction can mean they are not using the same joint in the same way.

funny you should say that I drove the same horse a few months back to the rvc in my 3.5 ton backward facing lorry and she didn't make a sound the whole way and she was on her own and seemed perfectly happy, and she had an inch sized screw stuck in her hoof!
 

Junkinthetrunk

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Hi there, my horse used to do this for a while and we drove as carefully as we thought we could with her, I decided to drive her myself (got my Hgv) and just crawled round roundabouts and also exiting them didn't speed up until lorry was straight. I did this on every roundabout for a good few trips annoying fellow road users in the process but she is fine now, I believe it was her pre-empting the exit of a roundabout as mum drove slowly round them, then accelerated off! Poor horse was understandably unhappy but she's fine now she's comfortable and confident we don't have to be quite so slow round them! I did really crawl for a while round them but it was worth it to build her confidence up.
 

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Is the horse travelled in the same space each time? Mine scrabbled, paniced and fell in an Ifor, but returned home fine when travelled alone, backwards with no partition and untied even though she was on three legs at the time. She also can only travel on one side of our equitrek, she falls if on the ramp side, but travels fine if on the 'inside'. It is a horrible and frightening experience when they do panic and fall, so would be well worth investing in a camera and doing some slow local trips first. I would also be inclined to increase the space rather than reduce it!
 

Pinkvboots

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Hi there, my horse used to do this for a while and we drove as carefully as we thought we could with her, I decided to drive her myself (got my Hgv) and just crawled round roundabouts and also exiting them didn't speed up until lorry was straight. I did this on every roundabout for a good few trips annoying fellow road users in the process but she is fine now, I believe it was her pre-empting the exit of a roundabout as mum drove slowly round them, then accelerated off! Poor horse was understandably unhappy but she's fine now she's comfortable and confident we don't have to be quite so slow round them! I did really crawl for a while round them but it was worth it to build her confidence up.

I know they have been taking it extra careful but maybe it is worth her really crawling like you did I will definitely tell her whatever you did hopefully it will work thanks
 

Pinkvboots

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Is the horse travelled in the same space each time? Mine scrabbled, paniced and fell in an Ifor, but returned home fine when travelled alone, backwards with no partition and untied even though she was on three legs at the time. She also can only travel on one side of our equitrek, she falls if on the ramp side, but travels fine if on the 'inside'. It is a horrible and frightening experience when they do panic and fall, so would be well worth investing in a camera and doing some slow local trips first. I would also be inclined to increase the space rather than reduce it!

yes she is always the first one on in a sideways travelling lorry, I did mention about moving her to the stall near the ramp, I also think it's a case of giving them more room than less but not always easy telling someone you think they are wrong lol! it is a scary experience she was very shook up yesterday although the horse doesn't really panic she just goes down bless her.
 

LouisCat

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Our TB used to travel fine in the trailer and then one day started falling over.
Giving him more space was the answer. He travels without the partition and with nothing on his legs and then you don't here a peep from him
 

Annagain

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It might be something as simple as tyre pressures, especially as she's been fine in between. Although I do my tyre pressures (trailer) regularly, if they do happen to go down a bit in between my horse lets me know. Not sure if a lorry's the same but they can really affect a trailer.
 

PollyP99

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I reported my horrible accident in here a few months back, basically exactly the same, mine scrabbled went down and servered an artery! The changes for me were, loading tacked up, changed sides to the right, tethered in a bungee. I'm pretty sure one of these,add the difference but I've just got her back in 6 days work (around 10 weeks box rest and the. Rehab) and have not yet been brave enough to try and travel, I'm dreading it!
 

Lgd

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try taking a partition out, put shavings down.
turn the horse loose with someone to watch and see how they position themselves on a short drive.

My friend's big lad wasn't falling but was aggravating an old sacro-iliac injury every time he travelled in a herringbone layout.
We did this with him and he immediately turned himself rear facing. Then tried him in a rear facing box and no more problems.
 

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A horse I used to compete for someone did it round corners/bends, diagnosed with DSLD shortly after - physically just couldn't balance but was always sound and competed elem. retired in a field now :(
 

MrsMozart

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One of ours started doing this.

Used to travel perfectly fine, even to the point of trying to climb in before the ramp was down, but suddenly started going down.

Now she travels either in the trailer without a partition and angles herself across the box, or travels across ways in a lorry.
 

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IME horses need more space to spread their legs and balance. But if the horse has travelled fine for the past 5 years in the same lorry there may be some physical problem?

My husbands horse needs LOADS of room. Basically the room of two horses between the partition, otherwise he panics and throws himself about. Not a squeak from him if he has the required room. He hates having to touch the partitions, whereas my mare likes leaning on them.
 

supagran

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It might be something as simple as tyre pressures, especially as she's been fine in between. Although I do my tyre pressures (trailer) regularly, if they do happen to go down a bit in between my horse lets me know. Not sure if a lorry's the same but they can really affect a trailer.

I've certainly known my horses to be very unsettled both in trailer and lorry when the tyre pressure(s) have been wrong - well worth checking especially as it happened on two very distinct occasions.
 

CazD

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Is the horse travelled in the same space each time? Mine scrabbled, paniced and fell in an Ifor, but returned home fine when travelled alone, backwards with no partition and untied even though she was on three legs at the time. She also can only travel on one side of our equitrek, she falls if on the ramp side, but travels fine if on the 'inside'.

My mare is like this. She can only travel on the "outside" side of our trailer. If she travels on the inside she cant seem to stand up on corners and gets very stressed. She travels very infrequently now and we put her on the inside side of the trailer last year as she was travelling alone. She fell over and wrecked the trailer - lesson learned! Fortunately she didn't injure herself.
 
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