Horse jumping partition in 3.5T lorry. Anti-jump modifications.

Chloe_GHE

Chloe_GHE

Well-Known Member
Joined
19 January 2009
Messages
4,902
Location
Wonderful Wiltshire
Visit site
Hello All,

Long time lurker, infrequent poster now but I thought you might be interested in a recent blog of mine.

As you are comp riders I think it's probably most applicable to you, because you're out and about with your horse most weekends.

To cut a long story short our new horse tried to jump over the partition in our lorry and land in the Groom's area at the back!!! The whole incident was terrifying and we had to dope him to get him home.

We instantly looked around for ways to modify the lorry to prevent this happening again (we weren't even going to risk trying him in it again) and whilst looking at options I discovered quite a few ways in which you can retro fit mods to a horse lorry to make it safe.

I've blogged about what we had done to ours and also all the other options you could look at here > http://www.gifthorseeventing.co.uk/...-these-new-anti-jump-lorry-modifications.html

Anyone who has had a horse fully jump over the partition and have to be cut out by the fire brigade I really feel for you, it's so scary. We've been travelling my exracer like this for YEARS with no issues, only the purchase of this new horse highlighted the issue to us, and I feel like their might be other people in the same situation so trying to share our story to help others.

Feel free to share etc an safe travelling to you all :)
:)
 
Ah well he's not mine reeeeeeeeeeeally he's Mother's new horse but she doesn't want to compete him and he's a real star so I get to event him :) So lucky as he's lovely and a walk in the park compared to Dustry!!! ;)
 
Well thought :)

Mine has a removable 'anti-climb' board, much like the lower one of the 2 pics in item 4, its metal, bolted in so as its the same as the pic at the bottom & slants away & goes upright by the window, but has a good 5 inch gap right at the top. To be honest, its a 2 person job to put it back in and as FLF has as much inclination about jumping the breast wall as she has of doing a collected canter on a circle, its gathering dust in the hay barn.
However, its there if I need to sell on the little box :)
 
Horrible isn't it, a friend's horse tried to get over the breast bar in her trailer one day - luckily there were people around who came to help immediately. Trailer was damaged but the horse was very lucky and came away with only minor cuts to his hindleg. Some very lovely person gave us a lift home in his lorry, too, as trailer was unsafe.

We were wondering about how we can make it safer but I think she wants to swap the trailer & truck for a small lorry.
 
Chloe_GHE said:
Hello All,

Long time lurker, infrequent poster now but I thought you might be interested in a recent blog of mine.

As you are comp riders I think it's probably most applicable to you, because you're out and about with your horse most weekends.

To cut a long story short our new horse tried to jump over the partition in our lorry and land in the Groom's area at the back!!! The whole incident was terrifying and we had to dope him to get him home.

We instantly looked around for ways to modify the lorry to prevent this happening again (we weren't even going to risk trying him in it again) and whilst looking at options I discovered quite a few ways in which you can retro fit mods to a horse lorry to make it safe.

I've blogged about what we had done to ours and also all the other options you could look at here > http://www.gifthorseeventing.co.uk/...-these-new-anti-jump-lorry-modifications.html

Anyone who has had a horse fully jump over the partition and have to be cut out by the fire brigade I really feel for you, it's so scary. We've been travelling my exracer like this for YEARS with no issues, only the purchase of this new horse highlighted the issue to us, and I feel like their might be other people in the same situation so trying to share our story to help others.

Feel free to share etc an safe travelling to you all :)
:)
Click to expand...

Well done for extracting the horse, and modifying the box.

I do disagree with one thing on your Blog though, that with the modification with NO breast bar. You say

" I couldn’t help thinking that it was a little dangerous not to have anything for them to lean on/brace against whilst travelling. I would be concerned that in the event that you had to break sharply a tired horse may not adjust in time and result in bashing its head on the wall in front of it or worse. "

If the horses travelled facing forwards then I would agree, they need a breast bar to prevent face-planting the front pf the box if you brake sharply. These boxes travel facing backwards, however, and if you brake sharply they will migrate to the front of the box with their bottoms leading, and sit on the bulkhead (hence needing a strong bulkhead). A breast bar is of no consequence.

I do take exception to a shelf in front of horses prone to climbing. I have had to rescue a couple at showgrounds, and once they are up there on the locker it can be a devil of a job to get them down again! I k now of a few people with big HGV boxes, who have had to remove the posh lockers in the fronts of the horses, due to climbing naughty horses.

I think solid breast bars should be banned, as should narrow exit doors. For a horse prone to climbing I believe the Stallion type stalls are the safest. I understand that you could not do this with yours, due to the lockers.
 
Last edited:
A friends pony went over the the breast bar last year. Luckily I was following in my lorry. We had the whole vet firebrigade thing to cut him out. Very very traumatic for all involved. Pony was unhurt.

Mines a saint to travel but I'm getting the stallion bars put in soon for when I get a youngster. I'm leaving a Breast bar in but it will collapse if need be. I never ever want to deal with that situation again.
 
My box has an emergency exit breast bar and door, but i still worry!

What sort of costs was it to put in the wall? I am so tempted to have a full wall put in and a smaller tack area. I have seen many horses stood on tack lockers in big lorrys so the shelf idea scares me just as much!
 
PaddyMonty said:
Our lorry seems to have made it on to your Blog.
Click to expand...
I hope it was there as one of the safe and well designed lorries...

Red-1, great post.

OP, in your blog you mention that the narrow exit doors are no longer allowed under EU regulations (quite right too, they are lethal, along with welded in fixed breast bars.). Can you give a link to the regulations?
 
I hate tack lockers with a vengeance having seen a horse climb one, get a hoof over the partition and slip so he was on his back with the hoof still over the partition, I wouldn't have a lorry with them. I can't see the shelves being much safer, even with a full height partition they could still slip coming down off them and they then don't have room to get up.
 
This is a really interesting post, thank you for sharing. My 3.5t renault master conversion has a collapsible breast bar across the back. It was one of the no-compromise things on my wish list when I bought it.

I have only had to use it once when the handle (don't ask!) got ripped off the ramp. I was able to drop the bar and calmly walk pony out the back with no fuss or problem. I don't have any cupboards built in to save on weight so there is plenty of space. Made me very happy that I waited so long to find the right box. I recently traveled an unhandled pony in my horsebox and was worried about him going over or under the bar so I coordinated it with collecting my hay bales... Easy way to pony proof the back area but easily removable if needed. Pony travelled perfectly tucking in to my improvised hay wall!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top