Horse lorry breakdowns - your experiences

Which best describes you experience in the last year?


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cp1980

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I was interested to read the advertising blurb of one of the horsebox rescue companies, which claimed that horsesbox lorries break down on average at least once a year.

Our lorry has broken down just once with a horse on the last three years, when the clutch fluid went.

There have been issues - in those cases we've just been lucky that we weren't on the way to an event.

What are your experiences like? Have you needed to have your horse transported, or did the mechanic fix it at the roadside?
 

carthorse

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Had a few. Two punctures, one fixed on road ,one at a show. Fan belt broke on a Sunday 2 miles from show. Hacked to show (I was asked if I needed horses transported but I refused) then got a lift from a friend home. Lorry had to be transported home as part not available on Sunday. Had flat battery as left lights in living on too long and battery was dodgey. They got me going.
 

DuckToller

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I have been towed home four times in 6 years, but annoyingly three times it was for the same fault which, once correctly fixed, has not happened since.

The 4th time the clutch went which was pretty major.

The other 3 the fuel pipe disconnected after our mechanic changed the filters and didn't fix it back on using the correct equipment - eventually we had to take it to a dealership and use t heir mechanics to get it fixed once and for all.
 

Archina

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Broke down once, managed to limp to Charnock Richards service station. Turned out one of the core plugs had popped from overheating so would need tow and transport for both horses on board. Wasnt too impressed with recovery, broke down on the friday and told them the horsebox would need to be back at mine by sunday for the mechanic on monday morning. Driving home on the monday morning and saw my horsebox still sitting in there recovery depo at the service station. They had 'forgot' they had to get back to mine! :confused: :mad:
Then had to argue my case with the insurance company to send me out transport for the horses, kept asking if i had friends who could come and get them!! :eek:
Was an interesting experience swapping the horses over to the other horsebox though, the horses where as good as gold. :)
 

rehodnett22

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We were on our way back from the Southampton area on our way to Devon after fetching my mare from the vets. It was Christmas eve eve and a couple of years ago - 2009 I think (the very very cold Winter) and we were just at some traffic lights at a junction of the M3. A car flashed us as we were sat at the traffic lights, we were a little slow of the lights so didn't think anything of it as everyone seemed to be in a hurry. We pulled away and the lorry did not feel quite right - so we pulled over (just under the M3 bridge) and I jumped out and ran around the lorry to check everything - only to spot one of the rear wheels rolling down the road - the lorry was sat on the rear near axle (the inner wheel had fallen onto it's side as the outer wheel had fallen off).

So, we called our rescue company (via NFU who have been brilliant) who arranged for a rescue lorry to come out and collect my mare. We sat there for a couple of hours causing absolute mayhem on the roads - miles and miles of tailbacks (sorry if you were in the jams!), a couple of policemen were keeping the traffic moving and we had a police chopper overhead for some reason...

So, we had a call from the horse transporter who asked us to confirm we had my mare's passport - oh ***** - I'd forgotten it and left it at the vets (who were beyond the big traffic jam we had caused) so I called the vets and they drove along to meet us - I walked back against the traffic jam (in my breeches and chaps - quite obviously horsey!) to meet them to get the passport and had several people who had been stuck for a while wind down their windows and ask what was going on - obviously I denied all knowledge especially the fact it was our lorry ballsing up their Christmas eve eve!

The 10 horse rescue lorry eventually turned up to take my little 15.2 TB mare who we had to unload under the M3 bridge and reload - she was a star bless her cottons. On the way back in the rescue lorry he had a failure light come on in his dashboard and we thought 'oh no not again!!' but we stopped for a while and restarted and all was ok.

It was a frightfully exciting, long journey and thankfully no one/animal was hurt - we since discovered that wheel nuts expand and contract in the changing temperature - especially if they are made of different metals on one wheel - so they had obviously loosened, one had come off and so on...
That's common sense when you know - but not something you immediately think of.

So the moral of the story is - to use those little plastic marker/pointers on the nuts and check tyres every journey!

Chocolate chip cookies if you get this far...!
 

Vicki-Finn-Perry

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Only broke down once so far *touches wood* :p

It was so stressful I hated every second, stuck on the side of a motorway in a lay-by for 2.5 hours! :(

Pony was fine and didn't seem to bothered but I didn't like the way the lOrry was getting swayed from side to side by passing traffic.

We used red equine star for break down cover, they were fantastic and fixed the problem within 5 mins.

The problem was rather embarrassing though...someone forgot to put diesel in (the gauge is a bit dodge and isn't usually accurate!) Which then caused air to get in the fuel tank in turn stopped any diesel getting to the engine.

Whoops!
 

Jontydoggle

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Once ran out of fuel (dodgy gauge) and once the drive shaft snapped. On the M25. Rescue company came with enormous rescue truck - huge Polish driver gets out, says 'is fine' and proceeds to winch my lorry up onto the back of his lorry WITH MY HORSE STILL INSIDE IT !!!!!. Horse and the driver were brilliant, he drove us home, rolled my lorry off the back again and got my horse out - who was cool as a cucumber. That horse is normally an utter stress head but that day was the most chilled horse in the world!
 

Crosshill Pacers

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My boss had a tyre blow out on the way to the races (racehorse trainer), fortunately it happened very close to his son-in-law's farm, where he had a horsebox (even more fortunately we were only taking two horses that day) so horses were unloaded, boss was dropped home to fetch his 4x4 and horses were brought to races in box. Triple whammy of fortune, I had gone to the races ahead of them that day with OH (bookmaker) so was able to declare the horses and collect numberclothes before declarations closed (horses arrived after deadline).

A friend of mine in June turned up to our local race meeting in a clapped out old horsebox, looking VERY stressed out. He told me his lorry had failed to start on the yard, so quick phone call to owner whose horse he was taking, he brought over his lorry which then broke down 10 miles from the yard! Lots of running around and stressing out, and they thought they'd never make it! But managed to locate a box before it was too late. Two broken down lorries in one day? That's what I call bad luck!
 

comet!

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So far one puncture. Almost 3 hours waiting for breakdown. Then they arrive and am told by my breakdown company that they charge a minimum fee for a puncture (£300)
So even if the tyre is only £100, they charge you £300 because "sometimes they get callouts in the middle of the night and make a loss!"
 
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