Ibblebibble
Well-Known Member
friends daughters young horse was supposed to be going to boot camp this morning so i went up to help them load him as he's not been in trailer since the got him 10 months ago.
started well with him sniffing ramp and after about 15 mins he put both front feet on, we had all the ramps down and after a few attempts we got him walking right through. All looking good so the next time in we got him to stand and while he was eating we put the rear ramp up, no problems with that he was still calm. As soon as the front ramp went up he panicked and started throwing himself about, snapped tie string thankfully and somehow managed to go down on his bum and turn himself so that his head was at the rear and had a front leg wedged between the rear ramp and partition while he was still half down. thankfully we hadn't put the back breach bar up so when we dropped the rear ramp his leg was released and he could right himself and get out. Poor owner was in tears thinking horse was going to have severely injured himself but thankfully apart from some superficial scrapes to legs and face he is intact!!
thankfully we were in her field so when horse got out of trailer he was contained and let me catch him, while it was still awful to see him wedged in and with his leg trapped i am grateful that we weren't already on the move ! if we'd have had to try and free him on the roadside it would have been horrendous!
got a local transporter coming tomorrow with a lorry to see if we can get him on there and hope the bigger space means he won't panic like today, told friend to make sure she books them to take him home again too as i think getting him used to the trailer is going to take a lot of work!
And before you all say it , yes i totally agree that the loading etc should have been tackled way before today! i had suggested they start trying to walk him through the box a week ago but i don't think they have.
I've suggested that once he's back from boot camp to park the trailer in his paddock with all the ramps down and partition out and start feeding him in there, we did get him back up the ramp ,half into the trailer and then backed him out calmly after his incident today but obviously he's going to take a lot of work to convince him that going right in is safe!
Any other tips or ideas on getting him to relax in the trailer,? I've suggested removing partition to make it less enclosed and the feeding thing .
started well with him sniffing ramp and after about 15 mins he put both front feet on, we had all the ramps down and after a few attempts we got him walking right through. All looking good so the next time in we got him to stand and while he was eating we put the rear ramp up, no problems with that he was still calm. As soon as the front ramp went up he panicked and started throwing himself about, snapped tie string thankfully and somehow managed to go down on his bum and turn himself so that his head was at the rear and had a front leg wedged between the rear ramp and partition while he was still half down. thankfully we hadn't put the back breach bar up so when we dropped the rear ramp his leg was released and he could right himself and get out. Poor owner was in tears thinking horse was going to have severely injured himself but thankfully apart from some superficial scrapes to legs and face he is intact!!
thankfully we were in her field so when horse got out of trailer he was contained and let me catch him, while it was still awful to see him wedged in and with his leg trapped i am grateful that we weren't already on the move ! if we'd have had to try and free him on the roadside it would have been horrendous!
got a local transporter coming tomorrow with a lorry to see if we can get him on there and hope the bigger space means he won't panic like today, told friend to make sure she books them to take him home again too as i think getting him used to the trailer is going to take a lot of work!
And before you all say it , yes i totally agree that the loading etc should have been tackled way before today! i had suggested they start trying to walk him through the box a week ago but i don't think they have.
I've suggested that once he's back from boot camp to park the trailer in his paddock with all the ramps down and partition out and start feeding him in there, we did get him back up the ramp ,half into the trailer and then backed him out calmly after his incident today but obviously he's going to take a lot of work to convince him that going right in is safe!
Any other tips or ideas on getting him to relax in the trailer,? I've suggested removing partition to make it less enclosed and the feeding thing .
; I resorted to travelling him minus the centre partition with him cross-tied short enough to stop him turning round.
plus with how he freaked today it would be a worry that he would injure the other horse as well as himself! 
