Horses which lean when travelling in a trailer

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Drum

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I'm hoping for some advice on horses which lean when travelling and if anyone has any solutions?

My mare started off travelling alright (we only have a trailer), but now she is getting worse every time we try. She has gradually got worse, it wasn't a sudden change, and I can't think of anything that might have brought it on (e.g. sharp braking or anything).

She is fine when we go in a straight line, but if we go around a corner she 'falls'. We dont have a camera in the trailer, but if I get out after going round a corner and have a look, she leans into the centre partition.

We have tried travelling her with a companion, and the result was she was less sweated up but still fell round corners.

We have tried without a centre partition and cross-tied her, but she still falls.

She loads perfectly and always has done.

Like I said I can't think of anything which happened to make her like this, and she used to travel fine (about 3 years ago) and its been gradual since then (slightly sweating and unsteady on corners to now drippng with sweat and making a lot of noise going round evey corner).

Has anyone else got a horse like this? And did you find any solution? I really need to be able to travel her safely!

Thanks
 
Have you tried travelling her on the other side.It may sound a bit silly but I know of several horses who react in exactly the same way if they travel on the left,but put them in the right side and they are fine.
 
We have rubber mats, but there is usually straw or shavings on top. I don't think she is slipping from what I've seen.

She has travelled on the other side, but not recently so I think I might try again and see if that has any effect.

Thanks!
 
a friends mare did this....turns out she had an ear infection(quite common) and after a simple course of antibiotics she cleared up and travelled perfectly.
 
We had a pony that used to lean into the partition when traveling after a few years of traveling fine. I think he was trying to push the partition away, but got exhausted and in a muck sweat. What cured it was standing by his head and using a long stick to move his hindquarters over. We trained him on the ground first, and then in the trailer without the partition. Then we found a private drive so we could stand in the trailer with him. When the trailer moved it was like he was holding his breath until we asked him to move over, then he relaxed and suddenly he was OK again.
He also liked to move his head a lot, so we tied him up short enough so that he couldn't get his head under the breast bar ,but he could turn and look behind him - much looser than normal.
Check the floor is safe- poke it with a big screwdriver from the top and underneath. Ours looked alright but turned out to need renewing, so did the ramp. Perhaps it felt unsafe to the pony.
 
My mare started doing that a couple of years ago. Still no idea why - she sounds just the same as yours. With mine, its the same trailer, same driver, same speed - which she'd been travelling quiet as a mouse in for two years. We have to take our other horse everywhere with her, and she's nearly normal - but does still fall a bit on bad corners..

Ear infection sounds interesting - but its been like this for three years now with her. I'm seriously thinking of getting a camera installed to try and work it out.

Sorry I don't have answers Drum, but I do sympathise, and have one exactly the same!
 
I too have a car and trailer and I have just come out of about 18 months of this, however my girl didn't do it as much with company. I used instant magic, and weighted down the empty side of the trailer. I also bought a cheap baby monitor camera set off e-bay. I also have to crawl so slowley round the corners to make sure that she doesn't stumble.

One thing I would check is the rear suspension springs on your towing vehicle. We discovered that mine were "on the way out". After changing them we travelled my mare and she was so quiet that on both trips we wondered if we had forgotten the horse!!
 
Whats Instant Magic? A calmer?

On the antibiotics subject, she did go to stud very quietly this spring - albeit with the gelding in too. We put it down to her shoes being removed so we couldn't hear her, but she had had a course of antibiotics that week...
 
My horse does this! he will only travel on the right and i have the top door of the trailer open so he sticks his head out it really helps him balance this is for when around lanes and corners and things when on the dual carriageway he has it closed and fingers crossed he hasn't fallen over since, so its maybe worth a try....
 
I have horse who does this too. My horse unbalanced herself by looking out of the windows (equitrek which has 3, one right, one left and one in front!) Blocked out two of the window and just left the vergeside open and that helped enormously ... have camera so could see her unbalance when she saw something in the other window.

Matter of interest the inside of the trailer (ie middle of the road) is meant to be more comfortable as the camber is full of potholes these days!!
 
HahaBoom said:
My horse does this! he will only travel on the right and i have the top door of the trailer open so he sticks his head out it really helps him balance this is for when around lanes and corners and things when on the dual carriageway he has it closed and fingers crossed he hasn't fallen over since, so its maybe worth a try....
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Totally agree with this.
I have a mare that travelled fine in 505 and 510 and hunted/xc most weeks.
She put on a lot of weight and going round corners she actually lost her footing at the back. Always turning right.

We opened the top door for her and she loved it.
Now back to a nice weight and can travel fine with the top door closed.
Although we usually open it as she just loves looking out!
 
Yes the exact same thing happened with my horse. He used to travel on the left side of the trailer because he is good to load and our other horse isn't (would only go on the right!) He leans on the partition and looks like he is about to go down. We have since tried different things - he now goes on the right side, we tried travelling untacked, with the bars set so he had as much room as possible and he is slightly better like that tho not 100% like he was before. He nearly always travels with our other horse but I really dont think it would make any difference whether he was on his own or not. I do tie him up relatively tight to keep his head up which seems help.
 
spike123 said:
Have you tried travelling her on the other side.It may sound a bit silly but I know of several horses who react in exactly the same way if they travel on the left,but put them in the right side and they are fine.
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your meant to travel your horse on the right anyway:)
 
Had this problem years ago with the mare and had the exactly the same scenario as you. We even considered we may have to buy a lorry at one stage it was so bad. Our vet suggested taking the partitions out which worked with her. We didn't cross tie her and we found she would turn round and travel happily with her head over the back of the box. It certainly wasn't ideal however she wasn't a sweaty mess after a ten minute journey. And if she was happy we were happy. At that time our jeep was farely new so was able to cope with the additional weight at the back of the box. I certainly wouldn't want to do it towing with a car.

When we purchased the new IW trailer she would travel forwards in it and wouldnt turn round and face backwards for some reason.
 
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