How do your horses travel in a rice trailer?

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dafthoss

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As the title really we picked up our trailer yesterday :D so after a bit of loading practice we went for a bit of a drive and although I wouldn't say he travelled badly he was worse than he has been before and was sweating when he got off after a shortish journey although he was traveling fine when we got back. He has been in a few ifor Williams and has been fine so I'm not sure what made him change this time apart from a diffrent trailer. We are going to take him out for a few more rides this week to see if he improves. Any one elses horse been diffrent to travel in a diffrent make of trailer? Or any ideas to make him travel better in it?
Have plenty of chocolate to go round :)
 
I didn't really have a problem with the travelling it was the loading. As soon I I took the partition out he loaded great and travels really well this way. Is your partition in or out? If its still in it could be that he is finding hard to balance and removing it will give him more room to balance?
 
My mare used to travel fine in trailers until my friend took us to a show in her rice trailer. For some reason she kept losing her balance on her back end then ended up slipping so badly that she fell over and got stuck under partition!!!! Que lots of panicking from me as she was 5 months pregnant. Thankgod loads of horsey people stopped and helped and the police turned up too. She has traveled in a horsebox fine since and has got back into a trailer but took us about half an hour to load her.
 
I have a Rice trailer, my horse scrambled in it so I took out the partition and she travels really well now in terms of no scrambling or sweating but to be honest for her there's been no improvement in loading, in fact at the moment she is worse than ever. Other people's horses seem to have no trouble with it though.

I wonder if because of their age Rice trailers give a bit of a rattlier ride, maybe the suspension is not so hot on them?
 
hmm thanks guys will try with out the partition to see if he gets better. He loaded in to it fine even with the partition still in place and was happy walking through it it was just when I left him in there he got a bit worried. He was on a diffrent side to what he normaly travles as he loads better with the front ramp open in front of him so we swapped sides, not sure if that would make a diffrence tho.
skint1 - the suspension is softer in our rice than our YO's 510 so we thought it would give him a better ride but he dosent seem to agree :(
 
we have a lovely black rice trailer and we love it, all our horses (20+) love travelling in it. We have other peoples horses who are apparently bad to travel, go fine in it.

My mare is good to box and travel, but i took her to a show in a friends ifor and she was terrible came out a mess and wouldnt go back in, and she travels like a dream every other time!!
 
Ive just bought an old rice trailer
Roo wouldnt load onto it (never ever had a problem with her getting on a box)
Think it was because the ramps quite steep. But she travelled fine once she went in :)
 
Good to know that about the suspension, I wish our horse liked loading into anything, Rice or otherwise, but removing the partition made such a difference to her travelling comfort certainly. We notice (when we can get her on) that she likes to travel herringbone style, they're very roomy trailers so she can do that easily.
 
Just thought I would post an update on the issues we had.
Did some loading practice tonight and he was fab :D. We lowered the tow bar on dads car (a defender for anyone interested) as the front wheels on the trailer were not taking equal weight as it was very high for a car tow bar before, dad is now complaining that it will hit the floor when he goes off road but thats tough :p. So with the car adjusted we went for another drive put him back in the side he has traveled before to see if that would help as well and he was FAB the whole way didnt throw his weight around or nothing could hardly tell he was there :D. So we are not sure if it is the adjusted tow bar or the other side of the trailer or if he is just a bit more relaxed in it now but what ever it was it worked. Only thing is he is so nosey and keeps trying to look out the back but that can be sorted now he is ok in the trailer. Just thought I would share incase any one else has any issues.
 
Glad to hear he was happier in it :D
Maybe it was a combination of the 2 things that upset him
Be no stopping you now, lol at his noseyness
 
Have had an old rice europa trailer, but horse would only travel in it if the centre ;)partition was swung over so he had more room to spread his hind legs to balance (this was held over with bungee cord. When unloading we would swing the back of the partition back to the centre, and then swing the partition over at the front so he had a lot of room to come out at the front. It was a real pain to do, but it worked for him!
 
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