how many of you have a horse that WONT travel in a rear facing lorry?

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Prince33Sp4rkle

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as title.
have been trying to sell my 7.5ton to get a little rear facing lorry, but have today have 2 diff people warn me that some horses dont travel well in rear facing lorries.......

....my horse is a fab traveller but can be a quirky loader and im now terrified i might buy a lorry he hates. i dont know anyone with a little lorry i can try him in either.....bah.

any opinions either way?
 
I have one who really can't balance - but I guess I am in your 2 above! I also know of 2 others who travel really badly rear facing - one of whom trashed a lorry in their efforts to stand up (and before anyone asks said horse was being driven very carefully by a well respected professional transporter)
 
I think, as long as the barrier by their chest is high, they should be alright. I have heard lots of stories (and seen the injuries) sustained by the horse climbing over the barrier and ending up semi-squished in the storage/grooms area.

As far as loading goes, they seem to love rear-facing lorries, it's just the barrier height that can be an issue in my experience.
 
None of mine travel as well backwards as forwards. My big mare is normally a perfect traveller at any distance but on her trip home from York I hired a rear-facing lorry and as soon as we dropped below 10mph she started kicking and banging. Shame there were all those roadworks on the A1 at that time:(

I don't have any problem with loading mine into them on the occasions when I have hired them but as for the travelling, they just don't seem happy.

I'm quoting only from my experience which would be with my collection of 6 well-travelled horses / ponies ranging from 12hh to 16.3 usually in a Theault and once in a Marlborough. They normally travel herringbone but as well as the Theault they have all travelled in a conventional forward facing trailer.

edited to add: Atacanter will bring a box to you for you to hire to try out. They sell the Theaults which are IMHO probably the best available and possibly, barring the Oakley, the most expensive!
 
My TB ex-racer Jack loved mine.
He was a real fidget in a 7.5 tonne but was very happy in a 3.5 tonne bakcwards.
In fact if it was raining he wouldn't come off! :D
If your ever down my way you are more than welcome to borrow mine and have a good try out.
 
I have one that doesn't travel well forwards - she jumps the breast bar, travelling backwards she panics and trys to crawl over or through the bar, in a herringbone lorry she travels mostly fine but also will climb on top of the tack locker if given a chance!! travelling loose she travels at a 45degree angle (diagonally facing the front).

Not sure it helps you, but before you buy one I suggest you hire or borrow one to make sure it suits your horse. Might save you a lot of money in the long run??

Plus make sure if its rear facing that it has the new design breast bar - getting a 16.3hh horse back over isn't easy and if the one we borrowed hadn't had one that you can collapse we might have had to cut her out.
 
Just a thought but can you contact his old trainer to see what he used to travel in? So many racing lorries are forward facing but some trainers do now use rear facing lorries.
 
I sold my herringbone lorry because pony didn't travel in it very well. Bought a rear facing lorry and she now travels a dream. Don't know if it was because she had only ever travelled in a trailer before I had her.
 
I didn't even know you could get rear facing lorries, so you learn something new everyday! Does that mean the horses face backwards?

My mare loads perfectly into a trailer but won't load into a lorry, and I'm convinced it's because she hates travelling sideways. r
 
You can see if he likes mine if you like - is rear facing. Could pop over and have a drive around the block. I had to get it for the little brown ex racer that can only travel with a solid wall on his left hand side. Fussy bugger. But have never met anything that doesn't like it - and I've had horses that haven't been moved for 20 years in it, and they didn't bat an eyelid.
I've tried to find a pic on facebook but don't have one - its reasonably compact but the 17.2hh fits in it. It has a solid box section in front of them that are the tack lockers on the outside, so no scary bars to climb over.
 
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I used to have an Equi-Trek trailer but sold it for a forward facing trailer as my horse wasn't happy going backwards. I think that before you go ahead with buying a rear facing lorry, borrow or hire one to see what your horse likes. I now travel without a partition and have noticed that he travels almost diagonaly:rolleyes:
 
I have a rear facing renault master 3.5t lorry and have found every horse I have put in it travels well - in fact I was told that most horses actually prefer travelling backwards as more comfortable if you have to brake unexpectedly.....
 
Never had a problem with my rear facing box altho I had to introduce them to it and to get used to the notion of moving neck before the rest of the body to come out but once they've mastered that no problems. Ive had 2 horses in it and they both travelled really well in it as well.
 
We have a rear facing that we hire out. The business has now been going for over 3 years and in that time we have never had a horse that wouldn't load and all of those with bad travellers have been amazed at how well their horses travel.
If you dig around on the internet there is plenty of research about that suggests horses prefer to travel with rear facing.
 
My horse will only really travel comfortably rear facing.
You can hire one for £99 ish a day - Beaver Hall hire theirs for around £250 for a weekend Fri PM - Mon am. Might be worth investing in a hire before you buy? That's what I did.
 
My 16.2 TB loads, travels and stands brilliantly in my friends rear facing 3.5t. He always has a shuffle in any transport to start with (likes to 'balance' himself) but this is usually for less than a minute in the 3.5 and can go on for 5/10 minutes and then intermittently in a trailer. He seems far happier in it than anything else. We went out at the weekend SJ and he literally barged me out the way to get on :D

Her little lorry has quite a high partition at the back - about 1.30m I would guess and I would think the chances of getting over that are pretty slim.

I think as others have said it may be best to see if one of the dealers will let you test drive or hire one for the day as it seems some love them and others don't.
 
Me! Roy boy will absolutely not, I repeat NOT go near a rear facing lorry. I can get him into a side loading, forward facing lorry, and all herringbone lorries, but you have absolutely no chance whatsoever if it's rear facing. He lasted approximately 3 seconds on the first one I tried him on, before he absolutely lost the plot, cracked his head open, and jumped off.

All the others are fine with them - even the nutjob who hates travelling.

I've known quite a lot of horses who either won't load, or don't travel well on a rear facing lorry, so I'd advise you to try it out first before you buy one.
 
I used to have a rear facing box and never had one that wouldnt go in or that didnt like travelling in it.

One thing I have noticed, mine had top doors which open outwards and let more light in. I have known horses that wouldnt load into ones which have top doors which open upwards.
 
Although most 3.5T boxes are rear-facing, you can get forward-facing ones too if your horse is happier travelling that way.
 
FBG-have pm'd you ref your very generous offer, thank you so much :) i didnt realise yours was rear facing.

i was under the impression most horses preferred it but then having two very knowledgable people in the same day tell me to double check, has put the wind up me, but thanks to FBG it looks like i can put it to the test.

have previously managed to load him with ease on to an equitrek trailer, so know he will load in to a side ramp, but he hates trailers full stop we found out so diff to tell if the rear facing had any impact on his reaction (he was just as bad in an ifor though..hmmmm)

thanks all, please keep the experiences comming, really helpful :)
 
it wasnt rear facing but my horse freaked when he had to travel forwards

we never had any trouble loading or travelling my horse till we tried to put him on forward facing lorry and when he go ton the lorry and couldnt turn like when he herringboned he freaked out and bust the rope behind him, and has never been the same since it tooks us forever to get him to load again
 
The Welsh Cob is terrible facing forwards, but much better herringbone or backwards. He is also a so-in-so to load. Can now load him almost perfectly in rear facing 3.5t that I hire (goes in 2nd time never 1st) but you have to prepare for war if you want to load him forward facing, even with the chiffney he'll go up...so I try to avoid trailers & forward facing at all costs!

As a few have suggested, try looking for a local hire company so you can assess for yourself how he loads and travels before payout for your own lorry.
 
my andalusian came herringbone in huge artic from spain no probs. however, when i hired a rear facing brand new box to take relocate him he tried to climb over and reared ontop of the bar AND there was a weave grill up too!! he got both hoofs through/over the grill and i had to push his legs back over - and we hadnt even started engine yet!! - he did load great tho. next was a 3.5tn facing forwards, hated loading - afet 1hr journey we arrived to find he had somehow got out of his headcollar and had turned round completely even tho he was wedged in with particians and was diaganally facing driver, squashed. upon opening ramp he whinnied at me very pleased and proud at himself. i got a trailer, ifor 210 classic for xmas of hubby. i hate to tell him that i'm scared to try it!!!!!!!!
 
Our Welsh Section D mare would load fine on a rear facing or front facing lorry or trailer but the minute it started to move she went down, the first time she nearly broke her neck on the front bar. We then bought our lorry as it was herringbone - almost sideways and she was fine and never a problem - we worked out that she used to stand with her legs out at a really funny angle.

On a funnier note, when we had to buy the lorry I had to explain to my OH why - his response was 'she's got four legs she should be able to balance so you don't need a new lorry' - well I just asked him the next time he was on a train or bus to stand in the aisle facing either forward or backward and see how he managed everytime it moved forward - well he nearly fell flat on his face and I was allowed to buy the lorry :)
 
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