How would you handle this....

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splatty

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My new loan horse is lovely but can be quirky, have known her since she was born as bred by my friend, she went out on loan to a diff person for 2yrs and then came to me. Now this mare has always loaded and travelled fine but over the last 6 months has decided she doesnt like being in a trailer/lorry, she loads fine but once ramp is up and she is shut in she starts throwing herself around, trying to get on her knees (havent seen this first hand yet but was told by her previous loan home) am tempted once she has settled in to put her in my trailer and see first hand how bad this is. Would you load her and go for a short drive around the yard if the reaction is not too bad, am just worried that she may of realised that if she kicks and throws herself about enough she will get her own way and be taken out of the trailer But what if the reaction is a real fear/panic mode how do you go about making her feel comfortable with being shut in trailer if there is no problem with the actual loading. She has been tried with and without company.
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as a horse transporter, i have come across all types of laoding/travelling problems..

this will be easier to try in a trailer...load her from the front..up the side ramp without the rear doors or ramp open..let her settle herself, ie her bum, into what will be the nose cone of the trailer, obviously without the breastbar!!! making sure the partitionis tied to one side if its a swingle and take her for a little trip.....i bet she's travels like a dream.....
 
just to add, horses, due to their areas of balance, are far more capable of travelling backwards than either sideways..herringbone..or forwards..
 
I would definitely take her for a spin around the yard or block or whatever is easy for you. Take out the partition in the trailer so that if she does do anything silly that is one less thing to worry about. Just see how it goes - it may have been a problem with previous home's lorry/trailer/way of driving/how she was tied up etc - you will have to try to find out what's really going on.
 
If you do try her without a partition, please do cross tie her, my lad travels very well like this now, but the first time we tried he turned himself around so he was jammed nose and bum ACROSS the trailer. Once we cros ties him he got the hang of it no problem!
 
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this will be easier to try in a trailer...load her from the front..up the side ramp without the rear doors or ramp open..let her settle herself, ie her bum, into what will be the nose cone of the trailer, obviously without the breastbar!!!

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Please DON'T! I believe it is illegal to transport a horse in a trailer without a breast bar. If it's not - it should be! If the horse panics (highly likely) she could easily kick through the front of the trailer - and if she breaks her tie - she could exit the trailer and land on the towing vehicle.
 
I would try her without the partition, cross-tied. Also try a mirror - we have one in the lorry and it is fab - good quality ones are available on ebay for approx £25.00. I would load her and let her have a small feed in the trailer and then unload her. Then gradually build up to very small trips, then longer ones. It sounds as if she has had a bad experience.
 
A lady at my old yard has a similar problem. She put her trailer in the field and left it open then starting leaving the feed inside. After about two months the horse loaded and travelled so well it was amazing! She was lucky she had a field to herself and it was over the summer months though, so might not help in this situation
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Ditto Janet's post, apart from being illegal if horse is travelling backwards, with no breastbar and has access to the rear of trailer with its front end, very easy for it to rear up at back of trailer...seen in with a friends horse...and that was cross tied!! Unless your ramp goes all the way up and you have top doors....

Would load her as normal maybe with small amount of calmer if necessary and do lots of fun trips with rewards the other end such as carrots, etc, make travelling FUN!
 
JM07 has got a point about horses finding it better to balence facing the other way and traveling better however if the trailer is designed to me forward facing its not good to but the in the other way around (there is a good reason about how the trailer is made etc but i can't remmeber
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i second ws with the fun trips
 
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