Ifor Williams Front Unload - Every time w unload its a suicide bid!!!!

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MizElz

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have just spent all student loan on a Hb505 Ifor trailer, and love it.....only problem is the front unload being on the right hand side.
my instructor told me this was because ifors are designed for the entire european market, hence why its different to most british makes. my prob is that my horse wont reverse out, but when we lead her out the front, she rushes, and either crushes me inside or shoves me off the ramp! last week she actually came off the side of the ramp herself.
we tried travelling her on the left (not advisable), and she unloaded a bit better but travelled worse. she is also not a horse who takes kindly to huge spaces while travelling; in our old lorry, we had to give her a really small compartment as, unusually, she prefers being confined.

ANY IDEAS!?!?!?!?!?
 
Sorry none from me. My TB was so bad, sames issues as yours, we stopped using front ramp, was pointless having it for him and we only used it when we took the ponies out.
 
I think it's down to lack of manners. Do some work at your yard on loading & unloading her over & over again & hopefully she'll steady up & learn to do as she's told. You could try a controlling headcollar on her as well to try & slow her down. Good Luck
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I have a 505, and when I take my friends horse as well as mine, as she's the biggest she goes on the right. She's a 16.3 W/B x TB. Anyway, when you unload (at the front) do you move the partition over? it has a little rubber strap for you to be able to clip it to the left of the trailer, this means that when she comes out, she has more space to swing her quarters round. Obviously, if you are traveling another horse, not always possible - but when we take my friends horse she goes on right and mine goes on left and cause he's so good, he lets me move the partition over slightly, ie take bar down and push parition over to him slightly, giving horse on right more room when getting off.

Does this makes sense? sorry I'm rambling!

MX
 
yep - we do this anyway (the one time i forgot was even more catastrophic!!!) at the moment, we are resorting to patting and polos; i tried to take a more forceful approach (i.e. to try and teach manners lol!), but she just panicked and banged her head! silly moo!!!!
 
Ah - Sorry not sure what else to suggest! I guess it could just be practice and more practice - Pole Guard always good if she's banging her head!!! Polos and patting, should work with time, will hopefully calm her down a little and let her know nothing to be scared of!

Good luck!
MX
 
ours are soooooooo much better at coming out backwards, but pretty much what you describe coming out the front. can you not try this?
 
we did try!!!! as with previous horses, have never needed to use front unload anyway...but coming out backwards was not good, she got her legs scrambled and really panicked. she got a thing about things coming at her from behind, she not too good on the road either! hence why we have to use the front...
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I am the only person at my yard who actually unloads out of the front, although all the trailers have this capability, everybody else simply unloads backwards - the horse will get used to this concept with practice, and it may be safer for you (or you can swap your nice IW for my geriatric Bahill which opens out to the left
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I always travel horse on left, as otherwise the exist isnt roomy enough, have never had any probs.

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good point, I did mean to add, contrary to all towing advice, mine seem to travel better on the left too
 
not good for the camber of the road, when u travel on left - we tried this last week, and she was thrown off balance a lot more, especially going uphill. all trailer manufacturers advise against this anyway!
 
My boy is exactly the same, and leaps off to the point that both car and trailer moved. Swore i would never go there again (especially after he used both my feet as the launch pad - I don't know how!). He is far better being backed off, but even this took some practice.

Think it may be a case of making her practise going backwards
 
One of my friends had this problem and although probably not the correct way we managed to stop him rushing. We put the ramp down and let him eat from a bucket. Then took the breast bar down and move partition, then put his head in bucket again. When he was calm, we took bucket away and asked him to take one step at a time and then put head in bucket again! He gradually came down ramp one step at a time and after each step was quickly allowed bucket to take his mind off rushing. After a few times of this he was happy to stop and think about it and we just used polos when he got to the top of the ramp and then again when he was half way down. The power of the food distracted him from panicking and charging down the ramp. He was always fine after this.
 
better solution - contact Richard Maxwell - best money you'll ever spend on loading problems

once he's had a go and trained your horse and also provided you with one of his pressure halters you will have no further problems and your horse will load/unload and turn handsprings when handled as and when you want

I sold one of mine and then bought him back as outgrown - Max had taught him to load as a 3 yr old and he was a git to load when I got him back - got out Max's halter - did a bit of the old ground work and now all I need is the halter and on he goes and comes off sane as well.

Know Max was hurt a while back but think he's back now
 
the best way to solve the problem is to go back to the ground work and back her up. I have always reversed mine out of the trailer and I have the 510. I had a mare years ago who would leap from the front and injure anyone trying to unload her. We started to reverse her and it worked. she came out calmly and quietly and we could stand behind her to teh side of the ramp, keep saying back and she simply reversed herself out and you then caught the rope.

But the reversing has to be done away from the trailer. use the word back and move her backwards. Calmly. If ever she reverses without you asking then force her to keep reversing as you need to own reverse not her.

Reverse her through poles, reverse her in to the stable. In fact reverse her all over the place before you do it into a trailer.

When you start to load her in the trailer let her take two steps onto the trailer then reverse her off. next time 3 steps on then off, keep repeating this calmly until she is comfortable going backwards off the ramp. Then take her inand reverse her back. if necessary - only half way in before you reverse.

She needs to know there is a way out. and you will take her out. You also need her to do everything really calmly as part the problem with the charging out the front is the bang she will take to her hip, so the following time she will charge out to avoid the bang and probably cause herself even more pain.
 
I haven't had a problem with my 510 and chunky, cob mare. I travel her on the right hand side, pull the front of the partition to the left and lead her out. Luckily so far she hasn't bashed herself or scared herself so comes out quietly. I don't want to back her out as I load her myself and don't want her to start backing up when I leave her head to go down and put the back bar and ramp up.

I would say just keep practising - the polos sound like a good idea to me!
 
I know quite a few people with Ifors whose horses leap off the top of the front ramp or rush/barge off it in panic. They have all taught their horses to back out. Think Bosworth's advice is excellent. Rushing out of the front will cause her or you or both to get help.
 
That is the exact reason I would not have an Ifor trailer. For safety reasons you should travel the bigger horse in the right hand stall but that does not give them enough room to manouver out of the front ramp without bashing their hips, this in turn then makes them shoot forward and off the side of the ramp. Sounds like you will have some work to go to regain your horses confidence.

Personally I would always go for a ramp on the left side and a wider ramp. The Batesons, Richardsons and Rice trailers all have wider front ramps and I dont know of anyone who has problems.
 
had an arab that did something similar. Teaching simple manners solved the problem. he was made to stand untill i said he could come forward. done initialy with a pressure halter away from the trailer, he now will stand fine with just a normal head collar in the trailer. he also used to barge in the stable and that was part of the problem. he didnt respect your personal space so when he was made to respect it the problems stopped.
 
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