Is it legal to travel a horse loose in a trailer ? long story sorry !

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mariond

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We have a mare (Abbe) that as a foal reared up lost her balance & fell hitting her neck and head on the barn wall resulting in a fracture to her neck near the poll. She has been used as a companion for my sisters horse and a friends broodmare and has travelled numerous times We lead her but have never tied her for fear of her pulling back and panicking herself. We travel her loose without the partition and she always turns to face the back of the trailer (which has a full length breastbar for her to rest her bum on). We collected her from friends today where she has been a companion for their brood mare (Abbe is also in foal) and made our way home slowly along the rather twisty A road. About halfway home we we overtaken by a car that had followed us for a while with the passenger pointing for us to pull in. They then stopped quite sharply in front of us ( on a rather busy straight stretch of road !)and the driver got out and came and told us that he was a vet and that he felt our mare was distressed and that for animal welfare reasons we should drive to the next layby & take her out and walk her around for a while ! All this time the mare was just stood with her head out the back of the trailer calmly watching us. We drove to the nearest layby pulled in and checked the mare who was dry, calm and not at all sweated up. We felt that pulling her out and leading her around a layby on the side of a busy road was a dangerous and silly thing to do even if she had been at all distressed. I realise that it does look strange to anyone following us but the mare has travelled a lot in this manner without ever sweating up or panicking. Upon reaching home we dropped the trailer ramp and she calmly walked off it and into the field. My husband is now concerned that this method of travelling her is not legal.
 
I agree that it would of been silly for you to take her out on a busy road as the vet suggested but to be on the safe side I would check with your insurance company about the situation (both trailer, horse and car insurance)...just in case anything did happen and you were not covered.
 
Did you take this 'vets' name because I'm not sure they were a vet.
I believe you were doing the safest method with your horse .You might be better with top doors closed on your trailer rear.You could always say if anything happened that she had pulled back and broke the string [put a piece of broken string or rope in the front of the trailer.]
Check with a trailer agent or dept of transport if you need to
 
I would have asked this "vet" for his name! I have a friend in Scotland who sometimes trailers her two ponies about looking out over the back ramp, but that is rather short distances on quiet country roads, almost tracks.
I think the advice given above to check this out is a good one, but I wouldn't let anyone tell me to unload my horse on a busy road unless they were the police, so good for you on that one.
 
Yes we wondered if he was really a vet because we thought a vet would have known by her calm behaviour that she was certainly not distressed. I wished that I had been quicker thinking and had asked him to meet us in the next layby so that I could have proved that she hadn't sweated up at all.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing isn't it !
 
Well, I bet you were pretty shocked to be pulled over like that. It's easy to be wise after the event LOL! I think he was lucky you didn't take his number and report him for dangerous driving...
 
The lack of an attempt to charge you a consultation fee makes me think he was just some random pillock.
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Yes we were a bit shocked and also upset to have someone accuse us of making the mare distressed (this is the first time that we have got her in foal since she lost full term twin foals 4 years ago). My husband is a farmer and is used to towing stock and he said how still she had been not shifting or swinging around. We met our neighbour who is also our local MP when we were just about home and told him and he said that the guy should not have pulled us over on the side of the road under any circumstances.
 
The only thing with travelling backwards as your mare chooses to do is the stability of the trailer. They make rear travelling trailers now but with the axil moved to make it more stable, you may want to just check that to make sure it is ok!?
 
It's easy to think of things you should have done and said with hindsight, but I would have wanted to know the "vet's" name and I certainly wouldn't be justifying myself to some unknown person.

Apart from that, isn't it difficult to know whether to pull over or not in this situation? It might be that the person waving at you is genuinely trying to say your side door is open or something, but it might (and I don't want to be too scary here) be a trick to get you to stop.
 
We live in the new forest and most of the verderers and local forest people always travel their horses loose in trailers and a friend of mine does it with one of her mares as if you tie her up she panics but am sure they close the back doors, am sure if it was illegal she wldnt do it as her father is a police officer.
 
Yes, it is perfectly legal and many if given this chance will travel backwards.
 
I can't see why it might not be legal, although a trailer built for forward facing travel isn't balanced for a horse travelling backwards according to the manufacturers.

But I suppose it does depend upon the size of the horse and I remember travelling behind a trailer going really quite fast along a twisty B road, with the horse quite happily gazing out of the back.
I think the general consensus is that it is less tiring for them to be backwards, and a loose foal will usually be found travelling backwards as well.

I personally wouldn't want a horse to be travelling with its head hanging out the back - what if it tried to jump out?

You were absolutely right not to take the horse out of the trailer next to a busy road. That is one thing that you are advised NEVER to do, and the tragic cases to prove it.
 
I've travelled several youngsters loose in my trailer, but I always shut all the top doors in case they try and jump out.

Wonder whether this bloke was upto something dodgy??
 
[ QUOTE ]
I've travelled several youngsters loose in my trailer, but I always shut all the top doors in case they try and jump out.

Wonder whether this bloke was upto something dodgy??

[/ QUOTE ]

Maybe the horse was giving him a dirty look.
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perhaps if she likes to look out, rather then shut the top doors on her or have her head hanging out (which is quite dangerous) get some grills for the top, so she can see out but not hang out of the back.
 
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