Long horse and lorries

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Annagain

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Those of you who have long horses, do they fit well on lorries where they stand herringbone?

Friend now has 2 ponies for her kids and my share horse. Her OH is keen to get a lorry. She's less keen, partly as the kids aren't yet good enough for her not to supervise them on foot at shows so she only needs to take 2 at the moment and partly as she doesn't want to drive something that big. We're also worried about M fitting on as he's struggled on herringbone lorries in the past. He's 17hh, takes a 7' or 7'3" rug and has a very long neck too. He currently travels on a 510 and, while he's fine on it, he only just fits lengthwise.

We tried him on a friend's 7.5T at the weekend (with tack lockers) and he could barely turn round on it, let alone stand comfortably. I think he could do it if he was to stand at quite a steep angle, but then I'm not sure we'd fit the 2 x 13hh ponies on it as the angle he'd need would mean he'd probably take up two stalls' worth of space. If she does get one, she'd like one that's as short as possible so doesn't want one stalled for 4 (even if she can find one) as the one benefit of a lorry in her mind is a nice bit of living so she doesn't want to sacrifice that either.

We can't be the only ones with this issue - how do others manage? Would finding one without tack lockers help? Are there some that are wider than others - not that she could have a very wide one as the lane to the yard is pretty narrow!
 
We have a 6 ton lorry, and a very long mare (7ft rugs).

She travels in the middle space, at quite a steep backwards angle, and we've had any size up to 15.2 in the back compartment.

To be fair, we use the front compartment for tack and a portapotty, but hubby has commented a few times that there is definitely space for a pony there, and if it weren't for the fact that we'd most likely be putting ourselves overweight (as only 6 ton) we'd try it...

I hope this helps..

Fiona
 
It's easier without tack lockers. You do also need to angle quite sharp.
Friend has a 14T wagon stalled for 4, but when the 18hh'er is in it he effectively takes 2 spaces.
My last wagon was 7.5T and 8ft wide. It was stalled for 3 ponies/2 horses and whilst would have taken 1 dinosaur I wouldn't have put a littleun up as well.

Headroom also important.
 
My boys are both 16:3 in 6'9 and 7' rugs. One has quite a long neck.

I would never travel them in a lorry with tack lockers. Ours is 8ft high and wide enough that they only stand a little bit herringbone.

Take a tape measure with you and just measure how wide the boxes are. A few we went to see there is no way mine would be comfortable traveling in and one of my friends mine are a bit of a tight squeeze in.
 
Thanks. I was watching Burghley, which got me thinking as quite a few of those horses were giants - it got me thinking that they must travel much further than M does and probably in quite some comfort so there must be lorries out there....although they're probably much bigger than 7.5T!
 
I would agree, no tack lockers.

When we were searching for our lorry we came across quite a few that travelled forwards, some of the larger lorries had forward and side/herringbone as well. Can't remember much more about them as they didn't suit our needs, but liked that fact that those had two ramps (rear and side).

It took us quite a while to find our lorry (love it though and was worth the wait) as I wanted quite a lot from our choice and had a long spec list.

Also consider payload, ours is 7.5t and partitioned for three, but any three of ours in the rear would take us way over (as an aside point, when looking to buy do check under the lorry thoroughly, quite a few we looked at looked great from the pavement but underneath was a very different story).
 
DappleDown said:
I would agree, no tack lockers.

When we were searching for our lorry we came across quite a few that travelled forwards, some of the larger lorries had forward and side/herringbone as well. Can't remember much more about them as they didn't suit our needs, but liked that fact that those had two ramps (rear and side).

It took us quite a while to find our lorry (love it though and was worth the wait) as I wanted quite a lot from our choice and had a long spec list.

Also consider payload, ours is 7.5t and partitioned for three, but any three of ours in the rear would take us way over (as an aside point, when looking to buy do check under the lorry thoroughly, quite a few we looked at looked great from the pavement but underneath was a very different story).
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The problem with the forward facing ones is they still only take two. Payload is obviously a consideration but the two ponies will even out M's weight. M was weighed last week at 685kg, I can't imagine the ponies are more than 300kg each, they're 13hh each and quite slight. By the time the kids are on bigger ponies, M will be retired (he's 21 now) and I imagine my friend will just share the kids' ponies then. She rides the slightly more stocky of the two ponies now and quite enjoys it!
 
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