My horse falls over in the trailer, HELP!!

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lacey111

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I have an ifor williams double horse trailer with a metal floor with rubber matting over the top and shaving on the matting so it dosent become slippy if wet. My horse is a 16hh TB gelding, 12 yrs old. He has always been travelled in this trailer behind the driver and had never ever fallen over in the trailer until last sunday.

He only falls over when we go round a left hand bend, not right!! and I sat and watched him through the window in the trailer and it looks like he is throwing himself from one side to the other depending what bend we are going round.

Any ideas?

I dont really want to remove the partition, because at the moment he has something to hold himself up against, wheras if i removed the partiton he would be more likely to fall over completly.

I have tried going really slow around left hand bends, and tried going round faster! nothing helps!

i dont know what else to do, and it has literally only started last sunday and he did it again this sunday.

Any advice, things to try etc etc appreciated.

Many Thanks
 
I would get him looked at if it has only just started happening, something like an ear infection can really affect balance ??
 
Hi,
My previous horse had the same problem and removing the partition did work! In fact we could't even hear him moving and would often arrive at events to find him standing diagonally accross with his back legs spread to hold his balance.
I would urge you to give it a try on a short journey - I had got to the stage where I was frightened to travel him, but problem solved. We fitted a front breast bar, which are quite cheap and bought directly from Ivor Williams and tied him up in the middle, with a lead rope attached to both side rings.
We could never travel him with another horse so he had the luxury of a double trailer with all the space to himself. Funnily enough he would not fall over in a lorry though!
 
Hi

I had exactly the same thing with my older mare, she went from being ok one day to gradualy getting more and more unbalanced, we did all of the usual techniques ie removing the partition, even feeding her in there of an evening so the trailer became part of her normal daily routine , unfortunatley in this case it just got worse and we stopped travelling her altogether, it was suggested by our vet that she may have had some melanoma's in her ears which was causing an inbalance ( she was grey) on a brighter note for our new horse who isnt a brilliant traveller either we now have a rear facing horsebox ( an equitrek ) this has been like a miracle cure, they are expensive, but you can hire them from some horsebox hire companies at least you could try rear facing as it is meant to be so much better for them. good luck
 
my mare is awful travelling aswell, so we tried taking the partition out and it worked wonders. she travels fine now. it was getting to the point wer she was injuring her self throwing her self all over the box, my dad couldnt even go around a roundabout at 5mph and she would freak out and fall over. definatly try no partition.
 
HHHmmmm the problem i have is that i have 2 horses, and at some point we will have to travel them together so he has got to be able to travel with the partition in otherwise im scuppered.

And i cant afford a lorry, or a different trailer!
maybe i will get his ears checked etc just to check that his balance is ok, do i just get the vet to do this?
 

My horse was used to going in a lorry when i got him so he has a double trailer to himself and likes the space and is much better now and does seem to spread out his back legs. But i have heard of people taking out half the partition if u have the split one, so that they can lean there shoulders on the front half and spread out the back legs too. but he may have a sinus/ear infection due to all the funny weather we have been having recently with flies and midges etc. hope this helps.
 
REMOVE the partition!!!!!!
Ive had experience of horses doing it and its because they get chlostrphobic and cant spread their back legs! Removing the partition has always worked!
And they are still fine when you are travelling two horses I think because they are not rigid. but make sure you use travel boots if you dont already!!

It really really is worth a try!
 
seems very strange especially as it has only just started happening.
No advice sorry my mare dosn't do trailers - she passes out in them! poor love!
 
My mare did it, we took the partition out and she was fine after that.
She would nearly crawl the walls every we took her out with the partition in like she was panicking, I have never seen anything so scary!
Partition out and she is a diffeent horse.
If she has only just started doing this and has been fine in the past I would wonder if she had a pelvis or a back problem, may be worth getting a Chiro to look him over.
 
My horse is exactly the same. Used to be a dream to travel and then suddenly started going down on left bends. I have trailervision which means that I can see him now when we're driving and taking the partition out solved it. Mine is a 17.2 IDx in an Ifor HB510. try it - works a treat.
 
is he wearing back travel boots? If so have they slipped or anything as I have known horses to fall over because they can't stand up properly or are uncomfortable due to back boots. Just a thought??
 
Something has just occured to me, he has got a very snotty nose, he does get this quite often in one nostril as he has had a gutteral pouch operation on one side of his face, but he has been very snotty on both nostrils, maybe that is causing him to become unbalanced?
 
he has travel boots on all four feet, always has, they have slipped down in the past but didnt bother them, so they are always purt on extra carefully and tight so they dont slip down and i have been doimng this for ages so the tighter fit shouldnt have made a diffrence.

I really cant take the partition out otherwise i cannot travel both at once which i need to do.
 
If his nose is snotty it may b that. Not a vet but I'm a daughter of a doctor and when I get a sinus infection my balance does go and riding is difficult, so he may be suffering from this. might b worth a dose of antibiotics to just make sure before you take the partition out esp if you often have to travel two horses.
 
Try travelling him on the left hand side, he leans into the partition currently and 'walks' up the right hand wall, with nothing to wedge his feet against on his right he may relearn to balance.

Generally just removing the partition sorts the problem, but as you say it doesn't help when you want travel 2.

My friends horse is fine on the left but freaks on the right, it allows her to travel more than one. My mare started this also (as have hundreds of others) for no reason after travelling brilliantly in a trailer all her life. I just bought a cheap lorry...
 
Sorry but I have to agree with taking out the partition. I had the exact same problem with two of my horses and apart from travelling in a lorry, which I couldn't afford at the time, the only way was to remove the partition and cross tie. Both then had no more problems.
 
My horse Benson does the same...I always figured its the poo, as he is like a poo machine when he's travelling then slips over in it! But like you its only left hand bends! He travels perfectly sound in a lorry (and yes that is forward facing lorries...not herringbone!)
 
I have one horse that spread his legs and his brother that just falls into the partition!

The solution was to get a camera on them, and now I have to take corners and roundabouts much slower and volia no problem.

I think until you get a camera, you cannot appreciate what it is like for them and how very slowly you have to drive.
 
I totally agree with others about the partition, it worked for me with a loan horse years ago.
More recently we had a mare that could only travel on the RHS or she fell over.
Good luck, it def sounds like his snotty nose may be affecting his balance too.
 
I will get his snotty nose checked out straight away i think, i was considering trying him without half the partition as i can tie it back at the rear, but if it worked i dont want him to rely on that because i will be in a mess when i put my other horse in.

Hmmm hopefully its just his snotty nose.....
 
Echo the others about taking the parition out. It's work with every single horse we've tried it with.

If they become upset or stressed, they travel much worses and scrabble about all over the place. With some preactise without the partition in, so he has some good and easy journeys, he may start to feel more confident about travelling again and stand better.
 
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