Splish & Masons mum
Well-Known Member
Hi everyone,
just thought I'd share the interesting day we had yesterday, took Mason for his first XC schooling session, where he behaved (almost) impeccably! Vids to follow in another post!
Then cue nightmare on the way home when the temperature gauge started to rise when going up a hill on the motorway, then as I started to pull over onto the hard shoulder, smoke started coming out from under the bonnet, and into the car!
We stopped, and got out of the car, I started to unhitch the trailer while my friend rang for the fire brigade.
The fire brigade arrived and opened the bonnet, there was some liquid under the car, but the smoke had pretty much dissipated by now. The fire brigade said they thought the engine had blown, and it was the oil spilled on the hot engine that had caused all the smoke - big relief! (ish)
However we now had the problem of getting the horses and the trailer home, so my friend rang her dad and he came to get us with another 4x4.
By this point the highways agency had arrived, in case the horses needed to come off the trailer and the motorway needed to be shut, and supervised the switching of the cars on the hard shoulder - all went remarkably smoothly, but I was so aware that it might not have done.
One thing I never thought of was that sometimes when the trailer is unhitched with the weight of the horses in, it can tip backwards, the HA man mentioned this to us, and although we always carry a trailer jack to assist in the event of a flat tyre, there was no obvious way of supporting the back of the trailer to stop it tipping - until we spotted out water container, which fitted perfectly. Just something to be aware of in case this ever happens to anyone else!
I'd like to thank the emergency services for being so reassuring and efficient, and also the Highways agency for being so calm, at what for us was an incredibly stressful time.
Horses arrived home, no worse for wear, I however needed a double brandy!
just thought I'd share the interesting day we had yesterday, took Mason for his first XC schooling session, where he behaved (almost) impeccably! Vids to follow in another post!
Then cue nightmare on the way home when the temperature gauge started to rise when going up a hill on the motorway, then as I started to pull over onto the hard shoulder, smoke started coming out from under the bonnet, and into the car!
We stopped, and got out of the car, I started to unhitch the trailer while my friend rang for the fire brigade.
The fire brigade arrived and opened the bonnet, there was some liquid under the car, but the smoke had pretty much dissipated by now. The fire brigade said they thought the engine had blown, and it was the oil spilled on the hot engine that had caused all the smoke - big relief! (ish)
However we now had the problem of getting the horses and the trailer home, so my friend rang her dad and he came to get us with another 4x4.
By this point the highways agency had arrived, in case the horses needed to come off the trailer and the motorway needed to be shut, and supervised the switching of the cars on the hard shoulder - all went remarkably smoothly, but I was so aware that it might not have done.
One thing I never thought of was that sometimes when the trailer is unhitched with the weight of the horses in, it can tip backwards, the HA man mentioned this to us, and although we always carry a trailer jack to assist in the event of a flat tyre, there was no obvious way of supporting the back of the trailer to stop it tipping - until we spotted out water container, which fitted perfectly. Just something to be aware of in case this ever happens to anyone else!
I'd like to thank the emergency services for being so reassuring and efficient, and also the Highways agency for being so calm, at what for us was an incredibly stressful time.
Horses arrived home, no worse for wear, I however needed a double brandy!
