Chavhorse
Well-Known Member
So as you all know on Monday we had Beaute vetted and took the trailer down with us to take her back if all was well.
She passed with Flying Colors and we proceeded to have the "and how does she travel" conversation. Beaute has not really travelled very much and not at all for at least 4 years so we took the precaution of taking a tube of Sedolin from the vet just in case.
She stepped up into the trailer like a charm and we closed up the back, 2 mins later the sky went black and we were in the middle of a huge thunder storm...deep joy but looking at the camera Madam was calmly eating her haynet.
All was going well and 1.5 hours into the journey we stopped to re-gas the car and have a comfort stop. We opened up the side of the trailer and she was fine she then spent 10 minutes drawing lots of "ahhhhs" from everyone on the packed motorway service station forecourt by nuzzling my head and batting her eyelashes at everyone:innocent:
We set off again with only 2 hours to go and and estimate that we would be home by 9pm with enough light to unload her, let her have and hour in the pasture before putting her into her stable for the night.
2o minutes later we noticed thick black smoke coming out of the back of the truck, with a lot of language not at all suitable for a family forum we pulled into a rest stop right at the side of the Motorway and saw that the engine was expelling oil at a great rate.
At this point we called the breakdown services telling then we had a horse on board!
They turned up and sucked their teeth and said they would send a transporter to get us off the motorway, take us an hour further on, then off load us at the depot and give us a loan truck to get us the rest of the way home
Beaute during all of this was calmly standing in he trailer, looking at the cars whizzing by with a kind of "Huh" expression and generally being a total star. The only time she started to paw and move about was when we closed her side door up and went and sat in the car as it was raining cats and dogs.
An hour later a huge transporter turned up and we had the joy of unhitching the trailer from our truck and re-hitching onto the transporter as in an ideal world we did not want to have to unload a strange horse at the side of the motorway and re-load her again, luckily she stayed totally calm throughout this manouvre and 30 minutes later we were off again. I was mildly concerned as I could no longer see the trailer at the back of the transporter but assumed that had it come adrift then we would have noticed hooting and flashing from the other vehicles
45 mins later we arrived at the depot, unhitched again and re-hitched to a new hire vehicle.
We arrived home at 11:45 having left at 17:00
Beaute stepped calmly off the trailer, went into the round pen, had a pee, pooed and rolled for all she was worth.
If i had not been a little in love when we left I certainly would have been by the time we arrived after 6 3/4 hours on the road.
And we didn't have to use the sedolin
Once the truck is back from the repair shop we will load her up again and just take her for a short 15 minute ride so her last experience of traveling is not this one.
Also very interesting deciding what to tell the owner as we had promised to tell her when we got to the yard that we had arrived safe and sound, she was a much calmer woman then I would have been when we called her at 10pm to say "now we don't want you to worry but we are just re-hitching to vehicle number three and will be home in 1.5 hours"!!!
Pics taken of my very chilled girl after we had been stopped at the side of the motorway for 1.5 hours!
She passed with Flying Colors and we proceeded to have the "and how does she travel" conversation. Beaute has not really travelled very much and not at all for at least 4 years so we took the precaution of taking a tube of Sedolin from the vet just in case.
She stepped up into the trailer like a charm and we closed up the back, 2 mins later the sky went black and we were in the middle of a huge thunder storm...deep joy but looking at the camera Madam was calmly eating her haynet.
All was going well and 1.5 hours into the journey we stopped to re-gas the car and have a comfort stop. We opened up the side of the trailer and she was fine she then spent 10 minutes drawing lots of "ahhhhs" from everyone on the packed motorway service station forecourt by nuzzling my head and batting her eyelashes at everyone:innocent:
We set off again with only 2 hours to go and and estimate that we would be home by 9pm with enough light to unload her, let her have and hour in the pasture before putting her into her stable for the night.
2o minutes later we noticed thick black smoke coming out of the back of the truck, with a lot of language not at all suitable for a family forum we pulled into a rest stop right at the side of the Motorway and saw that the engine was expelling oil at a great rate.
At this point we called the breakdown services telling then we had a horse on board!
They turned up and sucked their teeth and said they would send a transporter to get us off the motorway, take us an hour further on, then off load us at the depot and give us a loan truck to get us the rest of the way home
Beaute during all of this was calmly standing in he trailer, looking at the cars whizzing by with a kind of "Huh" expression and generally being a total star. The only time she started to paw and move about was when we closed her side door up and went and sat in the car as it was raining cats and dogs.
An hour later a huge transporter turned up and we had the joy of unhitching the trailer from our truck and re-hitching onto the transporter as in an ideal world we did not want to have to unload a strange horse at the side of the motorway and re-load her again, luckily she stayed totally calm throughout this manouvre and 30 minutes later we were off again. I was mildly concerned as I could no longer see the trailer at the back of the transporter but assumed that had it come adrift then we would have noticed hooting and flashing from the other vehicles
45 mins later we arrived at the depot, unhitched again and re-hitched to a new hire vehicle.
We arrived home at 11:45 having left at 17:00
Beaute stepped calmly off the trailer, went into the round pen, had a pee, pooed and rolled for all she was worth.
If i had not been a little in love when we left I certainly would have been by the time we arrived after 6 3/4 hours on the road.
And we didn't have to use the sedolin
Once the truck is back from the repair shop we will load her up again and just take her for a short 15 minute ride so her last experience of traveling is not this one.
Also very interesting deciding what to tell the owner as we had promised to tell her when we got to the yard that we had arrived safe and sound, she was a much calmer woman then I would have been when we called her at 10pm to say "now we don't want you to worry but we are just re-hitching to vehicle number three and will be home in 1.5 hours"!!!
Pics taken of my very chilled girl after we had been stopped at the side of the motorway for 1.5 hours!
)))))
