Our horse falls/ can't stand up in the trailer or horsebox

This is a really common problem and especially it seems in Ifor Williams trailers. I wouldn't waste your money getting an IH person out - not because they are a waste but because your horse is wall walking and there's nothing IH can do to stop that.

there are effectively a range of options.
1. sell trailer, buy lorry
2. try travelling on the other side of trailer
3. buy breast bar & remove partition
4. buy rear facing trailer.

I know of 5 horses, all travelled fine, then one day decided they couldn't stand up in the trailer going round corners, these are the options which sorted the problem for 4 of them, the only one which isn't sorted & is still 'housebound' is being worked on by an IH person!
 
I know of so many horses/people that this exact thing happened to. Don't know of any who fixed it, apart from one, and he borrowed a big flat field, put horse in, and absolutely crawled round it in circles both ways until the horse re-learned to balance itself. Is a horrible problem and have seen some nasty injuries because of it, so I hope you get it sorted xx
 
we also had a horse that did this and our solution was straw!

we were told that the horse panics because they can see their feet and and dont know how to keep them in the right place- so if you put loads of staw in thhe trailer they dont worrry about their feet and therefore stay upright!

i dont know if this is the actual reason but we were getting desperate. we put the straw in so it was literally knee high, moved the partition to the left so she had more room and hey presto!

we drove everywhere at 2 miles an hour for a while (sorry if you got stuck behind us!) but it worked and we gradually reduced the amount of straw , but always had some in...

hope this helpsbecause i know how distressing it is when they are panicking and you cant seem to do anything to help.
let us know how you get on....
 
Our mare had always been a perfect traveller in the trailer (always had an ifor williams and she has only ever known our trailer) till she came back off loan and she does exactly as you are all describing, panics on corners and scrabbles to find her footing.
I got full width breast bars for the trailer (you really need 2 for safety) and she is now fine and travels without moving like she used to.
Does anyone have any idea why this happens? What causes a previously good traveller to start panicking? We are blaming her loaners for scaring her but it seems from reading on here that lots of horses do the same, travel ok then suddenly get scared!
 
Travelling on the other side of the trailer (ie the pavement side of the road) is only safe if you have another horse on the other side of the trailer.

OP - have you changed either your towcar or driver? It seems strange that this has just started happening. It sounds as if you have a very trusting mare if she is still loading ok! It seems mares do like to be able to spread themselves more, and it is definitely worth trying without the partition if you can do so. We had a full width breast bar made for our old Bahill trailer and it worked fine. Horse now travels in an IW 510 with the partition fine, so it can also depend on the trailer.
 
My two mares travelled everywhere together in my IW trailer - never a problem until about 6 months ago when I was taking them back from a friends yard where I had been scooling for a few days. The mare in my sigi started panicing for no appartent reason setting of the other one! When I got the box pulled over and opened the jockey door and looked in they were both leaning in against the divider and "running" up the side of the box! It was horrific! Finally got the pair of them settled but the bay mare started up again! Eventually got them unloaded sweat dripping of them them and cuts and scrapes everywhere! Over the next few days I reloaded them and travelled them, seperatly first and there were no problems, when the two were on although I was only driving a few 100 yrds and reversing accross the yard the bay mare would set of in 1 out of 10 trips. Neither of them have a problem loading and practically load themselves! I have been traving the bay mare on her own recently with the divider out and you wouldnt know she was on behind! Would love to know what triggered it of in the first place as its a pain having to organise "lifts" for the other mare if im competing!
 
QR

Try taking out the partition and giving her as much room as possible to spread her legs. We did this with my old horse who had exactly the same problem- it solved it completely (just meant he had to travel alone if in a trailer!)

If that doesnt work, try the opposite- box her in more tightly so she feels more secure. This actually helps my mare - she seems to prefer being tightly confined!
 
QR

I havnt read all of the replies, but my horse suddenly started doing something similar. He would literally throw himself to the floor as soon as he got in the trailer. I tried loads of things, but found that as soon as I took his back boots off, he stopped doing it. I now travel him wearing front travel boots, a tail bandage and rug, and nothing else. Also gave him more headroom (longer leadrope) as this seemed to help him balance better.
 
I had exactly the same thing a few months ago with our new pony. We loaded her in our lorry and as soon as we moved off, she collapsed on her back legs, threw her whole weight to the side and thrashed around like she was having a fit, it was really scary especially as we were at a competition and had a one hour journey home. I phoned the old owner and she said that she had never had any problems before and they had travelled miles with her but they were told that she didn't travel in a trailer. We moved the partition and gave her a huge space, she has travelled without batting an eyelid since and you don't know she is on the lorry. She likes travelling with her legs spread really wide and I hadn't given her enough room. I agree with many people above, take the partition out or give her 1.5 of 'normal' space in the lorry.
Good luck.
 
Thanks for all the advice, taking all the points in to consideration and going to try and travel her some time this week just in our field to begin with without the paritition.

Also next tuesday have an intelligent horsemanship person coming to see her as someone on here reccommended it. Although I am not a great believer in this we are willing to try everything!

I will let you know how we get on though! Thanks!
 
As others have said, removing the partition fixes it. I had a horse who started doing this after years of being fine, very odd. If you have an Ifor or Bateson trailer (not sure about others), any trailer which has the partition in 2 sections - you can try taking out just the back section so the horse can spread his hind legs out (which seems to be the problem) and that still gives you the security of the front section along with the breast bar etc. (without a partition obviously you'll have to get a full length breast bar). My horse was absolutely fine travelling like this. I could even travel him with another horse like this (as long as they dont kick each other obviously, which mine didnt).
 
The last horse i had, Charlie, a 17.2hh TB wouldn't travel unless he had the whole trailer to himself - he would stand with his legs spread out and was perfectly happy - didnt hear a peep from him no matter where you went!
 
gemmalovick said:
she doesn't really try to lay down she kind of goes down with her back end and leans on her side to thrash about with her legs of that makes sense?

Would be easier if she did decide to lay down!
Click to expand...

My ex racer has been the same, and it led to severe loading difficulties as well because she clearly didn't like the feeling,a nd I can't say I blame her.

People on this board suggested taking out the partition and getting a single breast/breach bar-due to injury and then bad weather we only got to try this out last weekend and boy were we nervous with worry about what might happen

We cross tied her and gave her a big haynet and then my daughter followed in the car behind in case she got loose or other problems occured. On the way there she stuck to the right side of the trailer as if there still was a partition there but did not scramble though she was still sweaty when she disembarked.

On the way back we noticed she arranged herself herringbone style and when she got home was much less sweaty. I hardly knew she was there, it was a real difference.

She's still a finnicky loader, though never scared, just a bit stubborn. It can take a while to get her on and it's best not to turn it into a battle but we're hoping this might help her feel better about travelling in the long term.
 
Hey guys, I'm a complete novice here (looking to buy a horse) so forgive me if this question sounds stupid, but why is it bad if the horse lies down in the box? Surely it's just as safe, almost like a dog lying down in the boot of a car?
 
Because the trailer or horsebox is divided into narrow sections and there is not room for a horse to safely get up and down.
 
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