Rear unload trailers

[surreygirl17]

I'm lookig at a new trailer and I've seen one that is rear unload so the horses have to come off backwards. Does anyone have any experience of this? My horse has hardly ever travelled in a trailer so I can't comment on how he would be but he does tend to rush off a little bit on the few occasions we have transported him.

 

[tda]

I have an ifor 505, and have used the front ramp a handful of times. I always unload by reversing them out the back - don't know why - I just do, so no it wouldn't bother me in the slightest

 

[Capriole]

Mine is rear unload. It's fine, my horses can go backwards and everything . seriously though. Never been a problem.

 

[surreygirl17]

Thanks, I know my boy CAN go backwards but just never tried unloading backwards before. Good to know it's not a wierd thing!!

 

[Red-1]

I had a rear unload when I was 17yrs, it was the only one light enough to tow behind a 1600 cc Vauxhall Cavalier! The horses were absolutely fine with it. I trained them by having them go a bit up the ramp, stop, and reverse, a bit more up the ramp, stop and go off. They soon learned to go backwards slowly and safely.

In fact when I work with "phobic" horses I still follow this plan, teach them part on, then reverse a bit, back on back/forwards/back forwards and with the front loaders I dislike taking them off the front as they often catch themselves and leap, so we take them off the back anyway.

The only "top tip" I will give is that if they reverse crooked, then always turn them the opposite way than they anticipate.... It will stop them getting worse, as with trailers there is a slight chance of them being entangled with the exterior springs if they get very crooked. The more that you turn them away from their anticipated way, the more they will be straight.

 

[PorkChop]

In the good old days, all the trailers were rear load/unload!

It's just a matter of taking time to train what you want, get a helper to start with to make sure they don't come off the side of the ramp as they reverse out, and repeat!

 

[surreygirl17]

I had a rear unload when I was 17yrs, it was the only one light enough to tow behind a 1600 cc Vauxhall Cavalier! The horses were absolutely fine with it. I trained them by having them go a bit up the ramp, stop, and reverse, a bit more up the ramp, stop and go off. They soon learned to go backwards slowly and safely.

In fact when I work with "phobic" horses I still follow this plan, teach them part on, then reverse a bit, back on back/forwards/back forwards and with the front loaders I dislike taking them off the front as they often catch themselves and leap, so we take them off the back anyway.

The only "top tip" I will give is that if they reverse crooked, then always turn them the opposite way than they anticipate.... It will stop them getting worse, as with trailers there is a slight chance of them being entangled with the exterior springs if they get very crooked. The more that you turn them away from their anticipated way, the more they will be straight.

Sorry I don't quite understand that. So if they tend to reverse with their bum to the off side, I should turn their heads which way to unload?

 

[gingernut81]

I think all horses need to be taught to unload via the rear ramp. If, for example, you need to unload in a single track road for whatever reason then you can't get the front ramp down.

 

[Red-1]

Sorry I don't quite understand that. So if they tend to reverse with their bum to the off side, I should turn their heads which way to unload?

If they turn their bums to the offside then they expect to walk forward towards the near side. Soooooo....... I would turn them the other way, so they will turn on the spot to the offside. If you walked them forward to the nearside then they would have dictated this.

 

[surreygirl17]

I get it!