Trailer trouble. Please help!

hgamble92

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I have had my mare (10 year old Cleveland bay x thoroughbred) for nearly 6 years now and she has always been perfectly fine about travelling in our trailer (bateson, 2 horse). However on our last two trips out she was scrambling about in there, yet she had loaded fine both of these times. The day after the second time she had done this we got the trailer out to load her in, just to gain her confidence, and she refused to go in, something she has never done before! We eventually did get her in and took everything slowly; halting her in there and feeding, taking her out, putting her in breast and hind bar up, taking her out, putting her in, ramps up, taking her out. Once she was fine with all of this we left it for the day and tried again the following day, same process again, starting with her refusing to go in. But this time when we got her in after all the attempts, we closed up and drove very VERY slowly down our lane. She seemed fine until we got to the corners and then she would scramble. So I got on the back of the ramp (very naughty I know but I had to see what was happening) and what she was doing was not planting her rear right foot, it was just resting as if she was chilled (but she clearly wasn't) so then when it came to a corner she lost her balance.

Two factors which have recently changed are that she has moved yards to one with a few more horses, however she had loaded at least 5 times and been out from here without an issue. The second change is that we had the trailer serviced and this is when the issues began. He checked the floor which was fine however he did pump the tyres up very hard, more so than normal as they were a different type, and he said this could have affected her ride. Last year a different person had serviced the box and had not fixed the floor, so we had had a similar issue of her with travelling but not with her loading, and once the floor was fixed she was fine again but this time I cannot work out what her problem is!

Does anyone have any advice or similar experiences and solutions?
 

Dry Rot

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Why not readjust the tyre pressures to the manufacturer's recommended pressures and try again? If you can't find out that that should be, maybe ask a tyre fitter?
 

hgamble92

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Could this be why she's not going in too do you think? Apparently today she freaked out as a trailer was parked in the yard, hopefully this was just her spooking at something being out of place otherwise I'm concerned that she's now just scared of trailers in general!
 

anna22

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Have you changed anything to do with her shoeing or the floor etc?
Mine travelled great in my trailer with the partition fully in place when he was barefoot behind... once he had shoes on he nearly demolished the trailer and badly bruised his hip. So I now travel with the back of the partition open and he travels fine again.
Could she have had a slip or fall or something so is uncomfortable on her RH maybe?
 

hgamble92

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Shoeing no and not the floor for over a year when it had problems. We have now taken the partition out and got a single breast bar yet but haven't tried it as I'm away at uni. I don't think she has had anything like that as she's not lame and is showing no signs of uncomfort in it when shes on the ground not in the trailer, its only when shes in there that shes doing it
 

SpruceRI

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Pretty much every time my 20yr old mare has started doing the same thing as yours in my trailer, there's turned out to be something wrong with the trailer.

Always the brakes/tyres.

Get a 'proper' trailer repair company to check your trailer out. If the tyres are over-inflated it won't give a decent ride. Are the brakes definitely OK?
 

hgamble92

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Right okay, has she done it a few times SpruceRI? Yes the tyres are definitely an issue which need sorting but as far as I'm aware brakes are fine, in fact they told us that the pads were almost brand new as my mum drives so carefully and hardly uses them. Last year there was an issue with the floor but that is now fixed
 

DarkHorseB

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My horse did this with an Ifor Williams 511.
Had it from new and he travelled perfectly then suddenly it became an issue particularly when turning one way.
Turned out to be an issue with the springs they were sticking then suddenly dropping down. I switched to a lorry shortly after which he has always travelled beautifully in but funnily eniugh took him in a trailer once about a year later ( a 510) and he still remembered and did not travel well.
 
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