Travelling Help (sorry long post)

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PaddingtonPony

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Hi

sorry i know there are a few posts on this but i think my horse is a bit different..

My mare collapses in the trailer:
We travelled 15mins up the road to pick up a friends horse, and she was kicking in the trailer. We loaded up friends horse, thinking it was because she doent like being on her own.
Another 20 mins ish later my mum rang me from the car behind toget me to get out and check on mare, she was lying down suspended by rope completely freaking out.. she had damaged her back fetlock, torn off her back shoe on same leg, and taken off back boots. The other horse also was stressy and had a few scrapes and (we learned later) a bruised stifle. we pulled over and my mum went off and got another trailer, so we separated the horses and turned around to go home. Soon my mare was on the ground again and so we stopped and i (illegally and very dangerously i know, but there was no other way) got into trailer, and travelled back with her. The collapsing got more and more frequesnt and we could only pull 10 yards up the road before she was down, and i was pulling her up and signalling for my dad to stop.
The vet was called and she was given a painkiller, and we went on our way. it seemed to help but 5 mins later she was on the floor again. we continued for a little while but soon gave up andphoned vet once more. while waiting an experianced friend who lives nearby came to see if he could help. he lept into grooms door, and lept back out as mare fell to floor (and didnt let me go in to pull her up
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) thankfully my dad went into trailer the other way and untied her so she was able to regain balance and stand up. The vet then arrived and gave her a sadative and told us to put her on the left. Thuis seemed to work but we only went 15mins up the road and then stopped at my friends yard (with the other horse mentioned earlier). It had taken us 6 hrs to do a 20 min journey, and we didnt even get home..
After a couple of weeks of boxrest at friends yard, we tried travelling her back with her field companion and on left side. we didnt allow her to collapse agin, and pulled over when she began to look very wobbly. we walked back to friends yard and then hired a lorry to take us home a couple of days later.
In the lorry i rode in the grooms bit to watch her and noticed she took alot of weight on the partitions, and i was sure she wsa going to fall over again. but she didnt and we arrived home
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in the trailer she did the same in that she leant on the partitions alot, also her back legs were very close togeter, making her unstable and travelling in a triangle-like formation (front legs wide, back together).

So basicly any ideas on what to do? ive no ides if its a space issue, a psychological thing, i am not entitled to belive it was a pain thing as she didnt travell with pain killers (whether pain from fetlock or somewhere else).

very sorry for such a long post.
At the moment getting her relaxed in trailer again before attmepting to go anywhere..

Thanks so much for reading, it must have taken you ages!!
 
First thing to try is taking the partition out.
Our mare came back from her loan home unable to stand up in the trailer and panicking. She was much better without the partition as she could brace herself at an angle and she stopped falling over. She never really wanted to go in though so we sold our Ifor and bought a rear facing Richardson Supreme Excel. She travels a dream in this trailer, with the partition, never moves, goes in happily and out the other end without hotting up.
Whereabouts are you and what make is your trailer? I still have my front/rear breach bars you could try to see if it helps.
 
A fair few horses have this problem. I don't know if it's a balnace issue or to do with certain types of trailer.

My old 14.2hh couldn't travel in a trailer due to this collapsing whenever we went round a bend, it's like he couldn't balance at all. He'd always load no problem though bless him.

Anyway, the only thing we could do was to buy a horsebox. We bought a little old forward facing pony box and he never had a problem in that. Latre we got a 3 horse 7.5T where they travelled herringbone style and never ever had a problem with him after that.

So, you may find thatis what you'll have to resort to to travel yours. I hate trailers anyway after various horrible incidents so should thank my pony really. Some people say they travel better without any partitions in the trailer so you could try that but once you'ce seen your horse panic, fall and injure themselves in trailers it is hard then to travle them without worrying.
 
Thanks so much dizzykizzy, thats so kind of you, but we live up in north of scotland, and i actually know someone that uses double breast/breach bars which im sure i could borrow till i find out if it works..
And a rear facing trailer sounds like it might help if not, we were considering buying a lorry but it is obviously alot of money.. not so much in the buying of a nice cheapish older one, but more the upkeep, ive always thought that lorrys can cost alot to put through MOT, but maybe im wrong.. i dont know a great deal about them.

Thanks both of you, im suprised you managed to get to the end of that post, let alone commenting - it is soo long! really appreciate it
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im obv a bit wary of trying again without other peoples ideas, cause the journey was a bit traumatic!

Thanks again!!
 
Definitely take the partition out, my mare was the same, she would scrabble up the walls and get in a right state.
We removed the partition and she was fine.

We have since changed to an Equitrek which she travels alot better in.
 
I had same problem a horse could not stand at all in trialers but he would load fine, annoyingly and expensivley i honeslty think the only real solution is a horse lorry, where the horse travels sideways.....no idea why this is but the horse i knew literally once u turned the car on would fall down in a trailer! got to be all about balance im sure.
 
My horse has never collapsed but is a very nervous traveller. Def try without the partitions... my horse stands himself on an angle with his back legs splayed to get his balance. Also some trailers are more bouncy than others; Ifors and other ones with leaf springs can be quite bouncy. Batesons, Cheval Liberte etc have independent suspensions which absorb the bumps more. The other thing that really helped my horse was sedating him with sedalin (from vet)... I did it becasue I had to take him on 3 long journeys to Horsepital and Clinics. Now obviously you can't sedate him if you are planning on riding when you get there, but my horse was so much more confident travelling after we'd done 3 sedated trips, you wouldn't think he was the same horse... he loads brilliantly and everything now (used to take hours!)
Good luck.
 
Like everyone says take the partition out!

The trailer has a very low centre of gravity and your mare seems to need all the space possible to spread her legs and thus she is able to balance better.

Some horses are notoriously poor travellers in trailers and better in lorries. Just see what works for your mare

Good luck
 
Def try without the partition. My friends horse used to do it and was fine once she took it out. You need the full length breast bar though to replace it. My horse however never took to trailers. He scrabbled all over with or without the partition but will travel great in a lorry.
Good luck, I know how scary it is when they travel badly.
 
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