Travelling in a lorry (7.5t) with no partitions?

[HorsesRule2009]

Hi,

As title, is this possible? Horse is good at travelling but for one reason or another all partitions are out and need to be so daily.
I want to take my horse xc schooling one afternoon can I just pop him in with no partitions?

Thank you

 

[ILuvCowparsely]

I personally would not

if you have to stop sudden for example

 

[Ownedby4horses]

Absolutely not. You give the horse absolutely nothing to brace against for turns, stops etc.

 

[ycbm]

Mares with foals at foot are normally travelled in a big space, with a full 7.5, no living, for example, partitioned for two sections.


The risk of injury is probably a fair bit higher if there was an accident, because of how far they could move before they hit a wall, and if tied they could break their neck if the tie doesn't break, so you'd want that to be really flimsy.
.

 

[ycbm]

Absolutely not. You give the horse absolutely nothing to brace against for turns, stops etc.

I watch my current pair on camera and neither of them brace against anything. I think as long as they have enough room to spread their feet out and move them if they get unbalanced, they don't feel the need to.
.

 

[milliepops]

i had a horse delivered loose in a 7.5t box once, he had travelled well (with his head out of the window too, but that's another story )

i agree mine don't brace against anything though they would lean on the partitions if we had to do an emergency stop or similar. though that's pretty rare

 

[Ownedby4horses]

I wouldnt as previously stated. Ive seen a horse travelled loose and he had fallen asleep on the motorway, the driver came up the slip road and braked slowly at the top of the slip road, and the horse went down, I was in the passenger seat and saw it on the CCTV and the driver was driving carefully.

If youre old enough to have daft enough to have done it, you only need to stand in the back of a moving vehicle to know how difficult it is to balance and anticipate a driver's actions, horses are top heavy too. I definitely wouldnt risk it.

 

[bubsqueaks]

Surely that almost equates to a person travelling without a seat belt! If its not illegal it needs to be but that's another topic!

 

[milliepops]

why illegal? cattle don't travel in individual partitions do they?
I definitely see why partitions are useful but to me that's more about control of a moving load, protecting a valuable animal from excess movement and allowing more than one to travel safely together without kicking each other.

 

[CanteringCarrot]

Don't they do this quite often in America with stock trailers? Or even the 3+1 models? I haven't heard of any serious issues.

I only know that when you hall a horse loose they tend to face backward as they prefer it. Some of the transporter manufacturers here are now featuring that as an option (not loose, just backwards).

 

[Teaboy]

I’ve travelled yearlings (untied x 2 ) and also an older horse like it (tied up). The yearlings weren’t uses to being tied up hence going loose in the back of a HGV together and we had no problems (this was a 7 hour journey). The older horse had started to be unable to travel with a partition so we removed them to see what he was like, tied up nearest to the back wall and again no problems.

 

[AFB]

I'm confused by some of the responses here - I see threads about people happily trailering & using 3.5T's with no partition, yet this is very anti doing the same in a 7.5T - is that because most trailers/3.5's are forward/backward facing vs 7.5's being side facing/herringbone?

I travel mine in a fwd facing 3.5 with no partition, he travels much better than he used to with - and he places himself slightly diagonally across the box.

 

[scruffyponies]

If you are travelling youngstock or unbroken horses you don't have any choice. Tying them would be impossible, and they'd freak out in a partition - not that you'd get them in there in the first place.

I usually travel ponies in a trailer with no partition. Some of the lazy ones lean on their friend, but none seem to mind.

 

[WelshD]

I use my 3.5t with no partition and the inside of that is not a great deal different to the horse area of a 7.5t, I tie up in the right hand corner nearest the cab and the pony has a choice of standing forward facing, across against the front or diagonally, there is loads of room inside for tacking up etc and it works well