Travelling Issues

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Amy0410

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My horse has a big problem with travelling. He will go in the trailer on the way to a competition fine, but he bangs about in the trailer and when we arrive he is completely sweated up and exhausted - he then is reluctant to travel home.

We drive very very steady with him but seems to make no difference.
How can I attempt to improve this? Could he be claustrophobic?
 
Not sure your horse's travelling issues are news ! How does he travel in a lorry, a lot of horses prefer lorries to trailers and I don't blame them.
 
if he is banging around, take partition out, dont travel him with one...bed floor so he can grip (the smallest poo on a rubber floor makes them slip!).

I put money that if you take partition out and drive slowly he will be happier.

Mine was 100% same as yours before...
 
You need to put this is a different section on the forum to get more replies.

As previous poster put, take out the partition. We had this with my first horse who actually went down in the trailer and sat like a dog, very scary thing to happen.

We sussed that as it was a new trailer, the floor which was wooden was very slippy. in those days they didn't all have rubber matting, and this one had none. The condensation from the cold outside and the warmth of him caused droplets of water to fall from the roof and he was slipping on these. Also he was very long in the body so dad adjusted the breast bar and brought it forward. He added rubber matting and made the trailer 3/4 v 1/4 so that the partition was permanently fixed in the 3/4 position for the horse.

Originally we tried to make the partition area smaller as we thought he would lean on that and the smaller room would give him assistance but imagine you stood on a bus that's moving around bends, you would straddle your legs to keep your balance. It was our eureka moment and when we gave him more room it solved the problem, and we were able to travel without problems.
 
Amy0410 said:
My horse has a big problem with travelling. He will go in the trailer on the way to a competition fine, but he bangs about in the trailer and when we arrive he is completely sweated up and exhausted - he then is reluctant to travel home.

We drive very very steady with him but seems to make no difference.
How can I attempt to improve this? Could he be claustrophobic?
Click to expand...

Try a lorry with herringbone or a calmer about an hour before you leave. Take a companion with you, he could have had a bad experience in the past with bad breaking etc.
 
My horse used to bang about in the trailer, not as bad as yours sounds though. Anyway, I took the partition out and he's fine now. Might be worth a try.
 
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