Travelling on “wrong side” of trailer

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Miggy99

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I have regularly been taking my friend’s horse along with mine to various rides, shows and competitions this season. My boy is about 100kg lighter than hers and always travelled fine on the left until a few weeks ago when we thought they were fighting. The banging was horrendous and my big cut his coronet. I’ve travelled him alone twice since with no issue. So this weekend I’m loaded up with a head partition and trailer camera and find out actually they aren’t fighting, my boy cannot stand up on the left side. His legs were going everywhere and he couldn’t balance. I ended up crawling with my hazard lights on to the local car park where we unloaded and swapped sides. Prepared to get them back to the yard and miss the show they were both absolutely fine! No idea why he all of a sudden can’t travel in the left, but is it a huge issue to travel them the “wrong way round”?
 
There will be a physical reason, my mare would fall over in a 505, slightly better in a 510 and even better on the right hand side, perfect rear facing. Found the physical issue, fixed that and now she’s quiet as a mouse in the trailer, doesn’t even break a sweat.

I would get physio/vet to assess and go from there.
 
I agree with HopOnTrot that it is highly likely there is a physical reason why he has started struggling to balance on the left side of the trailer.

With regards to travelling the 'wrong' way around, it is accepted that we travel a single horse or the heavier horse on the right side of the trailer so that it offsets the camber of the road, which tapers away to the left in order to assist getting standing water off the tarmac. Having the load, or the heavier load, on the left of the trailer will significantly unbalance the trailer so that it will be tipping and pulling to the left most of the time and that will be particularly horrid on right corners, but it also means that the trailer is much more likely to tip completely onto its side in an exceptional situation.

I remember once following a trailer with only one horse in it, on the left, and it was quite frightening to watch I must admit.
 
I had a horse a few years ago now that I took out every week in my big IW 510 trailer. He always travelled ok, but would arrive at the trainers yard about an hour later, a bit sweaty and unsettled. Haynet untouched, overreach boots occasionally in disarray and on one occasion a ‘skewed’ front shoe. I always travelled him on the left. One day I , for some reason, put him on right hand side. What a difference! He was a much happier horse so after that he always went on the right hand side and I never had any more problems.
My current horse travels in the same trailer, but with no partition, long bars back and front, arranges himself diagonally and travels really happily.
 
littleshetland said:
My current horse travels in the same trailer, but with no partition, long bars back and front, arranges himself diagonally and travels really happily.
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I have a single (401) trailer but my horse chooses to travel diagonally in that. He has hock arthritis (treated but it does affect how he uses his legs) - I don't know whether the diagonal travelling is because he doesn't have perfect legs, or whether all horses would choose a diagonal position, given the option. Anyway he seems to be very happy travelling like that.
 
HopOnTrot said:
There will be a physical reason, my mare would fall over in a 505, slightly better in a 510 and even better on the right hand side, perfect rear facing. Found the physical issue, fixed that and now she’s quiet as a mouse in the trailer, doesn’t even break a sweat.

I would get physio/vet to assess and go from there.
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He has his next massage booked in 6 weeks time. He’s always been stronger on his left side and there’s a possibility that the extra work we’ve been doing and his increased fitness has increased that so he is now unbalanced. Fortunately there’s only 100kg between him and my friend’s horse so travelling him on the right when they’re together doesn’t change the spread of weight too much (I know someone who only ever travels a 650+kg horse on the left of the trailer) and I always take care on corners anyway. But I will definitely look into the reasons for this and try to correct them.
 
My old boy was the other way round. He travelled much better on the left. Luckily he and my friend's horse were a very similar weight and they usually travelled together so it didn't really matter but occasionally we'd go alone or with another friend (whose horse was about 120kg lighter but coincidentally struggled on the left) and when we did, I still put him on the left and just took extra care round corners or if the camber was particularly bad. It was never a problem. If you consider that a 510 / 511's maximum load is about 1700kg (unladen weight 100kg, gross maximum weight 2700kg, having 100kg more on the 'wrong' side isn't going to make that much difference. It's not all going to be right on the edge, it will be distributed across the whole of that side so a fair portion of it will only just be the wrong side of the centre.
 
My mare has always travelled really well, and always on the right with her lighter friend on the left.

We had an extremely scary incident where my mare was quite literally going down in the trailer. It was truly awful to watch (camera in the trailer).

Having learnt to always listen to my big girl, she was seen by the vet and had a full lameness work up. PSD on her right hind, which causes instability, especially whilst travelling.

After treatment and a period of rest / rehab I tried her on the left side of the trailer and she was much better, she could spread her right hind better into the middle of the trailer and therefore helped her balance.

I definitely would be having your horse checked by a vet rather than anyone else.
 
They suggest travelling on the off side due to the adverse camber that some roads have.

It might be that the road you travelled down had an adverse camber. Sometimes this will be signposted. It causes reduced stability and loss of traction and is worse if you have an adverse camber as the road follows a right bend.
 

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My mare has always travelled much better on the "wrong" side of a trailer. I think she just feels more secure with a solid wall on her left when it comes to roundabouts, camber etc.

She has no preference in a lorry whether it is herringbone or backards.

I travel her mostly alone in my Cheval. Never had an issue when driving.
 
That’s how I find out my old boy had arthritis. He couldn’t stand up in the trailer.

I travel my horses using the full trailer now. Even though Faran is fine with the partition in I only have him and don’t take friends horses anymore. I find it great being able to tack up etc under cover in the trailer with the wonderful wet Scottish weather we have 😅 no more getting soaked whilst tied up outside 🤣
 
Thank you for all the replies. Honestly if he was unsteady travelling on both sides I’d have the vet out, but I know he is “left-handed”, he always has been. He’s having a growth spurt also and has got quite big in his backend compared to his front so I do think it’s a balance issue as he likes to lean slightly to the right and obviously doesn’t feel as steady leaning to the right against the partition as he does the side. He has no lameness indicators, no pain and no tightness. Trust me this boy is my world and if I thought there was any possibility of something wrong I’d be speaking to a vet 🥰
 
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