Travelling problems, please help!

[Horse*]

Hello,

I'm at a bit of a loss with my gelding. For the majority of the 4 years I've owned him he's been a gent to travel but over the summer we started having issues. He travels in an Ifor Williams 511 on the right hand side of the partition. Practically drags you into the trailer and is very relaces eating his hay net until you get to a bend. It's like he has forgotten to brace himself and just loses his balance and scrabbles around on corners. I think without the partition he would have gone over by now but he's a big lad so it's just about holding him there. I might be wrong but I think it's only really on left bends.

It started in the summer, he was fine one weekend then not the next so very sudden. His back was looked at, nothing major reported there, then gave him a few weeks off and tried again and he was no better. Then didn't travel him for 6 months and tried again this weekend. He was no better and gave himself a couple of cuts even though he was booted and bandaged up to his eyeballs. Despite this he came off the trailer really calmly and hadn't even broken into a sweat.

He's a 16.2hh 14yr ISH gelding, really the easiest safest horse I have ever met. His ridden work has never been better, he's very supple at the moment and happily popping courses over 1m. I don't think there is anything suggesting that he might be sore anywhere else in his life. He does put in the odd unnecessary half stride or leave a leg behind jumping but he always has.

What would you do next?

It's been suggested that I travel him without a partition as some horses prefer more space. I'm reluctant to try this as I think the partition might be the only thing keeping him up at the moment. Also as his behaviour changed so suddenly and he had been happily travelling with a partition for about 3 years.

I may ask a friend if I could try him on a lorry and see if he prefers that but I’d rather resolve the trailer travelling than be reliant on lifts.

He is going to have a couple of months of travelling anyway as I'm very busy. In that time I'm going to get his back looked at again.

Do you think it would be worth having his legs looked at?
I've heard that bad travelling can be a sign of arthritis or pain in the hocks but I don't know anything about either. Should I ask the vet out to have a look and perhaps refer him somewhere? He has had lameness issues in the past with sidebone and a bad abscess last year. But he did a long journey whilst he was very lame then and travelled well.

I'd really appreciate any advice or to hear similar stories that have been ressolved

 

[unicornystar]

ditto


bed the trailer with straw to stop slipping and take partition out....mine cannot stand up round corners with a partition in and got progressively worse until partition was out and he could spread his legs!!

 

[doodle]

Mine started travelling badly having always stood like a rock. A while later he developed a spavin and Im pretty sure the travelling problem was when it was starting t be an issue for him. So worth getting his hocks checked. I took the partition out and travelled without as even when hocks were sorted he still ahd the issue in his head. Partition out, back to travelling like a rock.

 

[samleigh]

As a temporary measure could you tie the back part of the partition to one side, enough for him to spread his back legs out, this worked for my gelding, never scrabbled again, I then bought a full breech bar and took out the partition.

 

[kzb]

Mine had a lot of issues going round bends in a forward facing trailer. She kept hurting herself, ripped boots, etc. She would lean on the wall and then scrabble around with her legs. We never actually tried taking the partition out but were told to try it... we ended up swapping to an equi trek (rear facing) and have never looked back. Had her in a lorry as well, and she was also fine in that. I have had her back in an ifor since and she was okay, but she is so much better facing backwards or sideways.

I also used to have loading problems, we worked through it and got her loading in the ifor, but since getting the equi trek she's much happier getting on. We used to have to leave loads of time "just in case" as sometimes she would and sometimes she wouldn't.

 

[irishdraft]

Take out the partition he will not fall over he needs more room, I have had this happen with my current horse & the previous one both travelled fine for a few years then started scrabbling, all sorted when I took the partition out

 

[topbanana]

Hello, there are lots of threads on this before as it's a much more common problem than it sounds (exactly as you say, the throwing themselves down mainly on left bends). I used to hvae two that did it and did quite a lot of research in it and basically in all the ones i saw, it was a problem with them feeling the side of the trailer on their hip and not feeling they had enough space for their back legs. All the ones i saw were better either with no partition, OR with the partition tied over to one side at the back. Have a look and just go really slowly and see how he is.
The other thing that worked for some of them was having a partition that is just a rubber flap on the bottom half, again giving more space for their back legs.

 

[topbanana]

p.s. none of the ones i've known had any back or other health problems. My friend had all manner of tests done on hers, they thought it was his ears at one point - nothing. Obviously always good to get everything checked out, but the option of tying the partiiton to one sid eis so easy i'd give that a go first.

They were all just as you say, great travellers one minute, then the next doing this on left bends for no apparent reason. Personally i think it's the stimulus of the trialer on their hip making them panic, i think it's similar to what some racehorses do in starting gates; Monty roberts developed a special carpet blanket thing so they coulnd't feel the gate. Fascinating really!

 

[respectedpony driver]

agree with everyone,either take the partition out or make sure it is not solid down to the floor as horses like to spread their legs to steady themselves.I have to say the Ivor Williams trailers are not great as the dimentions are slightly wrong,I know they are popular but think about it,does your horse ever walk off the front ramp without stepping off the side.Rice trailers had the right dimentions.Good luck.

 

[Horse*]

Thank you all so much for your replies.

Very reassuring that so many of you have come across similar problems and have been able to ressolve them.
The trailer he is in at the moment does have rubber flaps lower down but I will have to try travelling him without a full partition. Will get on ebay now and have a look at the cost of full width breast bars.

 

[asmp]

Just to add - you haven't changed the way you are tying him up, have you? Mine fell over in a trailer when he had been tied up very tight by someone. He couldn't get his balance with his head so high.

 

[Horse*]

Thanks for the suggestion asmp. He's tied the same as normal with just enough length that he can look around.

 

[TheSylv007]

I had exactly the same problem with scrabbling and falling over on left hand bends. Taking out the partition and using full breast and breech bars was the best thing we could have done and we've never had an issue since. Hopefully that will sort your problem.

 

[Templebar]

I have exactly the same problem with my welshie, unfortunately she also is bad without the partitions and we need to travel two. So we worked first with the partition tied back and then we took out the back partition and with a set of chains designed up we can now travel two. The front half is normal and at the back they just have a chain going from the middle to the back and then one across behind each of them.

We got a full breach bar but as we still need something between them the chains work.

 

[D66]

Probably moving the partition will fix the problem, but also check the tyre pressure and state of the trailer's suspension. It won't hurt and will be easy to sort out if there is an issue.
Good Luck.

 

[Annagain]

Have you checked the tyre pressures on the trailer? I have to do mine really regularly as mine struggles if they're not spot on.

If you're wary of removing the partition. (I wouldn't be, but understand why you are) the other way you can do it is leave the partition in, but tie the back partition to the side (or remove it) so he can lean on the front and still spread his back legs. You'll need a full length breaching bar for that. You could also try him on the left rather than the right. Mine is fine on the left but slips and stumbles if I put him on the right.

 

[littleshetland]

I've had this problem before - someone told me to travel my boy on the left hand side of the trailer (in spite of road camber etc etc) - the horse travelled much better. I'm not sure why this is the case, but it seemed to work.

 

[Roasted Chestnuts]

Take out the partition but I wouldn't put anything on the floor.

I would also say maybe there have been some joint changes as the scrambling in the trailer for my boy who used to travel perfectly was the reason we discovered his hock arthritis. Might be worthy getting that checked as after the scrambling started he started refusing jumps and certain other activities.

Just a though.