Travelling without a partition

Joyous70

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I have been travelling my youngster, for very short trips without a partition in her trailer, as also advised by the man who backed her, this is how he travels all of his horses, cross tied, however, after the weekend my OH and his dad, also other people have been questioning my sanity and saying that they think this is the most dangerous way to travel a horse.

They are concerned about the stability of the trailer, and believe that my mare if she moves onto the wrong side of the trailer when going around a bend will tip my trailer over, im now so worried i don't actually know what to do.

Help and advice would be appreciated - thank you.
 

CrazyMare

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I've travelled lots without partitions. I cross tie and always use full breastfeeding and breech bars.

Never had any concerns or worries
 

lannerch

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As long as you still have full length breach bars most horses travel better like this, no partition to get in the way of the horse stabalising itself!

Also better for the balance of the trailer as horse tends to centralise itself and weight, with a partition the weight is all one side
 

Janovich

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Echo the above two posts! I too travel my boy cross tied with full breast and breech bars in place as is the norm when travelling in this way.

He told me quite some years ago now that he absolutely did NOT do travelling in a trailer with a partition and facing forwards! He wanted to travel on a front herringbone kind of formation if that makes sense.

Took the partition out, put breast and breech bars in place and gave him the whole of the trailer to travel in and hey presto!,..one happy horse that travels like a dream :)

Never ever had any issues with where he's stood in the trailer when travelling and as lannerch has said,..they tend to centralise their own weight within the trailer when on the move.

Works for us!
 

Joyous70

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Thank you for the replies so far, this is what i have been trying to explain to them, however, they still insist that she possibly as we are travelling along may suddenly move to the wrong side of the trailer, or break her headcollar and become loose!

How can i explain to people that its fine to travel this way
 

DuckToller

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Print off this thread?!

I find that men tend to drive more aggressively, particularly when approaching roundabouts - its a case of driving at the same speed right up to the roundabout and then braking quite hard, before pulling away, whereas I take my foot off the accelerator as I approach so the trailer slows down gradually, and then pull away like I have a cargo of eggs :) . Even with me nagging, my husband still shows traits of the more aggressive style of driving, so now I always drive and the horse has a better journey.

Just say that you are confident that horse won't move about as long as the driver takes the corners slowly - so it must be their driving that's the problem. That will go down well…not.
 

Joyous70

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Print off this thread?!

I find that men tend to drive more aggressively, particularly when approaching roundabouts - its a case of driving at the same speed right up to the roundabout and then braking quite hard, before pulling away, whereas I take my foot off the accelerator as I approach so the trailer slows down gradually, and then pull away like I have a cargo of eggs :) . Even with me nagging, my husband still shows traits of the more aggressive style of driving, so now I always drive and the horse has a better journey.

Just say that you are confident that horse won't move about as long as the driver takes the corners slowly - so it must be their driving that's the problem. That will go down well…not.

Good point

To be honest im so nervous about towing her, that i do drive like i have a china horse in the back, i have not felt her move when travelling, i always slow down by taking my foot off the accelerator and let the engine do the majority of the breaking etcd.

Before we pull off she stamps and kicks about, and initally she will but soon settles down when she realises she needs all four hooves to stay upright.
 

Cortez

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I always travel a single horse this way, with breast and breech bars, crosstied, been doing it for more than 20 years. Much better balance for the horse. Even if they do move, there is no danger of the trailer rolling - tell your male relatives they are being over dramatic and ill-informed.
 

chestnut cob

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I always travelled my big horse this way and up until recently, I was using the normal partitions in my trailer for my little horse. However, he suddenly decided he didn't like loading so I took out the partitions to see if it would help. Seems he's much happier loading and travelling without partitions, so I'm using the full length breech and breast bars, cross tie him, and he's quite happy. He stands pretty much bang in the middle of the trailer. Big horse used to stand diagonally with his bum wedged in one corner.
 

MyBoyChe

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Interesting thread. I travel 1 in a 3.5 van conversion and often wonder whether it would be better with or without the partition. My worry is that he might shift his weight to the wrong side of the vehicle as Im on a bad camber or going round a roundabout and make the van unstable. Ive always understood that with 1 on board they should be on the drivers side of the road, would it make a huge difference do we think?
 

Tnavas

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Thank you for the replies so far, this is what i have been trying to explain to them, however, they still insist that she possibly as we are travelling along may suddenly move to the wrong side of the trailer, or break her headcollar and become loose!

How can i explain to people that its fine to travel this way

Certainly never had a problem with one horse and no partition. I have also had one untie himself and to everyone's amusement when we arrived he had his head over the top of the ramp enjoying the view.

We did feel him turning around as a series of shudders but nothing so violent that it would tip the float. Remember it has four wheels, low to the ground and is very stable. You can tie up to a float, have a horse pull back with all its strength and not tip it over.

When they move around a lot you can feel it and slow down to be happy you are in control.
 

Joandripple

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Echo the above two posts! I too travel my boy cross tied with full breast and breech bars in place as is the norm when travelling in this way.

He told me quite some years ago now that he absolutely did NOT do travelling in a trailer with a partition and facing forwards! He wanted to travel on a front herringbone kind of formation if that makes sense.

Took the partition out, put breast and breech bars in place and gave him the whole of the trailer to travel in and hey presto!,..one happy horse that travels like a dream :)

Never ever had any issues with where he's stood in the trailer when travelling and as lannerch has said,..they tend to centralise their own weight within the trailer when on the move.

Works for us!


My boys also travels like this, full breech bars and crossed tied. He used to be a sod to load when he had to go in on the right on his own, but now goes in no problem!

Apparently it is illegal to travel without breech bars!
 

Clannad48

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We travel our 17hh dutch warmblood mare cross tied in our trailer with full width breech and breast bars, she is a big girl who stands diagonally. When we travelled her with a partition in she would try to go down as she obviously didn't feel safe. IMHO as long as you are not taking corners on two wheels you should be fine.
 

lindsayH

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Ditto. I always travel without the partition when I only have one on my 3.5t lorry. I don't have breast bars either. I've travelled horses loose a few times too when circumstances demanded it with no problems at all.
 

MagicMelon

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As long as you still have full length breach bars most horses travel better like this, no partition to get in the way of the horse stabalising itself!

Also better for the balance of the trailer as horse tends to centralise itself and weight, with a partition the weight is all one side

This. I think most horses tend to be most comfortable without a partition as they stand diagonally across. I've traveled my last competition horse loads with the back half of the partition taken out so he could spread his back legs right out (if not, he'd fall over). Although to be honest, I wouldnt generally travel a horse without the partition as standard, only if the horse was a faller. I like having the other side empty as its handy extra storage space for spare hay etc. I wouldn't travel this horse with no partition simply because thats how the original owner traveled all his horses though, think its a bit pointless. Horse might be perfectly happy with a partition and its handier if you want to take another horse in the future.
 

Joyous70

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This. I think most horses tend to be most comfortable without a partition as they stand diagonally across. I've traveled my last competition horse loads with the back half of the partition taken out so he could spread his back legs right out (if not, he'd fall over). Although to be honest, I wouldnt generally travel a horse without the partition as standard, only if the horse was a faller. I like having the other side empty as its handy extra storage space for spare hay etc. I wouldn't travel this horse with no partition simply because thats how the original owner traveled all his horses though, think its a bit pointless. Horse might be perfectly happy with a partition and its handier if you want to take another horse in the future.

The original owner and the man who backed my mare aren't the same person, in fact the original owner of my youngster is one of the people who think its dangerous to travel without a partition. I only intend to travel my mare, my trailer doesn't have a very high weight allowance ie 1000kgs, so i would only travel one horse at a time anyhow.
 

Tnavas

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The original owner and the man who backed my mare aren't the same person, in fact the original owner of my youngster is one of the people who think its dangerous to travel without a partition. I only intend to travel my mare, my trailer doesn't have a very high weight allowance ie 1000kgs, so i would only travel one horse at a time anyhow.

1000kg is a reasonable weight allowance, my 16hh Clydesdale is around 550kg.
 
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