Travelling Young Horse - HELP!!!

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Sargey

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Hi everyone, really looking for some tips/ advice!

I have a 4 yr old mare who is a nightmare to travel!! She loads perfectly, walks on then when she is shut in the lorry and travelling she will do anything to misbehave. She will kick, rear (I have dents in the ceiling of the lorry from her head), she has had both front feet up on the front shelf in front of her chest! Last time we travelled I gave her sedalin halfway as I thought she was about to cause herself damage but it still made very little difference!

I bought her as a 3 yr old and she travelled up from England to Scotland over 3 days absolutley fine with Eric Gilles, didnt seem phased in the slightest when she came off the lorry. Then the next time I travelled her was to take her to be broken in my lorry (less posh than Gilles but horses generally travel well in it). She jumped around but I hoped she would get used to it.

I brought her home again from being broken and she jumped around for the first 5 minutes and then seemed to settle so I thought we were improving!

The third (and most recent) time in my lorry she was horrendous, worse than ever! She still loads great but once shes in she was a nightmare. I dont really know what to do to combat it and prevent her from hurting herself and damaging my lorry any further (she has managed to pull the rail off the back wall that hold the partitions up somehow?!).

Since then she has been in another loory for a try with another horse to see if company helped and no, it definitely didnt she was exactly the same!

Any help is greatly appreciated! All suggesting welcome, Im at the end of my tether here :confused:
 
If you can load her every day to feed her - load, feed, unload, do that for a week before increasing the time she's in there after she has finished her feed - give her a haynet to distract her if need be. Then progress to driving round the block and gradually build it up from there - make the lorry a happy place to be :)

But I would be booting up throughly while you do it in case she flings herself about - probably a poll guard too if she is rearing.
 
I forgot to say she is away for schooling at the moment (our last journey was to take her there) so I wont be able to do that until I get her home, another traumatic 2 hour journey that Im not looking forward to, fingers crossed the sedalin works better for the journey home other wise I dont know what I'll do! :(
 
How is she to travel without partitions or a wider partition than 'normal'? perhaps try this but cross tie her?

Is your lorry partitioned in the same way that the one she was originally travelly on? i.e herringbone or front to back? perhaps she doesn't like it if it's different... many horses have a preference! Is your lorry sound? i.e floor feels solid etc? my boy had a complete freak on a trailer that felt much less stable than our own but has been perfect before and since!

Could you try a different lorry?

I would make sure she has a good dose of sedalin well in advance of travelling her home to make sure it has a chance to take effect before the adrenalin kicks in...
 
When I got my warmblood as a youngster he was a complete pain to travel sounds similar, he would consistently paw into a frenzy and then rear/jump on the tack lockers.
Unfortunatly the only thing that cured this habit was time, and a new lorry without tack lockers in the back.
The things that helped him were giving him calmer to travel - I tried loads till I got one that worked; hobbles, which he still wears sometimes; and cross tieing him.
We went out on little trips to no where just to help him get used to it too.
Agree with CBFan and ghostie too.
 
Ooh... just another thought! If you use boots to travel, try bandages instead - well applied ones, with not too much excess padding at the bottom - i.e cant be trodden on!
 
If she travelled fine in GILLIES then look at their lorries compared to yours.

I have seen horses panic and climb on to these tack boxes which cut into the horse travel space.

Are all your partitions cut up with this tack locker shelf?

Travel her without the shelf in front.

Horses are frightened of small spaces as it is!

Go back to basics and travel her in a lorry that is more similar to Gillies
 
I would take all the partitions out and travel her loose. I would certainly not put a haynet up in case she got a leg caught in it.

Gilles lorries have full partitions has yours?
Quite honestly if she started thundering around I would give her a jerk by applying the brakes (not an emergency stop but a half stop!) Make her realise when travelling she needs all four feet on the floor.
 
It sounds silly but it's amazing how many horses like a bit of bedding on the floor of a trailer/lorry. Just a bit of straw or 1/4 bale of shavings. I don't know whether it just looks more inviting or helps with their footing.

It may not help but hasn't cost you much to give it a go?
 
You've had some excellent advice on here, but I would personally say please don't travel her loose and use your brakes to teach her to stand still. She is standing some chance of damaging herself suited and booted, tied up and partitioned in - I think she could easily finish herself off with the run of the whole lorry to have a hooley in. This isn't me being ant travelling loose in general, travel mares and foals loose frequently, but I think that suggestion sounds lethal.

If you've got the money and they'll do a short trip, get gillies to bring her home from the schooling yard and then work on it at home, as others have said, feed her in there, shut her in, take her for short trips etc. And ditto amymay, if you do get gillies again see if you can sit in to feel how they drive her and if that's the same as how you drive her.
 
Thanks for all the replies! I've chickened out going to get her myself, shes coming back with Gillies for safety and less stress to me!! Hahaha!

I'll try and sum uop replies to all questions in one go here, hope thats ok!

My lorry is a really solid, sturdy box in good condition with good floor and suspensions etc and horses travel really well in it. When driving, Im one of the most cautious drivers ever (Im the one all car drivers hate to get stuck behind as I hardly get above 30 on side roads! haha) The horse in question has very good balance and is not phased in the slightest through being unbalanced, I think thats probably why she can play up so much! I am stressing enough about her damaging herself in the box, so I am not going to break to try to terach her to stand up and risk injuring her more! But thanks for the suggestion.

My lorry is not the same as Gillies, mine does not have full height partitions and I cannot remove the tack locker bit as it is built into the lorry. My lorry is not a conversion, it has always been a horsebox. I was going to attach photos of the lorry but I cant work out how to as they are on my pc, not on internet and it only gives the option of adding a URL rather than a file.... Any suggestions?!

Thank you for the suggestion to travel her in a lorry similar to Gillies but Im afraid those lorries are total luxury and worth more than my house so that wont happen unless I live in it too! :-(

She has been in the lorry where she is away for schooling (just to see what she does)and she was the same. They have a big HGV with the full height partitions (like Gillies)and no tack locker bit for her to jump on but she was still kicking and rearing and generally being crazy!
 
It's a difficult problem and there's good advice but theres no way I would try her loose and break to teach her a lesson that could end very badly.
Get her home then get to work load daily feed only in the lorry try with more or less space if she came up from England without bandages or boots and you are using them now try ditching them , try hobbles (in stable first) , never miss a day it might be worth considering removing shoes to help prevent damage to you the lorry and the horse .
When she's standing in the lorry well progress to standing in the lorry with the lorry ticking over when that's not an issue try short drives good luck what a pain I hope you get though it but you certainly going to have to invest a lot of time.
 
I had a 3yo who was like this. It was like he just didnt know how to travel. He'd load fine but once in he'd start to flip out (in our trailer). We did a LOT of driving round the field with me in the back with him trying to get him to settle and NOT rear over the breast bar. Eventually we got him to the point he would be ok when moving but as soon as we stopped (like for traffic lights or when we arrived at an event) he would start messing around again. Unfortunately on a few occasions he did actually jump over the breast bar so we had to detangle him (not easy when he was a very chunky, big Welsh Cob!). All I can say is that practice definately helped but he had the odd day where he was bad. We learnt what set him off, so if we were coming up to red traffic lights for example we'd start slowing way back so we could creep along which stopped him going too crazy, and at an event we took him out immediately. I dont envy you, its horrible having a horse go nuts when travelling and downright dangerous!
 
Goldenstar said:
It's a difficult problem and there's good advice but theres no way I would try her loose and break to teach her a lesson that could end very badly.
Get her home then get to work load daily feed only in the lorry try with more or less space if she came up from England without bandages or boots and you are using them now try ditching them , try hobbles (in stable first) , never miss a day it might be worth considering removing shoes to help prevent damage to you the lorry and the horse .
When she's standing in the lorry well progress to standing in the lorry with the lorry ticking over when that's not an issue try short drives good luck what a pain I hope you get though it but you certainly going to have to invest a lot of time.
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Thank you for your reply, I will definitely be trying to get her used to it by getting her in there every day and doing it gradually, luckily she is not yet shod so thats a bonus or I think she definitely would have damaged herself!
 
MagicMelon said:
I had a 3yo who was like this. It was like he just didnt know how to travel. He'd load fine but once in he'd start to flip out (in our trailer). We did a LOT of driving round the field with me in the back with him trying to get him to settle and NOT rear over the breast bar. Eventually we got him to the point he would be ok when moving but as soon as we stopped (like for traffic lights or when we arrived at an event) he would start messing around again. Unfortunately on a few occasions he did actually jump over the breast bar so we had to detangle him (not easy when he was a very chunky, big Welsh Cob!). All I can say is that practice definately helped but he had the odd day where he was bad. We learnt what set him off, so if we were coming up to red traffic lights for example we'd start slowing way back so we could creep along which stopped him going too crazy, and at an event we took him out immediately. I dont envy you, its horrible having a horse go nuts when travelling and downright dangerous!
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Im glad to hear Im not the only one! Good that your boy started to accept it and you could work around the issues, I just hope we are the same! Fingers crossed!
 
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