Very lucky horse rescued after getting trapped jumping a fixed breast bar

[Tiddlypom]

I do bang on about these, but here is another very serious incident involved a horse getting trapped in a lorry trying to jump a fixed breast bar. The lorry was travelling on a major A road at the time.

Fantastic job done by the fire brigade.

This is one of the very pricey premium brands of lorry, too, which ought to know better and not sell such death traps. Grr. The make is named in the FB comments.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid0fBFdLzHP6X6Q4uPTMAmNzTSTYKXA74bigdkVyBepUZBzT8gyeqEjmNRVidrDsf4il&id=100064668823385

 

[MickeyFinn22]

Oh poor love. I haven't seen that before! That is terrible!

 

[ester]

It’s curious because it looks like the top of the tack locker is lower than the breast bar rather than many that are built up to be a slope. It’s a rubbish looking partition.

 

[Squeak]

That's really interesting to see a horse stuck from trying to jump over in that set up. I'd thought that with so little space available that horses wouldn't have tried it but obviously they still do. I imagine a collapsible breast bar would be tricky to put in as you'd have needed it to be long enough to have come to the sides of the box as from those photos it doesn't look like there's any way you'd have been able to collapse one that was only the length of the gap.

ETA Although it would be difficult to put in a usable collapsible breast bar, as it sounds from the comments that there have been quite a few similar incidents with this set up you would have thought that company would have found a safe solution.

 

[shortstuff99]

Am I being weird that I can't see the post?

 

[ester]

I think with a higher and proper head partition they wouldn’t but this set up leaves space

 

[ester]

Am I being weird that I can't see the post?

It’s not showing for me either

Wellingborough Fire Station

This week, 2 Animal rescue technicians from Redwatch were sent to assist with rescuing Obus the Stallion (15.3hh). Obus was traveling home, back from competing in dressage in Holland, and had become...

www.facebook.com

 

[shortstuff99]

It’s not showing for me either

Wellingborough Fire Station

This week, 2 Animal rescue technicians from Redwatch were sent to assist with rescuing Obus the Stallion (15.3hh). Obus was traveling home, back from competing in dressage in Holland, and had become...

www.facebook.com

Thank you. Very scary!

My box has an extra high partition so they physically can't get up high enough to jump it.

 

[j1ffy]

Horses really do do the weirdest things - thank goodness he was ok.

My Freddie Gover box has a collapsible breastbar that runs in between the tack lockers, at the same height as the lockers (the lockers look a lot higher / taller than the Bloomfield build). I have to say that Freddie seems to think of most things from a horse safety perspective and I hope we'd be ok if a horse did do something bonkers, but it's hard to predict every situation.

 

[Bernster]

Awful. I had one of those open lorries. I never had an issue with it but the person after me tragically did. Please look for closed ones or collapsible ones in an emergency.

 

[Tiddlypom]

It’s still not clear how they got him out. Presuming they must have widened those narrow rear doorways (another major no in lorry design) with cutting equipment and winched him out.

It’s not showing for me either

Wellingborough Fire Station

This week, 2 Animal rescue technicians from Redwatch were sent to assist with rescuing Obus the Stallion (15.3hh). Obus was traveling home, back from competing in dressage in Holland, and had become...

www.facebook.com

Thanks for giving a link that people can see, ester, not sure what went wrong with mine.

 

[ester]

I’d presume they cut the door out

 

[beatrice]

Horses really do do the weirdest things - thank goodness he was ok.

My Freddie Gover box has a collapsible breastbar that runs in between the tack lockers, at the same height as the lockers (the lockers look a lot higher / taller than the Bloomfield build). I have to say that Freddie seems to think of most things from a horse safety perspective and I hope we'd be ok if a horse did do something bonkers, but it's hard to predict every situation.

My Owen's is the same - Collapsible breast bar that runs between the lockers that also looks higher than the Bloomfields ones.

 

[Rowreach]

Lucky horse and great rescuers.

These stupid little death traps have been around long enough now that people really should be aware of the risk of horses going over the breast bar and the rear doors not being wide enough for extraction if they do. It's perfectly possible to modify them by getting anti-weave bars added if you do have a poorly designed one. But then you see loads of people travelling horses in trailers with the bars too low/too high/not there at all, or the detachable bars put on the wrong way round with the hook end towards the external wall, and trailers have been around a lot longer than Dinky toy trucks.

 

[ElleSkywalker]

Lucky horse and great rescuers.

These stupid little death traps have been around long enough now that people really should be aware of the risk of horses going over the breast bar and the rear doors not being wide enough for extraction if they do. It's perfectly possible to modify them by getting anti-weave bars added if you do have a poorly designed one. But then you see loads of people travelling horses in trailers with the bars too low/too high/not there at all, or the detachable bars put on the wrong way round with the hook end towards the external wall, and trailers have been around a lot longer than Dinky toy trucks.

My horse actually got wedged in anti weave bars going over into the living of a 3.5 ton lorry, and broke his ribs. By shear luck DSW managed to shove him back over but the firefighters were on the way to chop him out had he not managed this as rear door was far too small for him to be able to have got out of.

The safest partitions are either stallion stalls or robust sloped 'jump shelves' that even if the horse gets up on they can't go anywhere and slip back off.

 

[Tiddlypom]

Agree that there is a right way and a wrong way round to have trailer breast/breech bars fitted.

Fitted the correct way and the breast bar will drop right down if released from outside. Been there, done that in an emergency at the vets . The horse was released in a couple of minutes without us having to enter the trailer. Vets highly impressed. Fitted the wrong way the breast bar will only partially drop down.

The previous week another horse (not mine) had jumped the bar waiting at the vets car park and the fire brigade had had to cut it out.

Each horse here has the trailer breast/breech bars individually adjusted to provide a stall of appropriate dimensions.

I would never travel with anti weave grilles. Stallion stalls all the way for 3.5/4.5t lorries.

ETA I’ve personally only known of horses that travel happily and well in stallion boxes, including three of mine. That’s why the pros use them. There’s certainly much less scope for horses to get hooked up in a stallion box.

 

[VictoriaSponge]

I would assume the only reason for boxes to be built like this is to reduce payload and the cost on build materials, but that’s no excuse for the jockey door to be too small to get the horse out, especially from such a reputable manufacturer. I’m not a fan of the straight full height partitions as there is nothing for the horse to brace against during a collision, but collapsible and adjustable breast bars are surely a fairly simple addition to negate this.

There are a lot of cheaply made 3.5t out there that have various design flaws, but I’m surprised that such a well known and pricy brand has not implemented solutions to known issues.

 

[Rowreach]

Stallion stalls are horrible for horses to travel in, but these milk floats are horrible full stop. Probably why so many horses try to escape from them.

 

[ester]

The tack locker depth is what is driving the door width.

Are there breast bars where you activate the collapse from the inside (and can you get to it in this scenario) as externally to do so for this would have to be in the tack lockers.

If this box had a better partition (including head) and sloping tops to the lockers I don’t think this would have happened.

Frank was terrible in a stallion long stall

 

[teapot]

Poor sod, the haynet on the hoof just adds to his crappy day.

 

[meleeka]

Lucky horse! My only experience was with a IW trailer which a friend had borrowed. Her horse somehow ended up going under the breastbar and bent it into a V shape! Luckily horse unscathed, but it was pretty scary to see how little self preservation horses have when they panic

 

[Fieldlife]

Stallion stalls are horrible for horses to travel in, but these milk floats are horrible full stop. Probably why so many horses try to escape from them.

I dont really like stallion stalls either and have seen a horse get whiplash from an emergency stop where head hit wall. (Car pulled out in front of horsebox).

I like what I have - 5.5 tonne lorry, horse facing forwards. Solid breastbar (can release in an emergency). Nowhere to jump out into as solid wall in front of breast bar, but space for head and neck, haynet, and horse does not headbut the wall if need to do an emergency stop (and cannot guarantee idiots wont mean have to break hard occasionally.

 

[j1ffy]

The tack locker depth is what is driving the door width.

My 4.5T has a much wider door and the tack lockers are deep enough for a saddle. I've not looked closely / compared the doors of the brand in the FB link above but I'm confident a horse could get through my living area (it does mean my sofas are quite shallow but I can live with that!). However if a horse has jumped the breast bar and twisted it would make it harder...

 

[AShetlandBitMeOnce]

I understand they are a prey animal that don't follow logic, but I would love to know where exactly the horse thought he was going to get by trying to jump through there.

On the way back from my clinic yesterday my breastbar in front of Dex in the trailer came down, and I am SO glad my camera hadn't yet run out of battery (it did 5 minutes later!) as I then stopped in the middle of the road and put it back up, I didn't have any other option. I felt sick having seen images of what happens when horses find themselves in the front/jockey area of boxes/trailers.

 

[Polos Mum]

When I got mine (stallion layout) they specifically explained that the door at the very back is extra wide and the two doors from horse area to tack area are also wide so in event of emergency and the box is on it's side with the ramp side down - you can (relatively!) easily slide a sedated horse through both sets of doors and out to safety.

You have to, unfortunately think of all scenarios with these self harming little darlings.

How would you get a horse out if the ramp was face down after an accident in these where the lockers are fixed?

the very reputable local builder up here said these should only be used with a harness to hold the horse down - even the tiniest gap they can try and get into if spooked - that looked a total pain to have to do every time, esp. with youngsters so stallion layout for me. with nothing to climb on / into / over.

Equi Travel Safe- For Safer Equine Travel

Equi Travel Safe- Helping prevent horses from rearing or jumping onto the breast bar or lockers in horse boxes and trailers.

www.equitravelsafe.co.uk

Even in 7.5 tonnes I remember seeing lots with a tack locker that went under their heads and many of them climbed on that (when there was patently no space to do so!)

 

[Red-1]

I have a box from the same manufacturer, but chose a stallion partition. All horses have travelled brilliantly, and if I have to do an emergency stop, they travel rear facing so only sit on their bottoms, not on their heads.

I abhor the breast bar combined with a narrow back door scenario. It seems to be in so many boxes. I could quite easily lead mine straight out of the back, if I were to wish to.

I too would never use a weave grid to restrain a travelling horse. They can still try to get through and if there were an accident I would not want them suspended by the neck!

 

[Time for Tea]

Shocking to see that. I have a 3.5 tonne box, with stallion stalls. Solid wall to grooms section in the back, but wide doors in wall, that we never use but are available in an emergency and a wide door on the back. I also have Ifor Williams style removable breast bars. However the ponies travel more comfortably without those. Or so we conclude from observation. I think the stallion boxes are less claustrophobic.
It’s always a worry transporting, even when the horses are calm and experienced travellers.

 

[Tiddlypom]

Interesting FB comment from a pro transporter who have a stallion box design from the same premium brand as the horse that got trapped.

we have a ******* box and it has full length stallion partition and long stalls so there is no breastbar and no wheel arch blocks to stand on. Also full size emergency rear doors.
The sacrifice of having this layout is the usually affect the payload. More structure, less payload spare for horse and rider.

Most of the newer ones are starting to follow this design, but only as requested to the manufacturers.

The pro transporters that I know of all use stallion boxes. I use Equine Rescue Services for breakdown, and ERS allow their clients to specify what sort of rescue transport they prefer for their horse. I would never allow any sort of fixed breast bar and would request a stallion box or herringbone without tack lockers. Fingers crossed that I haven’t had to call for rescue yet, but that is very reassuring to know.

 

[Polos Mum]

The sacrifice of having this layout is the usually affect the payload. More structure, less payload spare for horse and rider.

Almost all 3.5 tonnes can be uprated to 3.9 tonnes with just a couple of forms to fill in - so the payload used up by a safer layout can be easily replaced with £40 and a form.
In Europe all the vans are 3.9 tonnes not 3.5 and they all come off the same manufacturing lines.

The process to upgrade to 4.5 tonne is really easy in many too, I think it cost £500 in total including changing break blocks / spring something and it's first plating - plus a pile of forms too - obviously

I guess the issue is then people's driving licenses which would need upgrading to drive a 3.9

 

[Squeak]

Almost all 3.5 tonnes can be uprated to 3.9 tonnes with just a couple of forms to fill in - so the payload used up by a safer layout can be easily replaced with £40 and a form.
In Europe all the vans are 3.9 tonnes not 3.5 and they all come off the same manufacturing lines.

The process to upgrade to 4.5 tonne is really easy in many too, I think it cost £500 in total including changing break blocks / spring something and it's first plating - plus a pile of forms too - obviously

I guess the issue is then people's driving licenses which would need upgrading to drive a 3.9

I was going to say, the issue is the driving licence and the plating rather than changing the boxes from a 3.5t to 3.9t.