Would you ever travel with the front top door of a trailer open??

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Northhorse

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A client picked up a pony recently from our yard on a really windy day and set off with the top front door open on her trailer.
The pony in question travels perfectly well with it shut.
We have noticed recently that several prople are doing this - I cant think of any good reason why a good traveller should have a front door open blowing grit/hay seeds etc into it's eyes!
Is this a daft fashion or am I missing something??
 
I have done in the past as mine used to be a bad traveller..if he could see out though he would be fine. wouldnt do it down the motorway or anything..just local roads while we were getting him out and about and used to travelling. managed to solve the issue by replacing the front top door with some thick perspex so I can shut it and he can still see outside..perfectly happy now with that set up. I always had him cross tied so he couldnt actually stick his head right out, which I have seen now and again.
 
It horrifies me to see people do this. Years and years ago I had a pony jump over the breast bar and out of the top door (god knows how!) and ended up dangling on the end of his rope. Luckily that was while we were still...

At best the horse gets really wind swept, hit by branches and scared by lorries going past on the motorway! A really good idea, not.
 
This is becoming a lot more common and I don't really understand why, I would have thought it would be more likely to put horses off going in the trailer (although there will be exceptions.) Personally for safety reasons I wouldn't do it and mine doesn't like lorries so if she could see them that clearly she'd probably have a fit and cause trouble. I always worry about what could go through the gap and into their eyes, I always think it can't be very pleasant.
 
No I wouldn't but I have seen it done (particularly in Kent bizarrely!).

It must be terrifying for the horse when you pass another large vehicle, low branches swiping the trailer on country lanes - I really don't understand why people do it.

Actually, I was once driving back from a pony club rally with daughter and little pony, there was some bloke behind me, right on my bumper and trying to overtake up a very steep single track hill - I couldn't fathom out what on earth he was playing at! When we turned at the junction onto a two lane road, he roared passed me, flashing his lights and cut me up - turns out it was a pony club Dad who had seen me drive off with the top door still open :eek:
 
Saw it on the ring road around Dublin and the horse had his head poking full out of the top door, artics whizzing past and everything :o :o :o was sat behind the car for ages, flashing my lights....
 
Not sure there is a valid reason, think its the new fad,which I would never do. I too have had one come over the breast bar and out of the jockey door, not something I would want to revisit
 
No I wouldn't any debris could fly in, a passing branch, its a ridiculous idea, someone from my yard once took out the breast bar and partitions, they went to the show with the pony poking its head out the back over the ramp !!! can you just imagine if they had to brake suddenly ? the horse would be in the car the idiots
 
no i would never travel with the front top door open either. my horses would have a complete eppy if i did that!

my husband was following a trailer down the motorway one day and he could see the horses head out the front of the trailer, he tried to flag them down but they didn't listen for ages, he was driving an arctic and was too scared to pass them incase he knocked the horses head.
when he finally got them to stop (in services) they just blamed the kid for leaving it open instead of realising that they should have checked the catches and everything else!
 
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