Any Ideas of why she does this when travelling

Hey Seren,
Believe me I have been there and done that with floating troubles. (For those here last February 2003 remember the nasty icky picies of my geldings legs due to an argument with a divider in the float)
He still rides the walls and appears to fall and lose his balance on right hand turns. We have to actually stop the vehicle. Then take of very slowly and turn right.
Left he is fine.

Now to the point of my post! We have found that the riding the walls thing is his stifles. He has ongoing stifle trouble (not locking just sore) and shifting his weight is an issue with him.
Maybe something to consider for you have your mare looked at by a vet or a chiropractor? May help, its just a suggestion :)
Good luck!
 
Hi Seren
I know how you are feeling about travelling your horse, my mare is doing the same. She loads fine and sometimes travels fine but at other time persistently kicks either the back or side of the trailer, to the point of damaging it. The last time she was doing this I stopped the trailer and went to see what she was doing - she was stood on three legs just kicking the side with the other.
I think it might be something to do with the travel boots - she wears over the hock padded ones. And so this week I have hitched the trailer up everyday and put her in to have her breakfast and hay net (she is currently turned out), without any boots on. She has been very relaxed and shown no signs of being anxious. I am going to try and make her feel that the trailer is a good place to be, I did this for three days, first time with the side door open, but then with it shut. I then took her around the block and she was fine. I have ordered some bandages and am going to see if she is ok with them on. I have also started putting on tendon boots on her back legs when I am riding so that she learns not to be so sensitive about having something on her legs, she tried to shake them off the first time.
I woudl be very interested in finding a stockist of internal 'bumpers' as I don't think my trailer will take much more.
I spoke to a trainer about it and she said that there are lots of very good travellers that are turned into poor ones by big padded travel boots, so I would try and get hold of the person you purchased her from and see what she travelled in before.
Tracey
 
Adam is not very good at keeping his balance in a trailer either, but it doesn't seem to bother him although he does bang about a bit in the back, but never comes off stressed or sweaty.

But, I did see a horse behaviorist loading a poor loader at a demonstration recently and she said that she never used travel boots because if they slip down and the horse stands on them they can think that their legs are tied together and then they can panic. She always uses sports boots instead. And, seeing as I have some I have used them ever since.
 
Crikey, REALLY old thread :p but still useful as it seems there are a lot of horses that have problems with trailers. CW is exactly the same. It's only cos I travelled behind him in a car that I saw he was falling. His bum would go down, lots of scrabbling, head shoots up. I used to whistle (our call) out of my car window to calm him down.

Was far better with a larger companion as he felt more comfortable on the left. He is fine in boxes. My idea (if I wanted to go through it again after he had a breakdown in the trailer a few years ago) would be to take the central partition out and allow him to find his own space. He obviously likes travelling sideways.

Am sure this is still relevant so that's why I'm responding.
 
[Crikey, REALLY old thread but still useful as it seems there are a lot of horses that have problems with trailers. CW is exactly the same. It's only cos I travelled behind him in a car that I saw he was falling. His bum would go down, lots of scrabbling, head shoots up. I used to whistle (our call) out of my car window to calm him down]

OOps - thats me!! Did a google as I was having a problem and it found this thread.

Tracey
 
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