Agree with all who said to remove the divider… or get a Stock trailer…he needs to spread his feet wide.
I have a Stock and most horses chose to travel on a slant. Some prefer backwards. My 13hh pony actually stands sideways.
[QUOTE=farak;8951390]
Thanks. I haven’t tried it because the trainer said he was worse when aced or loose in a stock trailer for some reason.[/QUOTE]
I too would pass on the Ace, but I would absolutely leave the horse loose. Every horse I’ve owned happily, in a wide enough trailer, would turn themselves around and ride diagonally if allowed.
Sometimes that can’t be done, but I long ago dispensed with dividers between horses, and peace reigned.
I had a BAD scrambler years ago. After someone else hauled him and didn’t follow my instructions and he went down and got injured, I rode in the trailer with him to figure out what he was doing and saw him trying to stand on the left wall whenever we’d go around a turn. He had been in a trailer crash several years before I got him, and someone told me that because they are completely enclosed and can’t see the horizon or the world outside moving, they get disoriented and think the walls are the floor, etc.
I tried everything, and found if I hauled him loose in a box or double stall, he was for the most part ok (a sharp turn would still set him off so I really drove carefully with him). He could put his head down and he would turn around and ride backwards, and that seemed to keep him calm. I also had to keep the interior lights turned on at night - he was worse in the dark.
I had my good show mare suddenly start scrambling. The only thing we could come up with was that maybe she got stung by a wasp or something in the trailer. I know she never had a bad ride or accident as I’m the only one that ever drove the trailer. With her I removed the divider to haul. After several times riding that way with no fuss I tried putting the divider back. No dice! I could only haul her this way and sometimes my gelding needed to go too. So I left the divider out and hauled them both (heads tied). Mare was happy as a clam with that arrangement and since she and the gelding were buds he wasn’t bothered by the arrangement. I did keep their legs quilted and in shipping boots so they didn’t accidently step on each other. It sounds like you are trying all the correct things to help your horse.
