At the risk of sounding a little nutty, I think my horse is trying to tell me he wants to ride backwards in my trailer. I have a stock sided 2 horse slant but I never use the divider. Last year my horse suddenly developed a lot of anxiety around trailering and started refusing to load.
We spent a lot of time working on this and he has improved significantly. One thing he started doing was after I send him in the trailer, he will turn himself around and stand facing backwards. And he’ll stand there calmly for upwards of 15 minutes just hanging out with the back door of the trailer wide open.
I can’t help but wonder if he’s trying to tell me that would be his preferred way to ride in the trailer. Due to the stock sides I can easily tie him facing backwards and I basically never haul him with other horses. Is there any reason I can’t try this out? He’s a very weird quirky horse that can be quite anxious and ulcer prone, so I will do anything to keep him calm and happy.
I’ve had a few horses that prefer to haul backwards, or loose and orient themselves backwards.
As long as your trailer is safe for him to haul that way, go for it.
Mine rides backward in a two horse slant. I hang the hay bag where her tail would normally be and she rides dead quiet. Makes unloading a breeze as well.
I have a stock trailer with a center gate so two box stalls. Every horse travels on a slant and the vast majority travel facing backwards.
I have a stock trailer and both of my horses travel backwards. In fact, I taught them to self load and turn around. I usually don’t tie them so they can choose how they want to ride, but I do reach in and attach a lead rope to the halter before I open the door to unload. And I think it’s safer for them to unload head first instead of backing out, although they know how to back out if they need to. So no, I don’t think you’re nutty at all. Let your horse ride backwards!!
I used to have a stock trailer. Any time I hauled my horse(s) loose, they inevitably faced backward and stood on a slant with their heads on the driver’s side.
When I have hauled horses in a stock trailer, they have ALWAYS chosen to turn around the ride backwards.
I also choose to leave them loose so they can stand how they please.
Same here—2-3 horse stock (3 if they are polo ponies) and they prefer backwards. I knew my one OTTB preferred backwards and I don’t tie him. But I hauled him together for the first time with my newer guy recently and tied both just because I wasn’t sure if the newer guy would be a baby and nip at my older guy. When we got to the vet’s, they’d both turned around facing the back, still tied. Both traveled like pros and I didn’t even feel them move around to swap ends.
Purposely bought a trailer my horses travel backwards because my lovely grey horse started trying to kill himself facing forwards. It’s been nearly 3 years of the rear facing trailer. I haul him 4-5 X a month. 1-2 hours each direction. Not a single issue since.
And I have a camera. So I watch and see him.
