He’s a scrambler, and it’s a learned behavior that is very difficult to extinguish, such as weaving or cribbing. You can haul him in a larger compartment so that he can’t lean. When he has nothing to lean on, he won’t scramble.
It’s very strange that this is a new behavior.
I had a gelding who would scramble terribly when hauled on the left side of the trailer, but was 100% fine when on the right side. We started putting him only on the right side and the problem went away.
My second horse started similar behaviour when he was 10 or 11. Giving him more space so he could widen his stance meant he didn’t have to lean on the wall/divider any more, which meant he didn’t lose his balance when a turn pushed him off the wall.
My current horse started acting odd in the trailer - leaning on the back, bracing his legs and stuff last year. Tried giving him more room, but he stood on the trailer and shook until the divider was swung back. Quite by accident we discovered that giving him 5 or 10 minutes to stand on the trailer before we pulled out solved the problem completely. Now I wait until he shifts his feet after loading before we go. Once he’s comfortable moving his feet on the trailer he’s fine. He self loads too and has had no issues going in.
If he is leaning he then cannot spread his legs. If you have cushions they lean and squish the cushion and can’t spread their legs.
I have a diagram about removing the cushions and replacing with ski bars if you are interested.
Thos syops the hips going over to the side so as they xan spread their legs.
Another horse I had was not a scrambler but he did scramble one day to a ODE.
He also went through a showjumping fence with only one rail without even trying to jump.
Then each time we went out showjumping he pulled a rail.
One treatment from a chiropractor I trusted and he was jumping clear again.
Mine does this and it is incredibly frustrating.
We lost the entire season last year after we got to NJHP and I opened the trailer to find what looked like a scene from dexter… he had peeled off one of his front shoes (with his other front hoof) and jammed the clip into his foot in so many places there was a pool of blood on the floor and blood EVERYWHERE from where he was flinging it around.
For those who suggested sliding the divider over - I wouldn’t do that again. We lost 7 months out of the 2013 season when I tried that and he decided he would turn himself around to unload in the little tiny space it left. It was so fast I couldn’t stop it. He got himself a roachback/ hunter bump and well over a thousand dollars worth of chiro/acupuncture/vets visits after that.
He travels perfectly with his best buddy or in a big rig (4h or more) or in slant load.
It is purely psychological - He can go in the 2h straight load with his best friend and he will not move a muscle, happy as a clam. Alone on a (literally) 10 minute ride he got himself worked up into a full body lather on a 15 degree day last week.
It’s a damn shame because this horse has the potential to be a real star if only I could take him someplace without him trying to murder himself on the way.
I went straight to ear infection too but I’m not so sure that’s it.
Have you tried different trailers? He “feels” like he wants to be set up differently, at an angle or in a stock, maybe backward. It’s like he wants to lean one way but he can’t. If it’s a learned behavior maybe a different set-up would help?
I have no experience with EPM/thelike so I can’t say much toward that but if what I said didn’t help I would be looking at that.
Can you do a little drive with him on the wrong side of the trailer?
It looks like he doesn’t want to touch the divider, so won’t lean on it. I wonder if you stick him in the wrong side of the trailer if he’ll suddenly have problems with left turns.
You could also see how he deals with ridng backward, which my horses have always done by choice. But then I always removed the center board too.
I had almost the same thing happen! My eventing mare logged a zillion miles happily in my straight load, but in her teens she started scrambling and several times went completely down. I tried her in a slant load and she did better. Tried her loose in an open stock trailer with a center gate, and she turned herself around and stood on the diagonal and did much better. See if you can borrow a few friends’ rigs (reverse slant, slant, open stock) that have different configurations and see if anything helps.
Eventually in her 20s my horse developed pretty severe arthritis in her knees. In retrospect,I suspect the scrambling in the straight load was related to early knee changes and somehow the motion of the trailer bothered her, even though she was still in work and performing at a fairly high level. Have you and your vet given the knees a long hard look?
your driving your trailer as you would your car normally unfortunately when you ae trailering you have to think you have a horse on board
whats happening is your horse is losing his footing as your taking your corners and bends to sharp
and it become more apparant in the feel as you drive
1- here in uk we put the horse if alone or in pairs the heaviest goes on the outside of the trialer if striaght up like yours- away from the cambers and the curbs now i know you lot drive on the right and not on left like us so move him to the other side of your trialer
2- think before you come to a bend or roundabout to slow well befoe you get the end of the road
3- dont brake as you would when driving normally be aware of your position and what you have behind you and start to slow down o approach to traffice lights etc and traffic you are driving and should be looking where your going and whats ahead
4- when you brake all of a sudden the horses body goes crashing in to the brest bar or breeching ie back ramp- when you all of a sudden brake hard
like wise when cornering or going round around about or curve as you call then dont cut the corners or curve go wider ad slower so you give your horse a nice transport exprerince add haynet for him to munch and tie him tie correctly to a piece of baling twine thats attached to the ring- so the horse has an oppertunity to break away in case of accident rather than break his neck
UNDERSTAND ITS YOUR DRIVING THAT EFFECTING YOUR HORSES BEHAVIOUR IN THE TRAILER HES LOSING HIS FOOTING AS YOU GOING TO FAST AND BRAKING TO QUICK ON CORNERS YOU ARE NOT THINKING WHAT YOU ARE TOWEING YOUR LAIDEN WEIGHT IS FAR GREATER THAN YOUR TOWING WEIGHT MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT VECHILE THAT CAN TOW THE FULL WEIGHT OF BOTH THE CAR THE TRIALER AND THE HORSE AND YOUR EQUIPMENT YOU ARE CARRYING - DRIVER ERROR NOT HORSES
In my horses’ cases their issues had nothing to do with the driving. If your driver/driving hasn’t changed then look for other causes.
1 Like
Goes, did you actually read the thread? Horse is not slipping. Horse also reacts the same way when turning at 2 mph as he does when rounding bends at 25 mph.
OP, best of luck in figuring this one out. I would be inclined to try a slant load and see if he reacts differently.
1 Like
I had a horse that could not tolerate a wall on his left side if he was constrained to one stall. He was fine on the right with a non-solid divider. He was fine on the left if you threw the divider over. It got worse with age so I suspect that some sort of arthritis issue was part of it.
is he sensitive at all to poll pressure? If so, he could be reacting to the pressure when he raises his tied head to balance. Try not tying him.
I agree that maybe rechecking EPM / Lyme if he’s been previously diagnosed might not be a bad idea. I also love the idea of trying him in different trailers, a slant that would allow him to shift weight more side-to-side rather than front-to-back might help narrow down what the causes for this new behaviour could be. Good luck and keep us posted on what you learn!
Have you had his stifles checked?
[QUOTE=Manahmanah;8044247]
It’s a damn shame because this horse has the potential to be a real star if only I could take him someplace without him trying to murder himself on the way.[/QUOTE]
Wow, how dreadful. My problem doesn’t seem so bad now. But I know how you feel because I almost feel cruel shipping him out to lessons etc. I take turns really really really slowly and still hear him clanging around. He’s 19 so he may not have that many show seasons left in him anyway, but it sucks. He deserves better.
I’m going to try putting him on the right side of the trailer as other people suggested. Maybe I’ll try moving the divider over too. One person suggested not tying him and I have actually already tried that but it didn’t seem to make a difference.
I’m not sure I have access to a slant load or stock trailer but I’m going to look into that too!
Oh and his last work-up right before my original post was at a vet school/hospital and they didn’t really have any ideas other than testing for EPM.
What bothers me about this is how suddenly it came on, that there was no change in the truck or trailer, that there was no precipitating incident, and that he otherwise seems completely sound and healthy. Vet’s coming out today though so I’ll have him check the ears and stifles since a few people mentioned that. I think I would have seen other symptoms, especially of the ears, by now but who knows.
Thank you all for your input!!!
[QUOTE=goeslikestink;8046304]
your driving your trailer as you would your car normally unfortunately when you ae trailering you have to think you have a horse on board
whats happening is your horse is losing his footing as your taking your corners and bends to sharp
and it become more apparant in the feel as you drive
1- here in uk we put the horse if alone or in pairs the heaviest goes on the outside of the trialer if striaght up like yours- away from the cambers and the curbs now i know you lot drive on the right and not on left like us so move him to the other side of your trialer
2- think before you come to a bend or roundabout to slow well befoe you get the end of the road
3- dont brake as you would when driving normally be aware of your position and what you have behind you and start to slow down o approach to traffice lights etc and traffic you are driving and should be looking where your going and whats ahead
4- when you brake all of a sudden the horses body goes crashing in to the brest bar or breeching ie back ramp- when you all of a sudden brake hard
like wise when cornering or going round around about or curve as you call then dont cut the corners or curve go wider ad slower so you give your horse a nice transport exprerince add haynet for him to munch and tie him tie correctly to a piece of baling twine thats attached to the ring- so the horse has an oppertunity to break away in case of accident rather than break his neck
UNDERSTAND ITS YOUR DRIVING THAT EFFECTING YOUR HORSES BEHAVIOUR IN THE TRAILER HES LOSING HIS FOOTING AS YOU GOING TO FAST AND BRAKING TO QUICK ON CORNERS YOU ARE NOT THINKING WHAT YOU ARE TOWEING YOUR LAIDEN WEIGHT IS FAR GREATER THAN YOUR TOWING WEIGHT MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT VECHILE THAT CAN TOW THE FULL WEIGHT OF BOTH THE CAR THE TRIALER AND THE HORSE AND YOUR EQUIPMENT YOU ARE CARRYING - DRIVER ERROR NOT HORSES[/QUOTE]
Goeslikestink, The OP covered all this in her inittial post. Did you read it?
Just wanted to thank everyone for their advice! I ended up trying him on the right side of the trailer this past weekend, pretty much our first road trip since this thread, and it worked!!! I didn’t feel him lose his balance once. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me to try that before. So thanks, all!
I hope it stays that simple because as much as I love him I don’t think I can justify buying a new trailer for an almost-19-year-old horse who is probably (sadly) approaching retirement from the show ring.
