I’m in the group that had a horse try to climb out his window through the manger. He was very attached to me and I had just tied his head and stepped away and lef the head door open - I think he was trying to come with me when I backed away from the trailer. He got his full neck out all the way up until his withers and rib cage got stuck. We got him “UNSTUCK” by backing him up again into the normal position … THANK GOD… He was lucky to come away with only the need for stitched on his withers and some Chiro. work but that could have been a major disaster. He was a SUPER green horse, BTW. I think a more senior horse wouldn’t/ shouldn’t have that kind of a problem.
I am not a fan of hard mangers.
My normally very level headed horse tends to paw in the trailer when it is not moving. Pawing with a hard wall right in front of his leg is not really good for the knees.
I have help extract horses from hard mangers in the nicest, roomiest Sundowner slant load trailers and the el cheapo, cramped space, small two horse straight load trailers. I once extracted my own, then long yearling, from a soft manger in my slant load trailer. Sigh. Horses are programmed with “test the owner” systems.
In my experience the issue hasn’t been the trailer design but the temperament of the horse. Spend as much time selecting a good horse as you do selecting a trailer and things will work out, one way or the other. There are pro’s and con’s to each trailer design.
I’m not a fan. I’ve never seen any injuries, but I think they are a PITA to clean.
[QUOTE=ElisLove;7252342]
I know a horse that climbed its front legs into a hard manger and literally took one entire heel bulb off. Cleanly sliced the whole thing off and clearly hit a very big vein/artery as blood shot in a stream across the barn. Not sure what happened to that horse as I think we moved my horse shortly after (not at all related to said incident)[/QUOTE]
Mine was way too handy climbing up to hurt himself, thankfully. He’d have his eye right up against the window though, peering out!
[QUOTE=LookmaNohands;7254396]
The reason the horses end up in the manger is balance and a too small trailer. When you slow down, horses sit back a bit with their front legs out in front of them. The will have their front feet in front of the breast bar and sit or almost sit on the butt bar. They cannot do that with a manger and if they don’t have enough room to really sit back–especially if you stop quickly–they end up in the manger.
Never would I think of putting a horse in one of those!![/QUOTE]
Except for ones like the one I had who would be up in the manger before anyone even had the keys in the truck.
[QUOTE=cnvh;7253663]
As for the trailers with the mangers and center-front walk-through, that’s all well and good, but it reduces the horse’s head space by at least a third. I’m not too keen on that either.[/QUOTE]
I don’t like this design either, though I haven’t used it.
It sounds like a compromise between a walk-through and a shorter trailer with mangers and tack storage beneath. But getting stuff in and out of those low compartments are a PITA. Same for cleaning them, I’d imagine. And think about the kind that open into a small dressing room. Now imagine you want to get a western saddle in there and you have packed a week’s worth of stuff into the tack room for a show. It sounds bad.
The problems in the horse compartment seem (to me) to be a sharp edge at the corner of the manger where the aisle starts. Usually, there’s a small, diagonal gap with a chain across it, forming a barrier for the horse. I don’t see how the horse can swing his head evenly in both directions. And is there enough open space with the narrow center aisle to give the look of openness for the shy loader? Does an aisle that opens into a tack room defeat the purpose? Dose using that door mean that you have to load the horses first and then pack your tack room second?
[QUOTE=mvp;7256267]
And is there enough open space with the narrow center aisle to give the look of openness for the shy loader? Does an aisle that opens into a tack room defeat the purpose? Dose using that door mean that you have to load the horses first and then pack your tack room second?[/QUOTE]
My friend got a trailer like this, so hers is the only first-hand experience I’ve had with one. It was bright enough inside, and there was a doorway (with window) at the center-front of the trailer, so you could access the tack area without having to pass the horses. It’s really quite a cute design, and maybe if I had smaller horses and there was an alternative to the loss of head space (maybe a swinging divider in the middle?), I’d consider it. But a non-manger beats a manger for me, anyday.
