How wide to turn around in horse trailer?

[SuzieQNutter]

@Montanas_Girl

I don’t think turning your horses around to unload is going to solve either of your issues as I understand them (horses not standing and your anxiety). Turning horses, especially big horses, inside anything but a very wide, empty stock trailer puts you in an extremely vulnerable position. There really isn’t enough room to do it safely in most trailers, especially if your horse already has a habit of exiting rapidly. Horses that have learned to turn around rather than back out tend to anticipate and spin/bolt out unless they’ve been trained VERY well not to do so; if they slam you against a wall or divider in the process, you could get just as injured as you currently fear might happen while closing the back of your current trailer.

A slant load could help you, though, I think. My loading process is to lead the horse in, have it step over against the wall or divider, close the divider, then step out of the trailer and walk around to tie the head. That keeps you out of firing range in 99.9% of cases, at least more so that when doing up a butt bar on a straight load. Then to unload, you untie the head, open the back door and then divider, walk to the horse’s head, and ask it to back out. There’s no 100% safe way to load and unload - it’s one of the most dangerous things we do with horses - unless maybe you run them up a ramp into a stock trailer ala the BLM, I guess. As long as you can find a slant load trailer that will comfortably accommodate your big guys, it sounds like that would make you the happiest. Good luck!

With my angle float, you lead in up the ramp, ask them to turn sideways and close the divider then tie.

Then to unload you untie, open the divider and lead them forwards down the same ramp.

[ThreeFigs]

Could you find a nice used Hawk or Balanced Ride trailer with fore-and-aft ramps? I LOVE my Hawk trailer that allows for a side-load, rear facing/rear unloading. It can also be switched around for rear-loading, forward facing/side unloading. I’ve used it both ways depending on the circumstances.

Have you spoken to Risa at Happy Trails Trailers? It’s worth asking about! Best of luck in your trailer search.

[Equibrit]

There are plenty of 2 horse straight loads with front and rear ramps. https://horsetrailerworld.com/Search…&sort=0&page=2