I am custom ordering a 3-horse slant load LQ trailer that will be 8 ft wide without mangers. I have the capability to customize the length/width of the stalls. I know to measure down the middle of the stall and have seen past posts about warmblood sized slants. But what length do I actually need for the comfort of the horse. For example, if my horse is 100 inches long from nose to tail in a relaxed head position, how much “extra” length is needed? 6 inches, 12 inches, a 1 step stride?? Thanks.
Make sure you want a 8 ft wide trailer. The local roads where I live are super narrow and I’m not sure I would want anything wider then what I have… But it depends on how they designed the trailer itself. I would definitely want the outside width of the trailer checked to see how wide it is. If you are on decent roads and don’t need to go down super narrow roads then it is not a concern for you.
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Know that the builder/sales person will measure the stall diagonally, to get the greatest length possible in promoting a sale. Stall is a trapazoid shape, not a rectangle. Horse rump is NOT GOING to fit in that far corner to use the sale length of stall. My horses, big Sporthorse types do not fit in slant stalls.
They wear 84 inch blankets, no extra fabric in length. Add on 4ft of head and neck, vertical face, making for a LONG, full bodied horse. Of course I do not want to actually haul with face vertical, horse needs more room than body and neck combined measurement length to allow relaxation of the head and neck.
I tried loading one of our horses in an advertised ‘big and tall’ slant trailer and it did not work! No way the swing divider was even getting close to latching and horse face WAS tight on the vertical but still pushing against the wall. I was unloading horse even as salesperson tried telling me horse could use a double stall! Well then I might as well keep my trailer with straight stalls that she fits in!! Then I can haul more than one horse!
I would take my horse/s to “try on the trailer” at the dealership to see if their stall sizing is anything close to what seller says the measurements are. Lots of things ‘look good’ on paper, but fail when dealing with a real horse. Horses are rectangles, not trapezoid in body shape. Wasted inches in front and rear corners horse does not fit into.
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That’s a good point. My friend has big horses and she went with a 4 Star straight load trailer. Unfortunately the divider had sharp edges on it and her horses got some cuts on them. I believe she had to have padding added to the sides/edges to remedy that. It was not at all obvious that the edge would be sharp enough to cut. I can’t say her horses are great in the trailer so that may have contributed?
A lot of dealers think 7’6" tall and 8 wide makes it a WB trailer. 3 dimensions go into the slant sizes. First is the rear offset, that determines the angle at which the horses stand. Next is the spacing at the head. Last, and least important, is the width of the trailer. You can change the first measurement to where they are almost standing straight. Depending on the customer, we would change the first element to 66 or even 72" depending on the size of the horses. Remember, when you do this you are also changing the size of the dressing so you may need to add footage to compensate. The width at the head will translate into the width at the ribcage. If you’ve made the rear offset longer you, for sure, want to increase the room at the head by at least 6", maybe more. The trailer width isn’t much of an issue, we like the 7 wide as there are no wheel well intrusions. If this is an LQ, you want 8 wide for the benefit of the conversion. And, as long as you’re changing things, make it 8 tall for extra roominess and ventilation. The added height isn’t a lot of dollars once you’ve done everything else.
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