No, the doors were closed when he panicked and climbed over the chest bar. When thinking about ways to overcome this issue, I had considered the possibility of leaving him alone on the trailer with the door open to make him less claustrophobic. But I was afraid of just what you suggested: that the open door might invite him to climb over the chest bar to get out.
I’m really looking at two questions here. The first is to minimize the possibility of him hurting himself if he panics. That’s why I asked for opinions on the wisdom (or lack thereof) of removing the partition and bars so he has nothing to try to climb over. I’m still considering that, and I’ve had several people tell me that it should be OK to haul him in a big open 14x7 box, but I’m still a little hesitant.
Obvioiusly, the ideal solution is to get rid of the panic. So the next question is what causes the panic? Claustrophobia would be the most obvious answer, but I don’t think that’s it. So to consider that question, I’m going to get more long-winded and add some history that I didn’t think was relevant to my original immediate question of whether the totally open trailer was a good idea.
Horse is a 6-year-old OTTB. So he’s obviously hauled before. Raced as a 3-year-old, and then his trainer took him over as a personal horse, trail riding, cross-country jumping, pulling sleds, working cattle, etc. A been-there, done-that, steady Eddie kind of guy that you wouldn’t expect to flip out in a trailer.
When I picked him up, he was a little hesitant about my trailer, which didn’t surprise me since it was something new. He loaded with just a little encouragment and rode home (about 45 minutes) very calmly. In the next couple of weeks, I rode him around the farm a few times and he was an angel under saddle, walking through cattle, bushwacking rough territory, etc. But when I first brought him into the barn to tack him up, he was very pissed off about being taken away from his pasture buddies that he’s turned out with 24x7.
After a couple of weeks, I thought I should make sure I could load him by myself. It took me a few minutes, but he eventually loaded and stood quietly on the trailer, so I thought we were good. About a week later, I wanted to go on a trail ride, and it took me over an hour to get him loaded. So we didn’t go anywhere that day. I worked with him every day for about a week, and had him loading fairly well again. Next time I wanted to trail ride, it took a few minutes to load him, and then he rode calmly to/from the ride, about 30 minutes each way.
Then on Labor Day, I loaded him for a trail ride, and as I was closing up the trailer, he started throwing a fit. I thought he was just pissed about being separated and would get over it in a minute. When the banging continued, I opened the back door and saw his front legs over the chest bar.
Considering his history of riding well for me a couple of times, and doing all kinds of stuff with his former owners, I’m a little skeptical that he just suddenly decided he doesn’t like the confinement of a trailer.
One possibility is that he’s getting more unhappy about leaving his buddies. That would be a factor that wouldn’t have been an issue previously.
Another possiblity is that he might have been attacked in the trailer by one of those friggin bomber horseflies. I know that he especially doesn’t like them, because I’ve seen him explode before when they nail him. In fact, on one of our practice sessions, one got him just as he was walking up the ramp. Total chaos resulted, The friggin fly hung on, and he wouldn’t let me get close enough to him to knock it off. That could very well have been the cause of his panic attack on Labor Day. I’m not sure whether it was enough to convince him that this new trailer is a scary place where he gets eaten, but it might be.