What a great idea!
thanks so much!!
This is probably bad but…
I carry a battery powered leaf blower with me to clean up hay. The WERM floor is impossible to sweep hay off of, and the blower gets it under control in a jiffy.
Just a thought, if the bags still yield a mess!
3 Likes
I remember those. There was a saddlebred mare, in foal, being hauled to the farm I managed who got both front feet up there. Not sure how she managed, it was a small trailer, and she wasn’t a small mare. Fortunately I didn’t have to deal with getting her out of it.
One of the reasons I sold my small trailer was the mangers. I can imagine a horse getting up in them and the bottom of it falling through, slicing-and-dicing as the horse struggled their way back out.
1 Like
This is brilliant!
1 Like
They have become so widely available and relatively inexpensive and easy to install that in my opinion a trailer camera to monitor the horses should be considered the standard of care for horse trailer towing these days.
1 Like
I have a similar set up, using the Hawk hay/feed bags in my trailer (which is a Hawk). I quite like them but the Hawk ones are more expensive and the ones from Riding Warehouse are probably just fine. There are a few size options. I just toss a few flakes directly in them, but as mentioned it wouldn’t be hard to use a net in conjunction.
I prefer this set up over mangers and whatnot.
1 Like
I have that hay bag as well, horse trailer accessories has multiple sizes to fit various trailer widths. I added the loose D rings to the center divider pole, sides and stud gate center pole… sometimes I put the hay in the hay net and snap it to the hay bag but since I too have a blower that lives in the trailer, that takes care of loose hay.
As for the worry that a horse could climb in a hay bag, honestly my bigger concern would be that they were over the chest bar. The straps on those bags aren’t holding up to that kind of stress so that problem solves itself. Getting your horse off the chest bar is a whole other level of fun said nobody ever. But if it keeps you up at night, just snap the bag snaps to a hay twine loop attached to the d ring or however you attach the bag, problem solved!
4 Likes
I’ll raise you both front feet and then trying to go out that stupid front window, slowly cutting into his his neck with every forward lunge. He finally got stuck at his withers and came within a hair’s breath of his vertebra. The vet had to tie his tail to the truck hitch and pull him out.
He ended up ok, although with a large dent in his neck. I was scarred for life. Just say no to mangers in trailers.
1 Like
Making an 8 mile haul with no manger and no hay net, with horse tied with a velcro breakaway trailer tie. I felt the trailer shake and could not see a head on the trailer monitoring camera. My 17hh draft had pulled free of the velcro safety release tie and had wedged his head and neck under the chest bar.
If there is a way to get in trouble, a horse will find it, even in an empty trailer.
3 Likes
I rescued a horse that had hopped over the chest bar. once over it passed out since all of its weight was on the chest bar…to this day I have no idea how I was able to drag that beast over the bar and out the escape door… once over he bar it sort of flowed out the escaped door like liquid… once it recovered, it got up and was reloaded as this happened on a busy federal highway
I was following the wife of the trainer I worked for, she had picked up this new horse, I saw the horse jump up overt he bar… this was back in the days before cell phones being common, so getting her attention to stop was not easy either.
All I remeber was I grabbed its halter with both hand and PULLED
(Those pins that hold the bar in place Can Not be pulled with 1200 horse on top of the bar)
2 Likes
I have no problem cleaning it up - I just dont want to waste so much.
1 Like
I had a yearling make it fully out the window (while at a stop). Luckily I do not have mangers, but that incident all but guaranteed that I will NEVER buy a trailer with mangers. I’ve had them put their feet through canvas feed bags. No issue there; if they don’t turn it to shreds, just cut the remaining bag down. But mangers give me the heebie jeebies. I have thought through what would have happened to the yearling if I had mangers. Neither of the two scenarios I came up with had as good of an outcome as the window incident itself…
This also terrifies me as I transition from a slant load to a straight load. I’m not above cutting things apart with a sawzal. But I do worry if I can’t even access part of the bar to cut…
You all are really making me appreciate my Boeckmann trailer!
Front windows give great light and ventilation, but much too small for a horse head to fit through or think about climbing out.
Chest bars that can be dropped from the outside in case of emergency. Feed the the broom through the loop, twist and they drop.
1 Like
You are under estimating the average horses desire to cause mayhem.
1 Like
the manger trailers that most of us are talking about are from a different era and so tiny, which was a large part of the problem. Everything had to be handled from the outside, which really sucks if you’ve been in that situation! Fortunately most of them have probably been repurposed as traveling bars by now.
Many pins can be released even if weight is on the bar assuming the bar doesn’t bend, and that’s not unlikely, but that doesn’t mean moving the unpinned bar (sitting on its pin loops) with a horse’s full weight is on it is easy (btdt). From your description, would it be physically possible to rotate that loop with 1000lbs pressing down? That sounds unlikely, but I’m going on your description alone.
1 Like
Because of my past experience we do not have a trailer that uses the chest bars so I can not validate my thoughts on how to improve a chest bar. I believe if the round bar had an additional angle welded to it on its bottom edge where the round tube sets into the angle the bar then could support the weight of horse without distorting.
(if the round chest bar has inserted and attached stiffer inside the tube this would also increase its stiffness such as these examples
The problem with the round bar when required to support weight it will (or could) flex/bend/distort thus locking the attachment pins or its normally easily removable attachments which usually are in a very close alignment to keep down or reduce rattling
Yes very tight fits. The horse could be blocking the pin from being removed, or the weight on the bar will bind the pin, or the weight will distort the bar and further bind the pin. I can make pretty quick work with a sawzal, but I would worry that a horse would have all cut-able sections of bar covered up.
