I have a 2000 hawk 2H straightload, regular size. My 14h pony seems to sometimes scramble a little on turns, mostly left turns. I am very experienced with driving the trailer, and have no issues with my larger horse. Also, she never seemed unbalanced in my smaller Kingston 2H. The hawk is a little wider and longer, and the partition does not go to the ground as it did in the Kingston. Is a lower partition (stud wall) an answer to this to help with balance? Anyone have experience with this? Or is there a way to add padding to make it more narrow?
In my admittedly limited experience horses who scramble need more space to spread their feet. Horses often scramble turning one way and not the other because they are leaning and bracing themselves against one side of the stall.
Your horse may be used to bracing a certain way with her feet up against the solid partition. Now that she lost that with the partial divider she scrambles?
My horse was the exact opposite. I went from a partial divider to a solid one and he scrambled. We made it a partial divider and the scrambling stopped immediately.
The only thing I have on this is to make sure you watch your mirrors to see that the trailer is completely straight behind you before accelerating after a turn. We all know when the truck is straight, but sometimes forget to check that our load is also straight, and take your time to let pony adjust to her new ride which seems to be asking her to figure out a new way to balance.
I have found that horses that are back sore or sore in their hind end tend to scramble more than horses that are not. You can use a pen cap or the cap from a needle to test for soreness. Run the cap with as much pressure as you can across the meaty part of your palm. You will notice that you can apply alot of pressure without causing pain. Use this same pressure when you run the pen along the muscles that are beside the horses spine from wither back. You can also run it along the rump of the horse. If you are unsure how to do the test for muscle soreness, there are several videos on the web and your vet could also help.
Yup, I’m thinking I have the exact opposite problem since she trailered perfectly with the solid divider. I’m looking to get a lower partition fabricated.
I would put a wireless trailer camera back there and watch her closely on a monitor while a friend drives your rig around for a while.
That way maybe you can identify the problem before you start modifying things.
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