Last night I saw a BP stock trailer go by with the interior lights in the stock compartment on and it got me wondering… Do folks trailer with their interior lights on at night? Personal preference?
I don’t think I have ever had a trailer with lights inside. If I did I wouldn’t have them on, horses don’t need them.
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Mine don’t work, so no, but I’ve seen some trailers where they come on automatically with the running lights.
Some people say it keeps the light of headlights from bothering the horse’s eyes.
When I hauled often as part of my job, the lights were always on at night in the horse compartment but that was so that you could see them with the monitoring system cameras
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I don’t use lights inside at night. Horses have never seemed to care.
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My older 4H head to head trailer is wired like this. When the truck headlights are on, the interior lights are on in the trailer, no way to turn them on or off independently.
I have never used my interior lights at night, except to load. If my horses can stand in the dark at home, I figure they can do it in the trailer.
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I had figured the same, that they’re often in the dark overnight anyway. The headlight theory, I could see and considered it myself. I haul with the interior lights off, the way the trailer windows are designed, I think I’d be a distraction with them on. It did have me wondering if there was some nighttime hauling protocol I had missed the memo on, though. :o
I’ve thought of hauling with my interior trailer lights on just for safety reasons.
I haul with mine on (2 horse slant). Mostly because I forget to turn them on and off when I use them to load at the end of the ride.
We haul with the inside lights on. Our theory is horse can see trailer walls better for turns, bumps, so they won’t get their heads smacked on trailer walls if surprised by something unexpected. Sure they know their buddy is there in the dark, but just seeing him is a calming effect and faster, over screaming, getting answered or more upset if buddy does NOT answer, when a horse gets upset.
I am sure our horses would haul in the dark, just never ask it of them. If ANY of my lights on trailer don’t work I get them fixed. I hate when my equipment does not work because that is the time I really need them working. Husband added inside lights to the stock trailer, they have been handy over the years. It has a switch for off bur we leave them to come on with the running lights. I always drive trailers with the running lights on, going for that extra margin of visibility for safety.
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I haul with the lights off. My horses don’t seem to react any differently than they do in the daytime.
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We almost always travel overnight during the summer months since it can be cooler, and we always leave the lights on. I like the idea of them seeing walls and to possibly avoid injury. We also have a camera and can watch them much better with the lights on (it does see in the dark but the picture is pretty crappy).
Of course horses can see in the dark but they are not usually in a moving trailer with different sounds going on around them. Even at our barn at night we have pot lights under the overhang of our door and some light shines into the stalls.
I always have mine on. One because it makes the trailer that much more visible and two because I spent ~15 years doing emergency transport to hospitals and if I was hauling at night, it was some degree of sick or injured and i wanted to keep an eye on the horse.
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Our don’t work and we rarely haul at night - but - I saw someone doing it recently and it made the trailer a lot more visible on dark, rural roads. If you had an older trailer without a zillion lights or reflector strips, maybe it would be useful.
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I leave the interior trailer lights on at night because it reduces the strobe effect of passing & oncoming lights.
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