Trailering Woes

[Badger]

Things to consider: open box stall (with full length butt bar), nonbreakable mirror so she doesn’t feel alone, you have goats maybe one could be a companion for trailer rides and hang out in trailer while you are on the trails.

Some trailering issues can be pain related. Ulcers can make horses very unhappy in the trailer as the movement of the trailer causes sloshing of stomach acid onto ulcers. One bad trailering horse I had (he once pawed a rubber mat off the wall of the trailer and tore it in half) improved on ulcer guard started two days out before any trailer ride but that didn’t totally fix him. What did was removing all forms of grain and grain products from his diet and on a forage diet he became a great trailerer and a happy and competitive GP horse.

Another bad trailering horse improved when I put front shoes on him, seems his feet were stinging and he was becoming anxious about upcoming work once we arrived at our destination.

Don’t give up, keep looking for the source of the anxiety.

I never tried it but one top trainer told me he blindfolded his difficult to trailer horse and she started traveling perfectly and arriving cool instead of dripping sweat. Some horses really don’t like the noise inside the trailer and adding earplugs and/or masking sound with soothing music can help.

Good luck!

[fledermaus]

Thanks for these tips. I believe I will try as many as I can.

The divider unbolts, leaving the breast bars in place, so she wouldn’t have access to the escape doors, but I would need a full width butt bar. My husband can weld me one, I think.

The mirror is a good idea too. And so is the ulcerguard, although she isn’t prone to ulcers normally. She is okay with the ramp, luckily – and she’d be even more okay if she could go out frontward.

I don’t think I would leave a lone goat in a trailer for long. They are just as much herd animals as horses. I tried hauling Brooke with both the pony and the goat (to keep each other company) to a clinic once, put them in a pen there. That worked well except the goat escaped the pen, and settled himself in the middle of the arena where he could keep tabs on Brooke, to everyone’s amusement, while the lonely pony hollered … I spent more time fussing with the extra animals than I did paying attention to the clinician.

[fledermaus]

@atr

My own anxiety if I had gone through what you have gone through would make me a complete non-starter as the trainer in this situation

Well, it was two years ago, and I got rid of the trailer I associated with my anxiety, so I am more or less back where I was before the accident, anxiety-wise. Except I am wiser, and have ditched the idea that she is going to get in that trailer right now dammit because I am meeting someone at x o’clock thirty miles from here. I am now dedicated to her staying below her anxiety threshold as much as ever I can contrive.

She has always been rather hellish to travel with. She gets extremely agitated in stop and go traffic, banging around like a thousand pound gorilla. I think she equates stopping with getting out of the trailer and then gets very frustrated that it didn’t happen. She is quietest going down the interstate at a steady speed.

Luckily I now live in a rural area with very little traffic at all.

[NancyM]

Twice I’ve known “bad shippers” like this, and each time, there has been a live wire from the brake controller that has run a current through the trailer when the brakes are applied. This makes for a “BAD shipper”… whether or not it is still happening. Check for that, or have someone check for that. Especially because you say that “stop and go” is worse than highway driving (less braking on the highway).

Other than that, a box stall, and some tranquilizer (my preference for shipping is usually acepromazine aka atravet) and slow and easy driving. Administer the atravet a while before loading, like half an hour before, so it has time to take effect. Then drive slow and careful.

Good luck!