Bad Traveller please help

[xLucyloox]

I have just bought a trailer for my horse but she has problems travelling in it. She will just literally walk on a horebox by herself but takes a little convincing with the trailer...no big deal. However, when travelling she will kick and scream and every time i have gone to a show (5mins drive) she has lost her shoe/it is loose/cut her leg with loose shoe, which are all very annoying as sometimes i just have to take her home again.

I have got travel boots and a sausage boot on her to help prevent her shoe coming loose but i can't seem to stop her banging. I have taken the divider apart and that made it even worse as she was spinning around in circles, kicking a lot and screaming.

I understand she has had a bad ride in a trailer with the owners who had her a couple years ago and her shoes came off. I have a fat highland (hehe) and they scream to eachother. Do you think I should bring him along to? My only concern is that he gets hurt/worried too even though he is a calm chap, or he will get bored just standing around while she is off in the areana.

PLEASE if anyone has annnny ideas which work for them could you share them because she is an amazing horse and wins a lot, but if she can't travel 5mins without kicking her shoe off I'm afraid I am considering selling her.

[Trewsers]

I don't know what to suggest - but considering selling her cos she isn't good at travelling is a bit harsh?? Is she good in all other ways? How long have you had her? It might help if you travel her with a companion? I'm sure somebody on here will be able to offer some advice - but I wouldn't rush to sell her just because of that!

[xLucyloox]

Yes she is amazing at showjumping and that is the main reason I bought her. I bought her to compete at showjumping but she just won't travel. I have tried as much as I can think of and it is obvious she doesn't like travelling, so i don't want to force her everytime then pay expensive fee's for new shoes and the vet. If she cuts herself deeper than she does now, it will effect her hoof growth and I wouldn't be able to ride her at all.

It sounds very harsh, I know. But i have had her since January and no improvement in her travelling seems to have occured over the last few times she has travelled. If I can't take her places, I can't compete which is why i bought her. She would be better off as a broodmare I suppose (she is about 13) so she is fixed in her ways.

Don't get me wrong I love her to bits but this problem effects me and her, and my dad (I'm 16 still in school so he has to drive me everwhere) and the other pony I leave at home. I am willing to try everything and anything to make it better for her though.

[Trewsers]

Oh dear, thats a shame. Don't know what to suggest, its not like you're doing really long journeys with her is it? HOpefully someone on here will have some ideas.:)

[xLucyloox]

Hopefully because my dad just suggested we might have to sell her beacuse there is nothing else we can really do. She is just scared. No i would like to take her on longer journeys, we are just trying to make it okay for local shows just now but i do BSJA on her and I would like to go maybe 2-3 hours away in the summer for a show.

[Kanuma]

just a thought how about the new trailers from iforwilliams, where thry travel herringbone? could be that she isnt used to traveling faceing forward! anouther option would be rescue remedy to calm her, or take her freind along for a drive! no he wont get bored, i do this all the time with stan and harvey, he will be quite happy stuffing his face!

[xLucyloox]

thanks for the advice, I was feeling really down until now! I have an iforwilliams new trailer, don't know what a herringbone is? That is what somebody told me, so we took the divider out and let her stand in any way she wanted but she was so scared(this was today)and scrrreaming to her friend.

I could enter her friend (my fat highland) into one or two jumping classes, I have done this before so that's no problem. My only worry is that when I'm riding him she will freak. Sometimes if i tie her up behind the trailer she pulls and pulls until the leadrope snaps (4 leadropes have been binned because of this!) and she is dripping in sweat after a trailer ride.

I have high hopes for tomorrow, hopefully she will be okay with highland?

[Kanuma]

herringbone, is sideways like they usualy do in boxes! its a special trailer ifor williams have brought out, and their normal ones cannot be converted into it!

[xLucyloox]

oooh right i see now. That's a shame! Wish I'd had known about the herringbone thing before!

[Zingy]

It might be possible to get her over this but it will take a lot of time and effort during which time you will either have to not compete or will have to find alternative means of transporting her - ie hire a box if she's ok with that.

How is she being loaded? Have you tried loading her but not going anywhere? If she's happy with that, progress to turning the car engine on with her loaded, but not moving. Then progress to moving, just a few yards. Gradually increase what you do, but very gradually. If at any point you cause a reaction of panic or fear, you've pushed it too far too fast and you'd have to take a few big steps back and try again. It is likely to be a very long slow process but might be worth it in the long run.

Some horses will never feel secure in a trailer, but I'm assuming that before her accident she travelled fine. You say she's shown no improvement following a few journeys - my reaction is that I'm not surprised. It's simply not frequent enough and the journeys, though only 5 minutes, are far too long at this stage. The answer does not lie in boots and bandages. They limit the damage she does, but they do nothing for her mental state. You have to address her mental issue with travelling and that requires you to do something on a very regular basis, preferably daily and take tiny, tiny steps forward when she is happy and secure in what you are asking of her.

[Tots N Dots]

I would agree with Zingy, load her in the trailer everyday and feed her her tea in there? but go nowhere, then progress to turning the car engine on, then literaly move her 10 meters, stop and get her out, this would be a very slow process, but depending on your horse you could have her travelling fine in probably 8 weeks (no guarantees mind :) ), or have you though of getting someone who is a specialist with these problems? when my previous horse had the dentist I had my friend hold her, I was nervous cause I knew she would rear, and of course I got the behaviour I expected, I am not saying she didn't rear with my friend but as this didn't scare my friend, Sash was alot better with the dentist than if I held her, if you are nevous that she will play up, (which is totally understandable) then this my make her wonder why you are nervous and think there is something to be scared about, at least she will go on the trailer which is something, just progress slowly, good luck Bev

[xLucyloox]

Hey eveyone thanks for your advice. I have decided tomorrow to take her with her companion, lots of people on other forums aswell have said this should help. When i took the partition away, i couldnt tie her up as she snaps leadropes but pulling right back the the other side, however, a few people have told me they use 2leadropes to prevent pulling and falling. Does sound okay?I don't have a large breastbar though.

Tots and dots and zingy- I feed her in it every couple of days, she is fine with that, i travel up and down my drive...she is fine with that. trust me I am not rushing her, I have spent a long time with this and she's not scared at all just doing the usual. Maybe because she knows we are still at home. The real problems are on the roads with lots or corners, i think it has more to do with balance and then her scaring herself because she loses it, then getting worse and worse in her mind than the actual scaredness of travelling in a trailer. The boots etc. obviously are for protection, I'm not using them instead of helping her mentally. She IS a chestnu mare after all...*tutters to ones self about buying a mare*:)

[redcedar]

hey ..just a thought reading all the posts ......and some ppl have made some top points on traveling horses in traliers .

If you say its because of the corners on the road that freak her out , is every thing ok with your trailer and your towing speed ?? . I know it can be very embarressing to travel along at a snails pace on the highway but taking that 5 min journey very slowly may just help her.

Can you swing the back part of your central partion away and fix it to the left hand side of the trailer(is it an IW with a central pole and ywo halves of the partion??) ...this is what i do to help my hunter balance in my trailer so he can spred his back legs wider and balance himself more easily ....


hope you get it sorted out ...just try a few things with her and see how you get on !!

Helen x

[xLucyloox]

Hey again, I took some peoples advice and put my horses companion in with her for todays show. She was really calm and happy until we started to drive off. I used to think she was kicking the back door but after 1min i got out the car because people were actually coming out of there houses she was making such a racket. I realised what she actually does, and this is lean on the divider putting pressure onto the inside legs, and lifting the others up. This causes her to fall a little and struggle standing up again. The bad news is that she does it even if we aren't driving.

She has ripped her brand new sausage boot, one of her new expensive travelling boots is totally torn (it was put on right) and cut her leg AGAIN and become lame.

I'm afraid that my dad is going to contact the previous dealer who wanted her back to breed after we were done with her, and I think she will be sold back which is a shame as she is an amazing horse and jumper. I am then going to look at Alan Spalding's horses? My friend works and rides his horses so recommended him to me. Are his horses worth looking at?