On Hauling Horses

Country Girl brought up a subject in the comments of the last post that I have started to hear a lot from people...they worry about hauling horses loose in a trailer. I'm not picking on you CG, just think it's an interesting subject to discuss.:)

In the interested of brevity, I'm not going to go back to the beginnings of horse trailers, just touch on the ones that I have personally hauled horses in...in my lifetime. My very first horse trailer was a teeny-tiny little one horse...

I actually think this one is bigger and nicer than the one I had. Oh yea, and mine was a single axle. Actually getting horses into these things is the trick. It takes some training! I don't ever see myself going back to using one. But hey, 22 years ago I thought I was pretty cool heading out to college with my horse, my dog and my cat.

My step-mom came with one of these...

A living quarters two horse. Pretty fancy stuff back then. They are heavy as hell, but pull pretty nice.

I've never owned an inline, but one of the trainers I worked for had a two horse inline like this...

The "show" trailer was LQ, 4-horse straight load...think double two horse. It was also heavy as hell, but darn, those horses hauled in it nice.

All my life we have owned some sort of stock trailer and that is what we primarily haul our horses in...

My current "using" trailer was a simple stock trailer. My brother was the one who had the tack room built on it. That certainly made it more usuable for going to rodeos and horse shows.

What most people are familiar with these days for hauling horses is the slant load...

Most slants are made so that the horse faces the left side of the trailer. However, reverse loads are also available...

Now here is a bit of trivia...hauling horses long distances in slant loads is harder on them than hauling them in stock trailers, irregardless of whether they are tied or loose. If you have ever noticed, horses that are hauled loose in trailers have a tendency to stand either straight forward or straight backward. It's easier for them to balance that way. They also have the ability to spread their feet out or move them easily it they need to catch themselves. Being able to use their whole body to balance is much easier on their muscles and legs than being confined by partitions.

So why have slant loads become so popular? Well, for a couple of reasons...You can haul more horses in less space and they are much easier to load horses into than smaller trailers. Nearly any horse can be convinced to jump into a big cave. It takes real training to train horses to get into narrow caves. So slant loads became the upgrade of the stock trailer. A way to easily load horses and yet keep them seperate.

Now that I am the owner of a slant load...my hauling tactics are going to have to change a bit when I haul horses in it. After hauling horses in a stock-type trailer for so long, I have gotten spoiled. In a stock-type trailer, I don't have to unload and hand walk horses every 300 miles. I could simply stop for about 30 minutes or so and give them a break from the road vibrations. In my stock trailer, I never ever had a horse get sore after a long haul. In the LQ we just bought, I am going to have to be more careful. The nice thing is, I can remove the partitions and haul them loose or tied backwards if I want.

Primarily, I do tie my horses in the trailer. I load, turn them around and tie them so they can stand backwards. They all seem to haul really well like that and there is just enough restraint with them being tied that they cannot get to moving around enough to cause the trailer to start swinging. This trip back to Colorado, I will have to haul loose, with Beretta not being trained to tie I don't have a choice. Strawberry will be a good influence on the babies though. He has logged thousands of miles in a trailer and is a good hauler.

I know not everyone hauls horses as far or as often as I do, anything under 150 miles isn't going to bother a horse irregardless of what type of trailer they are in...unless you drive like a jerk and are throwing them all over...which I'm pretty darn sure no one does with their's.

As for a horse getting injured being hauled loose. I'm not sure how they would, unless the driver is bouncing them off the walls. I've heard people comment about fearing rocks could fly into a stock trailer and injure a horse...ummmm...after hauling hundreds of horses, thousands of miles, on the highway and up and down gravel roads...that has never happened. Now...for you people who let their horses hang their heads out the window while you are going down the road...do you really think that those flimsy fly masks are going to protect a horse from a flying rock? That is way more dangerous for the horse.

If you ever get a chance, jump in a horse trailer and have someone drive you around. It sure gives a person a better perspective on what the horse is feeling.

I'm not a slant-load hater. They sure are nice when you need to keep horses seperate, but for the most part, I will always prefer hauling horses without the benefit of partitions. It is just so much easier on them over long distances.

Weaning Beretta

In spite of the fact that it took a couple of extra days to actually get the job done, Beretta's weaning went very smoothly. It never, ever pays to get in a hurry when it comes to babies.

Chunk can be convinced to do pretty much anything if feed is involved...

This poor mare! She is just too darn pretty to be allowed to stay in this ridiculously fat condition. She can be a very nice mare to handle, but horses have a tendency to be belligerant and stupid when they are obese. However, in this case, her gluttonous nature actually came in handy.

Beretta was trying to be very accomodating through the whole process...
Keeping things quiet and as stress free as possible is so important with these little guys. Ramming them around can show up for a long time down the road.

It ended up going just like this...


I simply walked up behind the door, untied it and slowly eased it closed.

We headed to mom's, where these two were unloaded into the barn and allowed to settle for about an hour. Beretta was moved into a stall. I caught Chunk, wormed her, pulled mane hair for her DNA testing, hopped her back on the trailer and away we went. At that point, I was moving too quickly to take the time for pictures.

We are so fortunate to have the means to remove the mare and foal from each other's vicinity. Both get a little anxious as long as they can hear each other, but as soon as they are out of earshot from one another, it really is amazing how quickly they settle down.

I dropped Chunk in the pasture with the rest of the horses... Caught Megan's Strawberry and headed back to town. Ring around the rosie with ponies-Sheez!

Beretta looks very good, but weaning her came none too soon. She has a bit of lumpy joint going on...
Oh yay-yet more pictures of a horse that needs their feet trimmed! Well, little miss is going to have to wait until her training catches up before that gets done.

Most foals will go through a period of lumpy joints and usually come out of it without supplements. We prefer to supplement with Lampley's A-Z and Basic Mineral. That was not possible with feeding Beretta and Chunk together because Chunk is not a "sharer" of feed, even with her own foal. She allowed Beretta in there just enough so she learned how to eat grain, not enough that she ever got a meal. The first order of business will be to get Miss Beretta on her own ration with the supplements she needs.

So far, Beretta seems very sweet. We will have to see how accomodating she is about being haltered tomorrow.

Endless Catching Up

It's no surprise that everything needs their feet trimmed around here. So for the next couple of days, it's going to be working on getting everyone trimmed up. Thankfully the weather is supposed to be beautiful so it won't be miserable doing that.

There is someone interested in renting our town house, so we will be here a couple days longer than anticipated packing and moving our stuff to the ranch house. I wasn't expecting to have to do that, but it's probably a good thing to just get it out of the way now. Decent people to rent to are hard to come by around here and I think these people would take very good care of the place.

Yesterday, Meg and I were going to wean Beretta, but we spent an hour working with Chunk...trying to get the fat-ass in the trailer. It was a no go! Even the usual trick of creating an alley and loose loading her didn't work. It wasn't hard to figure out she would have rather went over the panels than in the trailer. There is more than one way to load a horse though-LOL. So I unhooked the trailer and fed them in it last night. Beretta had no problem hopping in and out to eat her supper. I'm not sure if Chunk ever loaded or not as Meg and I had other things to go do. She will though. They all do eventually. A few times in and out of their own accord and they figure it out. I know Paige employs this trick as well.:)

As bad luck would have it...the bottom of the water tank in the horse pasture at the ranch gave out yesterday, so Megan and I headed out to the ranch to help my brother move horses into another pasture until that can be repaired. Brother already had the moving handled so Meg and I loved on the two barn ponies for a bit. Andrea's favorite, Big Blue...
...Is doing fantastic down at the place. He thinks he has died and gone to heaven-his own barn space, no other horses around to pick on him and daily human contact.
Blue has lost all of his globby fat and looks good. My brother keeps bragging on what a nice horse Blue is to ride...duuhhhh! Megan and I spent a fair amount of time riding the big guy and as a pasture horse...Blue is hard to beat.

And then there is "big poppa"...
I don't know if the thoughts I have had will come to fruition, but if we get our horse property in Colorado and get things set up like I want them...I want to take this horse out there and finish him. I've never been crazy about dealing with stallions in a competitive setting, but this horse is one of those that it makes your heart hurt that he isn't out there for the whole world to see how talented he is. He is broke...or I guess I should say...he was broke. Started and easily ridden by a 72y/o man...he then went to the people we bought him from and they did a fine job of pissing him off. Hard to believe the big love-bug that he is now came to us as an extremely pissed off and hateful horse. He would just as soon kick your head off as look at you. The first time my brother saddled him, he bucked so hard my brother feared there would be nothing left of his saddle by the time he managed to get it off. It took a year of just handling him and doing groundwork exercises to make him realize he didn't have to walk around in a perpetual state of hate. It's been all good since then and I see no reason why a person couldn't restart him and finish him out. It may be a pipe dream, but I know the horse can mortally fly and it's kind of fun to think about running barrels on him.

Like I don't have enough other horses to worry about riding right? LOL Oh well, the way I look at is...if they don't make you dream a little bit...they are obviously missing something.