Trailer safety:

[Douglas M Gifford <dpwg@juno.com>]

Now we have heard it  all.
From leaving loose to tieing.
When  I was college age I took a short course at a local
community college. Course named Horse safety.
They had a commercial hauler come in and talk to us about
trailer safety and hauling. He was out of St. Louis Mo
The man made a very vivid point to me that day. He
said that the ONLY horse he had  lost in transporting( to that point in
time)
was a mare that had just come off the track and was headed to the
breeders
to be bred. They were traveling in Pa and were going through one of  many

switch backs on a road and the man met a BIG commercial truck heading the
other
way. The Big truck tooted his whistle in fair warning and the mare( who
was tied in a
2 horse transport van) tried to take off like she was at the track. The
rope stopped her
forward motion(sure) but in the process snapped her neck.
To make a long story short I don't tie my own horses in my 2 horse
straight load with
a partial portition. If I am hauling with an unfamiliar horse both horses
will get tied .
If I were to buy a slant load( of which I am seriously looking at) I
would definetely want
a butt chain beside the last horse and would have a trailer tie available
for each stall
so that if I am in the situation I could use it without hunting up one at
the spur of the moment. I do tie the lead rope around their necks in case
of emergency exit.
I once had to take my gelding and a friends gelding out of my trailer
into a river that 
had flooded the road bed. They were both good as gold when hitting the
icey cold water
flow and stood right there. They both have always been good at hauling
and backing out
so I don't know if the trick for the scooting backwards into a pond would
work.
My mare( who is 28) is like that and I stand to the side and am ready to
catch her on the fly as she is usually the first to be unloaded. If I got
a slant she would probably be the
first horse in and last out so I could controll her backing better. In
other words every hauling situation requires different practices.  

Not one of us wrong here but we have to look at the safety issues for our
particular rig and animals to be hauled.
Pat and Razzel in Kansas