I would be cautious about letting the horses eat off the floor if your
dividers don't go all the way to the floor (as mine don't). I had my guy come
untied on a trip once, get his head under the divider and actually unhinge it
from the trailer. I stopped and was horrified to see the divider on the floor
with him standing around it as best he could. Luckily he was the only one in the
trailer on that day, I don't know what would have happened if I had more than
him in there. I use stretchy tie straps in the trailer. They can get their heads
down to chest level with no trouble and a little further if they
stretch it. The ones I use have no hardware other than the clip on
each side to break and if they set back on them they will shred not snap, my
sisters haflinger tested it for me right after I got them hehe. I also keep the
rubber corner buckets in my dressing room and on a long trip I will hang very
sloppy beet pulp for them as we travel and I always keep hay nets full in front
of them also.
Some of our hauls go on for 26 hours with a 6-8
hour break in the middle of NV (Elko). The horses' heads are free during the
travel and hay is tossed on the trailer floor so they can eat whenever they
like and can clear their respiratory system. We make pit-stops for gas and
toilet duty at 3-5 hour intervals and then water buckets are placed so the
creatures can drink in the trailer. Sometimes these are removed when we resume
driving, sometimes the water buckets stay clipped in front of the horses'
heads. Overall hauling is stressful on the creatures and we respect that as
well as we can.
