Everyone~Those manger-style trailers are death traps! Never even put your horse into one of those trailers~ let alone buy one!!! They were designed for human convenience, not horses! If you own one, I am sorry.
The horse needs head room to stretch its neck down to clear their nasal pasages, and that manger prevents them from doing it, and then it positions the hay and dust right up into their noses and eyes. Then the wall from the manger that is right in front of their front feet prevents them from being able to "surf" for balance. When they are thrown off balance, their feet hit that front wall, and they panic and scramble right up over it, sometimes tearing their legs as well as the trailer to pieces. If you look at some older trailers of this type, you will frquently see the mangers all scraped up, and you will know why the trailer is for sale. Their ramps are also too short, steep and slippery. The upper doors that wing out can blow back onto the loading/unloading horse, or they can rear up and get their legs over top of those doors (I speak from $1Ks vet bills experience).
There is nothing wrong with a straight-load position, but with a chest bar only~ no manger!
Buy Neva Sheve's book "The Complete Guide to Buying, Maintaining and Servicing a Horse Trailer" It answers all your questions! Terry "May the Horse be with You"
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