Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Terry said:

> The lady didn't know her trailer. The chest bars are bolted
> ?from the outside. Just loosen the ring/bolt with a tire iron,
> ?and they drop down/off. 
As near as I can tell from the photos, neither the Sundowner nor the Exiss 
"walk through" straight load trailers (the ones with chest bars instead of hay 
mangers) has the ability to undo the chest bar from the outside of the trailer.

Personally, I don't like getting into a trailer with a horse as I consider it 
rather unsafe.? In my experience, the type of trailer that has the least amount 
of risks associated with loading and unloading (with only one person to do it), 
is the straight load, step up trailer with a hay manger.? You can send the 
horse into the trailer, close the back door go around to the front and tie the 
horse in, and you don't have to worry about the horse putting its head under 
the chest bar (if what you have is straight load with a chest bar), you don't 
have to worry about the horse turning around before you close the divider (if 
what you have is a slant load), and you don't have to worry about the horse 
putting its head under the divider after you have closed it (if what you have 
is a slant load).? 

And the unloading can be done equally as safely in the same way:? go to the 
front and untie the horse and put a lead rope on and throw it over the horse's 
shoulder, go to the back and open the door, tell the horse to back out, and 
take the lead rope before the horse is even all the way out of the 
trailer...even if the horse comes out really fast, and if they balk about 
coming out and go back in...so what (unlike when you have a chest bar if they 
balk and go back in with their head lowered they now have their head under the 
chest bar).? Slant loaders, as far as I am concerned, the only way to truely 
safely unload horses from them is to have two people (one to hold the horse's 
lead rope after having untied the horse but before the trailer door is open and 
to kep it from trying to get out while the person opening the door and the 
divider gets out of the way).

When it comes to safety for both horses and humans, give me a straight load 
with a hay manger any day...and get rid of the ramp as that thing is just an 
accident waiting to happen.

kat
Orange County, Calif.
:)

p.s.? I am willing to concede that the inability to put their heads down in a 
trailer with a hay manger can cause some problems on long hauls, so I like my 
stock trailer better for this, but if I had a trailer with any kind of divider 
that the horse could get its head under (and yes, this includes a "chest bar"), 
I am not going to tie the horse loosely enough that it can get its head down 
far enough to get it under the divider, so even with slant loaders or walk 
throughs my horses wouldn't be able to get the heads down very far anyway.


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