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Re: [RC] not just mangers... - k s swigart> Give me a quiet trailer that allows horse to lower its head and
> clear its nasal passages and move its front feet for balance,
> that also has long, gradual ramp with non-slip surface and
> no wing-out upper doors, in which I canl haul any size horse,
> and I won't need two own two seperate trailers.
I own two trailers because one of them holds 5+ horses. As far as I am concerned, the only things wrong with my two horse straight load trailer with a hay manger is that it has a ramp (and since that now needs to be replaced it will be replaced by turning the thing into a step up) and that I can only haul two horses with it.
I only use the other trailer if I have to haul more than two horses...or when the two horse is in for service. I got the stock trailer after I got the two horse and the two horse is so useful that I didn't get rid of it when I got the new bigger one. And if I had to choose to keep just one, it would be the two horse.
As far as "continuing to load a horse that has it head under a chest bar"....sometimes the horse continues to load itself with its head under the chest bar. ost of them learn not to do that, but with my trailer with a hay manger I don't ever have to worry about that. I don't have to worry about the horse putting its feet over the bar either.
> The other type of Walk-through straight-load trailers with chest
> bars give the option for the horse to "walk through", but I don't
> see why they would need to, nor do I see why the human would need to.
Actually, most "walk through" trailers don't give the horse the option to "walk through," it is only the human that can (or should), but it isn't only the human that sometimes TRIES to walk through a "walk through" trailer. Which is another one of the "less than perfectly safe" things about trailers with chest bars. Most of them (including the Brenderup...I have a friend who has one) are designed in such a way that the horse is almost "invited" to walk through the trailer, which is why some horses get their heads under the chest bar, they aren't looking for food (which may not be there) but rather are looking for escape--they are trying to get into the open space that is in front of the chest bar.
Yes, with a hay manger a horse can put its feet up in the hay manger, and this can cause some problems (although not always as most horses are just as good at getting out of hay mangers as they are at getting into them), but chest bar trailers have their own set of problems that horses can get themselves into, and can injure themselves trying to get out of.
Personally, I also don't like ramp load trailers as I think the safety and maintenance issues associated with a ramp far outweigh any advantages they confer; but I own a trailer with a ramp....because I bought it used and that is what was for sale at the time that I was shopping for the price I was willing to pay. I wouldn't order a new trailer with a ramp, but I wouldn't say no to one either (since I didn't). I feel the same way about hay mangers vs. chest bars. I wouldn't say no to a walk through if that was what was available at the time that I was shopping for a price I was willing to pay, but I don't think I would order one new that way.
Additionally, I don't think I would buy a slant load trailer for myself, but I am not so opposed to them that I won't let my horse ride in one (so obviously I don't consider them unreasonably unsafe). And when I pack multiple horses into my stock trailer I often load them on a slant (as it is slightly easier to do so); although, on the last trip the three horses straightened themselves out during the trip, so on the trip home we loaded them in straight, side by side to start with instead, figuring that if they were going to end up that way by their preference, that they might as well start that way too though it did make the loading a bit trickier.
The fact is that most horses can learn to travel fairly safely in just about any of the available trailer configurations, and some horses have preferences for different ones (although not the same ones). The important thing is to get something that both you and your horse/s are happy with.
If I use my stock trailer with just one horse, I just turn the horse loose and let the horse decide how it wants to travel...and they don't all make the same choice.
kat
Orange County, Calif.
:)
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