From: rmvale@watnow.uwaterloo.ca (Ruth Vale)
Newsgroups: rec.equestrian
Subject: Re: Wanted: Calm Trailering Tips
Date: 13 Oct 92 14:10:07 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: University of Waterloo

In article <1992Oct10.170808.1@stsci.edu> rewald@stsci.edu writes:
>Hi All -
>  I was wondering what kind of advice you all might have for me and Shogun.
>As you can tell from the brags, we've been doing more travelling than usual,
...

>Typically, its around a 4 hour trip to get to the competition.  His trailer-
>mate is an old hand at trailering, she usually falls asleep while travelling.
>Shogun, on the other hand, seems really nervous.  He doesn't scramble or jump
>around or kick or do anything we can feel from the truck, but when we stop
>to check on them, he is trembling, a little white of the eye is showing.  If he

A four hour trip is a *long* time for a horse who doesn't like being
in the trailer in the first place.  Can you break it up a bit?  Just
stop every hour or so and let him rest - you don't have to unload, just
let the trailer movement stop.

In the case of my very bad traveller, we've stopped the trembling with
several different techniques.  She used to start trembling when I
showed up with the bandages and she'd be a shaking mess by the time
the trailer showed up.  I started by simply bandaging her at other
times than trailering, switched around several drivers, gave up on
trailering altogether until I found a sympathetic driver who was
willing to listen to my concerns.

1.  We always use the same trailer - every trailer travels differently
and in our case, we're using a very high quality, smooth travelling
trailer.  Second option is an expensive but very comfortable super
deluxe hanoverian size trailer with a *good* and trusted professional
driver.  Third option is we don't travel.

2.  Put the bad traveller on the driver's side.  There will be less movement
and the horse doesn't have to work as hard to keep his/her balance.
Lateral movement of the trailer is hard on a bad traveller.  Check to
see how much sway there is on the road.

3.  Give the horse a bran mash before travelling.  Helps keep the
inner plumbing quiet and calm.

4.  When you turn, separate the movement of slowing and braking from
the movement of turning.  Shogun may need some time to figure out it.
In other words, stop first, very carefully, then turn.  You'll find that
left hand turns tend to be worse than right hand turns.  Remind the
driver to proceed one step at a time.  I rode in the trailer with mine
whenever she was alone in the trailer and even I got nervous at the
movement when the driver didn't stop first, but slowed and turned all
in one motion.  After 8-10 trips of this kind of coddling, my mare is
okay when the turn is all in one motion with slowing, but the first trip
after a lay off is always done in this careful fashion. Helps avoid
damage to the trailer!

5.  If you can avoid chemical tranquilizers - do so.  Nothing worse than
having a nervous horse wake up in a still-moving trailer.

6.  Keep that other buddy close by.  Enough travelling with a calm
horse will usually reassure the other.

>   We've experimented with having windows open and shut, and the back upper
>doors open or shut.  The "best" we've done so far is to close up the whole
>trailer (back doors and windows) except for the window on his side.

It will help if the trailer is bright and airy.  Most horses don't like
small closed in places.  Also, if the divider between the horses' heads
is solid, make sure they've got enough air/light/space in each individual
compartment. 

Closing the back doors helps.  There is a lot of noise from traffic and
trucks and even I looked twice when a tractor trailer whooshed by and
rocked the trailer a bit in the backwash.

>open 3-4 inches, and we had inadvertantly left on the light in the compartment.

Keep that light on in the dark.  Horses can see well in the dark but
pitch black is real scary and if you should ever have an accident or
the horse loses his/her footing (as mine has twice that I know of) that
bit of light really helps until they can get back on all fours.

>I should mention that we're usually travelling after dark, and on good 
>interstate highways.  Of course, his buddy wakes up when we check on them, she
>can't understand what the fuss is about.  
>   We also are wondering if he travels trembling, or if that comes on when
>we start slowing down to stop (I know it's illegal for humans to ride in the
>back, but I might travel in the dressing room for a few miles and peek at him
>through the window.)

Travelling on highways in the trailer is illegal, but it really helped
us when we were trying to desensitize my scrambler this summer.  We needed
to know what she was doing in order to help her.  On highways, I also
drove behind the trailer and that helped to figure out that the
movement we thought was scrambling (that actually stopped by the third
trip) was actually my horse doing a body tackle against the wall 
while trying to balance herself on the turns.  We put her on the other
side (driver's side) and she's doing okay - still leaning heavily
against the side, but at least she's not crouched down like a cat trying
to keep on her feet.

>   Any ideas?  How about giving something like "Bee-Calm" before the trip?
>(Actually, I'm not sure if bee-calm would violate the competitive ban on drugs,
>but maybe we could use it in trailer-training?)
>   Thanks for any suggestions -      Rosalie & Shogun

One final suggestion - be sure of your driver.  Just because they've hauled
livestock, or even horses at lot, doesn't mean they have a whole lot
of sympathy for a nervous traveller.  If your driver won't listen to
your concerns and work with you to reassure the horse (although it sounds
like you've got a good one), then it is time to look elsewhere.

Hope this helps,

Ruth
.



-- 
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=========================== rmvale@watnow.uwaterloo.ca ======================