re ; trailering woes

Niccolai Murphy (niccom@aerostructures.com)
Fri, 31 Jan 1997 05:56:36 -0800

This is just a theory. It might not be the size of the trailer that is
important but that the horse needs a way to balance. In a large trailer
they can do this by leaning into the corners or leaning forward or
backward during acceleration and braking. In a small trailer they need
to do this by bracing against something because there is not enough room
to lean.

This means that a horse used to a large trailer may have problems with a
small one and vice versa, until they learn to cope with the new
environtment (and five mile may not be far enough to learn a new way of
traveling). The fact that your horse angled itself leads me to believe
that this might be the case, since it is basically giving itself more
room. There is also the possibilty that the central divider and other
containment walls on the trailer may feel flimsy to the horses which
will not want to trust them to hold them up. It is also possible that
the floor is more slippery thanthey are used to.

-- 
Nicco Murphy  Aerostructures Inc.  F/A-18 Group, San Diego,
(619)545-3333