When a trailer divider fails (or need to leave horses alone)

[Sirita_88]

I have had a LONG day read thread: I need help with hoof

To make matters worse... tonight I went to saddle club with my other horse. He always places well in Halter, trail and HUS. However, I have had over 120 days of training to do western pleasure. He DOESN'T Lope. Well this week I have gotten him to lope. With two days of MY training he lopes now . Sounds great, right? Well tonight I took second in wp beating the horse who won state last year and another horse that has been winning all season. So all's well!!!

WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Trailer ride home. Two horses that have been next to eachother the WHOLE YEAR. One is mine (mac), the other is the paint (johnny). Okay, now we just bought a BRAND NEW all aluminum trailer to have a safer ride. 2007 Lakota 3 horse slant load w/ living quarters. Mac is tied to bailing twine (bad experience not being able to get a differnt horse loose). Johnny is tied to the metal tie ring above his head.

We go down the road.... BOOM! BOOM BOOM! It sounds like they are dieing in there... We frantically search for a safe stopping point. We hurry, johnny's owner jumps out before the truck even stops!!!!

We weren't expecting what we found. The Divider was ON THE GROUND UNDER THEIR FEET. Mac is untied and johnny is squshed in the back.
We wait until they are all calmed down before we open the door. I grabbed mac's halter and johnny was backed out. Johnny has one cut on his neck.

Mac didn't fair so well. Since his tail drags the ground (and for some stupid reason I decided to wait till I got home to put it up) he had ripped out a large chunk of my hard work . Johnny bit a chunk out of the top, too.

THEN we see all the cuts on his back and withers, about 15 total.... Most of them are bite marks but a few are clean as if the divider did it. By the time we get home his back is pretty swollen. His neck from the poll to the hip is sore. Thankfully none of the wounds are deep. Unfortunately he IS used for halter and he IS grey so all of the scars are going to be white...

So tonight both of my horses are on bute and out of comission. Tomorrow his back will be iced. When he is healed I will have the chiropractor out. So now I can't ride EITHER of my horses.

It's like I can't win. I try so hard to keep them safe and then somethng like this happens. And right after he sucessfully loped through the whole class.

So, don't assume your horses are safe, they WILL find something to hurt themselves. What a LONG day!!!


***I will post pics of all the cuts in the morning****

[scrapchick]

Oh how scary! You poor thing, and your poor horses! Do you know what happened with the divider? At least the horses didnt panic and do more damage. And you are all home and safe even though a few injuries but man, it could have been so much worse, you know?

[Sirita_88]

I think mac kicked and somehow pushed the divider up and off. It went right back on, the pins weren't broken or anything.

[scrapchick]

wow. as bad as it seems right now.....it could have been 100 times worse....be a tad bit thankful for that....

[Wolfie]

I'm so sorry to hear about the accident. At least you placed well before things went wrong.

[BarnBum]

Doesn't surprise me about Lakota trailers. My g/f just got her money back on hers b/c of an incident.

I am sorry this happened. Hope everyone is ok.

[redboy]

WOW,....., So sorry that you are having these horse problems over these last few days,...., I hope life settles down for you for a while, you get BOTH your guys healed and back to the business of FUN.
Congrats on your 2nd place finish!
I'm also surprised, BUT GLAD, to hear the comments about the Lakota Trailer. I really liked those, never seen one up close, only in the magazines, but I thought they were kinda neat (2 horse BP with living quarters), BUT NOT CHEAP for what you get. Interesting to know the down side though. Redboy

[Carri]

Oh, wow, that is terrible! I am so sorry! Is it a failing in the trailer design, that the divider just doesn't latch in properly?

His cuts won't necessarily grow back in white- Our dark grey dapple got a bad place on her hip and it grew back in her normal color.

[Sirita_88]

Originally Posted by Carri

Oh, wow, that is terrible! I am so sorry! Is it a failing in the trailer design, that the divider just doesn't latch in properly?

His cuts won't necessarily grow back in white- Our dark grey dapple got a bad place on her hip and it grew back in her normal color.

I don't think it was the trailer's fault. I think mac actually kicked the divider off. The divider closes in a pretty secure way, but it looked like the front actually got lifted up and off the hinges. I think it probably would have happened to most slant load trailers.

[short_kid]

Sorry it happened. How scary How is everyone doing today?

[ToveroMom]

Yeow-glad it wasn't worse.

[Sirita_88]

Originally Posted by short_kid

Sorry it happened. How scary How is everyone doing today?

No more accidents. Johnny is fine. I am a little worried about Mac. He is REALLY swollen on his back by his withers. I iced it down this morning and put more antibiotics on it.

[BarnBum]

Originally Posted by Sirita_88

No more accidents. Johnny is fine. I am a little worried about Mac. He is REALLY swollen on his back by his withers. I iced it down this morning and put more antibiotics on it.

Was just checking in to see how everyone was.