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Discussion on Mare hurts herself while kicking in a trailer (Long Post) | |
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New Member: sheakev |
Posted on Saturday, Jul 19, 2008 - 1:54 pm: Our mare had been a TB race horse for three years. We got her from a horse rescue in Maryland in January of 2007 We kept her in Virginia from January of last year until April when I went with my daughter and picked her up. We trailered her in a slant load (4Star) trailer from VA to a show in NC and then back to Wisconsin. She traveled in the last (third position). The second position was occupied by my daughter's 12 year old gray TB gelding no problems whatsoever.She loaded well; we did have quite a time getting her out of the trailer. She wedged her butt against the back wall and wouldn't swing it around in order to back out. We needed to use a rope to literally pull her butt out of the corner so she could back out. My guess is she was trailered in a strait load before since when we have trailered her in our small 2 horse strait load she always backed out very well. Last summer she was very lightly worked, we wanted to have time for her relax and put on some weight. She's not a spooky horse but she does want to check out everything, she doesn't take new surroundings for granted. If you are going to brush her she wants to check out the brush before you use it. When she was turned out with a few mares she fought to protect a younger grey TB. Unfortunately she was up against a mean, dominant Swedish warm blood. The result was our mare was coming in bit up and banged up. We got her in her own paddock where she has one or two others. I mention this because she is not one to stop until she gets her way. On the other hand my daughter and others have remarked how quick she has been to learn and how she likes to work. She has no vices. We had her very thoroughly vet checked and we had her original breeder/owner give us access to her vet records so our vet new her history. She was claimed at a race and the new Owners raced her often and when she didn't when they sent her off to the kill auction. After a summer of playing around my daughter decided to take her to a clinic about 6 hours away. I went along. Everything went well both trailering and at the clinic. Still a little problem getting her out of the trailer but no real problem. In late September 2007 my daughter took her to a show with her other horse. During that trip she kicked in the trailer and nicked up her right hock. The vet at the show checked her out and said she was ok. A couple of days later when she was trailering her back she again started kicking even more violently. She sprung the back door and busted the butt bar as well as breaking the welding on the stall divider latch. It was obvious that she had been pawing as well. We got her back and had the vet waiting when she pulled in. She needed stitches but we could not get her sufficiently sedated to do them. The vet got her cleaned up and with good bandaging we quickly got her on the mend. We did discover that she had a cracked splint bone. We speculated that she might have had it before the trip (no real sign of it but she had been a little lame before this trip but we suspected a stone bruise. One theory was that the vibration from the road bothered her and she was kicking as a reaction to it. She is very sensitive; she's literally thin skinned and doesn't like any pain from a fly landing on her to a prick of a needle. She doesn't get unruly but she does react to pain much more so than our other horse. She got most of the winter off and was restarted on the flat this spring. She went with the other horse in the small straight load to a trainer for a couple of weeks. Prior to her going I tried to load her and it took us several days of vary patient work to get her to step into the trailer. She has loaded well ever since both in the strait load and the slant. She traveled back (about a six hour ride) without much of an incident but she did a lot of pawing and seemed not to be balancing herself in the trailer. She would just back up as far as she could and then lean into the stall divider as well. In June, another show but this time she did get her self a little scraped up on her rear leg but it was more of a skinning than anything else. She was fine at the show. A couple of weeks later off to another show, this time a longer ride, to Kentucky. We decided to put her in the first stall, it had a stud divider and we thought she would be more secure. Again more scrapes and more evidence of her not balancing herself. This time she came home with a nasty abrasion that took some of the skin off on her right rear hock. We're not even sure how she did it. We have trailered her with and without shipping boots. With them she seems to work to kick them off, without them she gets more scrapped up. We think she might have even slipped on her butt one time given the way the trailer mats were disturbed. So now we are up to this week. She seemed ok so we took her for a dressage clinic in the two horse strait load (Trailet). The clinic was 15 minutes away. She self loaded, unloaded and had a great clinic. Next day same thing except on the way home the trailer started shaking violently. I thought it had somehow come off the truck and was on the safety chains. We stopped got out and saw that the trailer was hooked up but that she was kicking and bucking violently. Some how the other butt bar had come loose (we didn't discover this until we got back to the barn). We got her calmed down and headed back to the barn, it was only 5 minutes away. She jumped around one more time, I tapped the breaks and she stopped kicking. When we got back and got the trailer opened up we say that she had again cut her leg right below her hock. The cut required 8 stitches, she should have had more but she was starting to come out of the sedation and the vet felt it was going to be fine. No serious damage this time and she'll be OK from this incident in two weeks. She's still in good spirits, just as attentive as always. So we are at a loss as what to do. My daughter (22 year old and an Intermediate Level eventer) wants to give up. We're afraid that she could gravely hurt herself and even hurt another horse riding with her. She shows great aptitude as an eventer, she's just starting her new career. If we can't fix this then she'll either be a broodmare or we need to find her a new home where she won't ever have to be trailered. In either event what do we do if she needs to go to a vet hospital? Last fall, her injury did cut to the joint. The vet wanted to take her to the University vet clinic but we all agreed that we could not risk the trip. We were lucky and she did not get an infection in her hock joint. Any thoughts, ideas, referrals would be very much appreciated. |
Member: cgby1 |
Posted on Saturday, Jul 19, 2008 - 3:41 pm: Hi Kevin,I get Perfect Horse Magazine put out by John Lyons the trainer. One issue which I will try to find had an article on a horse that behaved the same way. One of the reasons seemed to be is that the divider went all the way to the floor and the horse could not spread it feet to help balance itself. John took it out( it was all torn up from the horse anyway) and DrOve it around the property to see what was going on. I will get back to you after I find it to tell you what else was done to help that horse. Cynthia |
New Member: sheakev |
Posted on Sunday, Jul 20, 2008 - 11:10 am: Thanks Cynthia! |
Member: cgby1 |
Posted on Tuesday, Jul 22, 2008 - 6:08 pm: Hi Kevin,Sorry I took so long to get back to you. I looked up that article and there were a couple things that might help. Another thing that was talked about was to tie the horse with slack so that the horse could back up to the bar or into the corner if needed. A long time ago a trainer told me the same thing, one time I trailered one of my horses in a friends trailer and she insisted on tying him short. When we arrived he had pulled back and broken the tie. I use a blocker tie ring because if the trailer should ever overturn my horses will not be strangled. If your horse dislikes the trailer boots but tolerates the sports boots I would use them instead. Or put them on at home and just walk her in them until she gets used to them. By walking her she will not be stomping and kicking in an effort to get rid of them. I think the problem is that the shipping boots are rather loose, you could get wraps that look like squares of mattress pads and are secured with standing wraps. If you don't know how to use bandages have a trainer teach you, if done wrong they can damage a horses' legs. John Lyons also had the driver tap the brakes when the horse started to scramble to get the horse to stop the behaviour. I hope something I said helps or hopefully one of the other HA members can help. Cynthia |
Member: pellis |
Posted on Wednesday, Jul 23, 2008 - 2:19 pm: Kevin,I have owned two horses that were claustrophobic - one only a little and the other quite a lot. Both would load in a two horse straight load - one refused to stay in a straight load and the other, for anything longer than 15 or 20 minute trips, would become very agitated and nervous. The one that refused to stay in the straight load, would willingly ride in a slant load as long as it was a more open type build. In other words she did not like fully enclosed trailers - even if there was a window to see out of - she didn't like to "feel" closed into a tight space. What she wanted was an open - stock type trailer, and she preferred one where she could ride without dividers in more of a box stall type arrangement. These trailers are available in sizes to accommodate tall and large horses. If your daughter really likes the horse it might be worth a try to see if this type of trailer solves the problem before you give up on the horse. Best of luck. |
New Member: sheakev |
Posted on Saturday, Jul 26, 2008 - 12:21 pm: Patricia & Cynthia, Thanks for the posts. Once she's fully healed, and that is going to be at least a couple of months, we'll begin very gradual retraining. |