Author Topic: Need your advice on Horse Floats / Trailers  (Read 764 times)

Offline Ryan

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Need your advice on Horse Floats / Trailers
« on: July 11, 2017, 07:45:05 PM »
I purchased a float a little over a year ago at auction. A tree had fallen on the front of the roof and needed to be repaired. I brought it with the intention that Id be recovered from injury now but its sitting in my shed gathering dust and now its time to sell it. I have a 2 horse double extended straight load and was going to be selling that and keeping this one.

But.................

At the time I purchased it , I didnt realize that it was a custom made float. Its a "Reverse Angle" float , so the horse loads on the RHS of the tailgate and turns to the left and faces and travels facing the back Left hand corner. 

They are quite foreign here , Ive had great trouble finding any for sale and one that I did , looks like it had been on the market for quite some time.

The positives I have in moving it on when I do advertise it is, that its an Australian made float, we have had terrible trouble with Chinese imported floats flooding the market here , people buy them cause they are cheap then realize they are made with poor quality materials , terrible flooring and owners are trying to get rid of them shortly after purchasing them.

The research I've found on them is that they can be good for horses that dont travel well, they are easy to get horses on/off the float and it takes the pressure off front legs when breaking and slowing down. Most that like these floats do so because they believe its the natural way for a horse to travel. They seem to say that if a horse is floated in an open trailer that they will always travel facing the rear of the trailer.

What do you all think ? Any suggestions / opinions / knowledge would be greatly appreciated.

Ill be getting a price to convert it back to front angle if it means there's a better chance of selling it at the price I want for it.

Thanks :)






 

Offline Ryan

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Re: Need your advice on Horse Floats / Trailers
« Reply #1 on: July 11, 2017, 07:47:52 PM »
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Offline Anna

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Re: Need your advice on Horse Floats / Trailers
« Reply #2 on: July 15, 2017, 04:00:32 AM »
I cannot give advice on how best to sell your trailer, but I was interested to read about horses travelling better when facing backwards. When we had our lorry built we made internal, individual, fully contained compartments ( 4' square x 4' solid walls and lower door so they could look out - grill to put on if necessary when travelling boys - bit like mini stables). Our smaller minis travelled happily with this space - some even laid down (thick straw bedding always included)! For the larger minis or a mare and foal we could remove a centre partition wall to give them double the length. But what I was going to say was that with the aid of the internal camera, it was possible to watch as nearly 100% of those travelling moved themselves to a diagonal position with hind ends towards the front of the lorry and front ends facing the rear. Interesting isn't it!

Offline dcwolcott

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Re: Need your advice on Horse Floats / Trailers
« Reply #3 on: July 15, 2017, 10:08:24 AM »
Interesting for sure!

Almost like when they stand in the pasture with their butts to the wind.  During Hurricane Charley in 2004, I came home after the hurricane passed (which hit my little town with hurricane winds, rain and twisters), and came home to find that 3 of my small barns were completely gone (one was a tack barn and all tack and saddles were gone and never found again), large trees in the pasture totally torn up out of the ground, and there stood my wonderful horses in the corner of the pasture where the fence should have been (it was done, too in many areas), with their butts to the wind.  I was raising Peruvian Paso's at the time, and they were unharmed while everything raged around them.

So maybe, because the motion is coming from the connection to the car in front, they perceive the motion and turn their butts into it.

Hmmmm.....
'Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.'

Offline Ryan

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Re: Need your advice on Horse Floats / Trailers
« Reply #4 on: July 17, 2017, 08:56:33 PM »
Thank you both :)

I was really just interested to see if this concept is widely used in your neck of the woods.

Agree with you both , It is interesting :)