One More Scary Horse Hauling Mishap!

Live and Learn

I'm often asked whether I tie my horse's head or not when trailering. I think it depends on the trailer and the horse. But this is one situation where the horse was lucky his head wasn't tied. Read on:

Four young older teens in a hurry to trail ride. They hooked their older heavy 4 horse trailer to a small lowered half ton pickup. [That was their first and biggest mistake - Pat]

The pickup they usually use was in the shop for repair. They placed the two heaviest horses in the back end of the trailer. [Second, and nearly deadly, mistake]

They pulled onto the interstate [Mistake #3] and went less than 2 miles when the truck and trailer jackknifed blocking all traffic. Fortunately, two of the girls were following in another vehicle.

Those two girls could see the trailer swaying and actually held back the traffic with their car when the trailer started to jackknife. The horses were bruised and battered but okay. One horse went down under the other horses. The 1200 pound horse in the back of the trailer was flung around to where he was facing backwards. If he had been tied his neck likely would have been broken.

The police wouldn't let the horses unload on the freeway into the rescue trailers that arrived on the scene later. The rescue truck/trailers' drivers was directed to wait at the end of the exit ramp. They were going to unhook the wrecked trailer from the truck and tow the horses and trailer off the freeway. However they could not disconnect the trailer from the wrecked truck with the horses still inside due to the damage. Finally the girls were allowed to lead the horses off the freeway to the awaiting trailers.

The horse that incurred most of the injuries, was formerly owned by one of the drivers who came to their rescue. Imagine how that must have felt.