horse paws in trailer

Dear Panel: I need some suggestions for a young horse that constantly paws while in the trailer. He doesn't do it while tied to a hitch rail or standing or being led. No problems with loading or unloading, just while he's in the trailer. I've tried hauling him both tied and untied. It doesn't seem to make any difference. With or without a buddy either. Can horses be claustraphobic?



JMM

Paul- Hi Jeanne, It sounds like your horse is either stressed out or very bored with being in a trailer. Claustrophobia is very common in horses so make sure he has plenty of room in there so he doesn't feel too confined. Then you need to come up with something to occupy him with. Hay would probably work a charm because that would give him something to do to take his mind off the fact that he does not like being in the trailer. Or something he can play with without the risk of injury. What you could do is feed him his dinner inside the trailer for a duration of time in order for him to see the trailer as somewhere nice to hang out. Chances are that he will stop this behaviour on his own once he realizes that it doesn't do any good. Basically he's telling you inside the float is an unnatural environment and he doesn't approve. What you need to do is get him to approve or accept and I believe taking his mind off the job even for short periods of time would be the first step.



Best of luck,

Paul

We have had several of these.

Best solution.

Teach them to hobble in the open. Teach them to stand still while hobbled. Not allowed to move around with the hobbles on. Once they are well trained to the hobbles, then hobble the rascals in the trailer, any time they start pawing. Completely safe and works every time. Once they are trained to the hobbles, you can hobble them in a stock trailer with no partitions, or in a partitioned trailer, either one.

We had a chronic trailer pawer. He got to the point that all he had to do was see the hobbles and he quit.