After being driven in circles a little more, Lynx realized he could stand up in his now double-wide trailer with its improved view. However, since Beth had two horses to transport home, the gelding was going to have to be able to share the space with her mare.
Next John fashioned a "center divider" by tying a rope down the middle of the trailer in place of the partition, creating a defined space for Lynx. He put the gelding on the left side of the rope to simulate being in a single stall. Beth drove around again-stopping, starting, turning left, turning right, and even doing figure eights. The horse rode straight, tall, and, best of all, still no scrambling.
Lynx was fine throughout the clinic and loaded back on the trailer easily for the ride home. He was apparently suffering no physical, mental, or emotional scars from his long fight with the trailer.
A Question of Balance
According to John, the problem with a horse that scrambles in the trailer can't always be chalked up to claustrophobia. Sometimes when a horse can't see around his own body inside the trailer and can't move in a tight trailer stall, he loses his balance. It's like trying to walk in a fun-house where everything seems distorted. In trying to get back on his feet, a horse like this can lose track of which surface is the floor and which is the wall. He may, in effect, be trying to regain his footing on the wall instead of the floor. This problem, John says, is easier to fix than claustrophobia.
With many scramblers, the center divider can be the culprit. Center dividers that go all the way to the floor can keep larger horses from spreading their legs wide enough to keep their balance. Once the horse loses his balance, a chain reaction sets in. He scrambles up the wall trying to find his footing, which only further upsets his balance. Replacing a full center divider with one that comes halfway down often helps.
Gaining Equilibrium
- Scrambling may be a problem of balance, not claustrophobia.
- A horse may need extra floor space to rpead his legs.
- Partial stall dividers or no dividers may be the key to a quiet ride.
- Provide enough slack in the tie rope so the horse can move his hed to see around him inside the trailer.
- Lightly tap the brakes to encourage a horse to stand up.
- Start, stop, and turn slowly to help your horse adjust to trailer motion.
A horse that scrambles can injure a horse riding next to it. So after getting the horse confident enough to ride quietly in the trailer alone, John advises providing plenty of trial runs before putting another horse in with him. Unfortunately Beth didn't have that option. She had no choice but to load both horses three days later for the long drive back home.
John suggested that Beth use the rope divider and the tap-the-brakes trick on the way back home to California to encourage Lynx to stand up and keep his footing.
"The first five miles out, I stressed and said my Hail Marys," Beth said. "But the ride home went perfect. I think after I tapped the brakes in the arena at John Lyons' place, Lynx learned that scrambling was not going to get him anywhere. In fact, he ate and drank a lot more on the trip back to California than he had on the way out to Colorado."
Home Again
The horse that scrambled his way to Colorado rode quietly all the way back to California. But he may have gotten the last word. At the first watering stop, Beth discovered he had untied both his own tie rope and the rope center divider.
