I will never have another trailer without mangers!  We carry alot of tack and extras wth us and need the storage.  But ours is a LQ trailer too.  A good plus is it will help keep your horse form sticking is head out of the window or trying to push on the bars or nets.

However I am not sure 4 STAR offers factory installed mangers in a 7' wide trailer..... In a 7' wide trailer they will take up alot of room.  If they do offer mangers I would spend the money and get the larger stalls.  If I remember right 4 STAR comes standard with 37.5" stalls, I would go with the 39.5" option either way.

Greetings,

Having owned with and without, I would not buy a trailer with mangers. Without managers, horses can lower their heads on long hauls, which helps in the ability to keep respiratory passages clear. Additionally, they have, in general, more leg room. However, Hogtownboss makes a good recommendation if you can't live w/o mangers, invest in a wider trailer. This topic was covered in the past, you might try a search for more info.

My 2 cents!

Previous disussion.... http://www.horsetrailerworld.com/forum/thread-view.asp?threadid=9830

http://www.horsetrailerworld.com/forum/thread-view.asp?threadid=9782

http://www.horsetrailerworld.com/forum/thread-view.asp?threadid=10045

I've had mangers in two trailers. One was 6'11" and the other was 7'3" wide.  mangers worked great.  But the horses did have to back out.  No turning around inside the trailer.

I've downsized and my current trailer does not have mangers and I miss them.  Both for the extra storage that they offered under the manger and for the ability to feed my horses in the trailer.  I always had hay in the mangers and my horses always jumped right in to see what was in the manger.

I never had any problems with mangers in the trailer.

Our dealership has about 7 manufacturers we represent, and most of them offer mangers in their NON 8' wide trailers.  We have sold Sundowner 6'9" wide trailers with mangers, as well as Kiefer Builts, Bisons, and several others.  Most manufacturers will narrow up the width of the mangers that they use in their narrower trailers.  It really has no effect on the body room for the horse.  I personally have a seven wide LQ with mangers.  We haul a large bodied QH mare, and a TW mare; and they have very adequate room.  99% of folks like mangers for the storage aspects.  They are great for that reason.  I also like the fact that a horse has the chest pads to come up against instead of the whole empty stall to get in trouble in.

An 8' wide living quarters WITHOUT mangers is a huge "downer" for resale purposes.  Almost everyone wants mangers in an 8' wide LQ.

Down side to mangers are;  1)makes it hard to haul an extra horse without the dividers, due to still having head dividers in place. 2) A horse cannot drop his head and clear his sinuses  3) A young horse (weanling or yearling) will undoubtedly get his feet up in the mangers, and not be able to get down; however mounting a tie ring low will prevent this by tying their heads lower.  

Down side to mangers are;  1)makes it hard to haul an extra horse without the dividers, due to still having head dividers in place. 2) A horse cannot drop his head and clear his sinuses  3) A young horse (weanling or yearling) will undoubtedly get his feet up in the mangers, and not be able to get down; however mounting a tie ring low will prevent this by tying their heads lower.  

1) It is a really BAD idea to haul more horse than what the trailer is setup to haul to start with, that is just asking for trouble! 

Hogtown - As "bad" an idea as it may be; we have customers that will put 4 in a 3 horse, 3 in a 2 horse, etc.  I DON'T RECOMMEND, or aggree with it, but once a trailer leaves our lot, it is out of our control what they do with it.  It's not a whole lot different than putting as many horses in a stock trailer as you can get on, other than in the case of an LQ trailer, you might be pushing axle capacity.