I went from having a four horse stock without mangers to an 8 foot wide gooseneck with LQ with mangers. I love them...I won't go back...

If you have mangers in a trailer with less width, the horse's angle might be a little more forward.

I  hated mine. I had a really nice three horse slant Sundowner which I loved everything about except those silly mangers. They just took too much away from the horse's space. They were only average sized horses, all under 15.2, but they would have their back ends right to the wall, which not only was tight for them, but it made a huge mess on the wall when they had to poo. Now, with that in mind, I don't believe mine was quite 7 foot wide, but I could be wrong. If there is anyway you can load one of your horses into the trailer before buying, that would be very helpful.

There is definitely an advantage to the 7+ wide trailers, but would I buy one again with mangers. The answer is no. Not only was it tight for them, I did not like the fact that they could not lower their heads to clear their sinuses when they needed to.

I have mixed emotions about them.  I like having the mangers. My past two trailers both had mangers, but I've gone back to a trailer with out now. I like being able to feed the horses while I travel. I love the storage under the mangers.

What I hate is how narrow it makes the inside of trailer. I occassionally need to stuff an extra horse in my trailers. With no mangers, I can fold the partitions against the front wall and put 3 horses in 2 stalls.  Granted my Logan has big stalls, so it's not so much of a stuff. But with mangers, you can't fold the gate panels flush with the wall. So there is no getting an extra horse in the trailer.  I also have thrown a couple atvs in my trailer at times,  The mangers make it narrow enough that it's a tight fit to get ATVs in and still be able to crawl around them.

So there are trade offs.  What important to you.

I will NEVER buy a trailer without mangers!

Your best bet is to at least get the 7'6", the price is not much difference!

I do like the door from the Tack room.  I use the horse area as a mud room to shake off wet coats, take off chaps or muddy boots, and just plain storage that I can reach thru from the LQ to get stuff out of.

The front escape door is questionable for me.  I never used it when loading the horses.  If you use the front stall as storage, It gives you access to that storage. But if I stack stuff in that stall to store it, Then it gets in the way of the Tack Rooom door.  There is just not that much room in the first stall if you try and keep two doorways clear and open.  If I was trying to exit the trailer from inside. The front escape door always seemed to be locked, because it has the cam locks on the outside. So unless I remembered to open the Cam Locks before hand, it wasn't useable to me.

I would not pass on a trailer that has that door, Seems it's important for resale, But it wouldn't be a deal breaker for me whether it did or did not have the escape door. Bottom line is, It will depend on how you camp as to what will be important to you. I don't hang out at fairgrounds or horse shows. A trailer for me is for primative camping in the mountains.

We have a full 7' wide with mangers, and our horses are 15 hand QH and gaited.  They fit fine and really aren't that cramped. 

I have sold trailers for about a dozen years; and 95% of people want mangers in their 8 wide LQ's, and some want them in their 7' wide LQ's.  Most manufacturers will have different width manger for their 7 wides versus 8 wides.  A "used" 8' wide LQ w/o mangers is always a lower resale than one with mangers.  The storage aspect is hard to beat in a trailer with mangers.