Can someone please educate me on the pros and cons of slant load vs straight load trailers?  I'm currently trailer shopping and am seeing a lot more slant loads these days.

Thanks!

Hi ... Welcome to the forum..

My experiance:  When I had a 2H straight load, the horses would scramble and had to have shipping boots or there would be leg nicks and dings.

Same truck, same horses, same driver (me) with a 3H slant load... no scrambling, no shipping boots, no leg nicks and dings.

The dressing area is more useable in the slant load too.

A straight load trailer limits you in so many ways. Straight load has no rear tack, you can't find a 3 horse straight load and if you have a 4 horse straight load it is 10 miles long. A slant load gives you so much more. Usually a larger dressing room, rear tack, more horses in a smaller trailer. If you are hauling only one horse the horse's weight is distributed evenly in the trailer. If you have very large horses ( warm Blood Size) horses, A lot of owners of this type of horse have straight load trailers. It is what they prefer. That is why most of the Straight load trailers are 7'6" tall or taller and the stall length is usually a little longer. The slant load has become the best selling trailers by far, But if you have large Warm Blood horses you may want a larger straight load trailer, although I know a lot of the owners of the big breed have slant load trailers because of options. The horses usually fit in one stall just fine, But a couple of my friends give their larger horses 2 stalls in the trailer so they have more room to move.

Hope this helps and is not to confusing

You can do a "search" for past posts on this topic. It has been beaten to death on this forum. Everyone will have their own opinion over their preference. I don't have anything against either configuration. I own a 3 horse slant. What drew me to them is the extra room you will have with them and I wanted the option of being able to haul 3 horses if need be. Some debate they ride better at a slant over straight and vice versa. Some have sworn their horse rides best backwards at  a slant.

Good luck trailer shopping!

Wow ~thanks to all of you for the responses! I appreciate the suggestion to look up the old threads on this topic, I will try to do so. (I tried before I posted, but I couldn't pull up the pages ~ thought they may have been deleted.)

I have been using this site to keep an eye on trailers and to contact dealers ~ it's been incredibly useful. Didn't even realize it had this forum on it until this evening! Thanks again for the info ~ I think I may start looking at more slant loads now too....

Karen

LOL!! Thanks for the explanation....  I'm only in the market looking for a 2-horse, so I didn't even know that there were trailers like the first one you described with horses traveling backwards and forwards facing each other!  I certainly have seen those HUGE trailers on the interstate, but never really thought about the interior layout.

Thanks!

I thought slant loads were the way to go.  I had heard, that when put in a open stock trailer going down the road horses naturally took a slanted stand.  I just looked this subject up, as I am getting ready to put the money down for my first trailer.  I found this article which basically says that even in a straight load most horses can still find the room to slant their stand for comfort. 

http://http://www.horse-sense.org/archives/20040620082512.phtml

I imagine though there are other articles with a opposite viewpoint, especially with so many slant load trailers out there.

"Can someone please educate me on the pros and cons of slant load vs straight load trailers?  I'm currently trailer shopping and am seeing a lot more slant loads these days."

And then there is the multi use of a Horse trailer. I have both..My wife has a 2horse side by for the local rides and the long hauls We use the 3horse G/N slant . I have hauled furnurture, 4-wheelers, panels and some hay in the slant....the side by side won't haul much more than horses.  

Ha! Guess it would be handy for other uses as well! I didn't think of that...

I'm off to check out a couple of '05 Trailer-ets this morning. (And thanks to a previous suggestion, I did a search and found a LOT of info on them in some past threads!)  I have my eye on a Gore that I really like ~ but the Trailer-et is about $1500 less, so it's worth a look.

Both are straight loads and, based on much of what I've read on this forum, it appears that slants are pretty popular these days. Oddly enough, around here (don't know about elsewhere) straight loads tend to appeal to certain riding disciplines, and slant loads to others....

Anyway, I love this site ~ it has been incredibly helpful to me! THANKS!

I personally prefer straights for my big'uns.  And recent studys show horses turn around and face the back of the trailer while hauling loose.  Another point for straights and rear facing slants.

Think of it this way:

When you are watching your horse run and play.  Do they stop front to back?  YES, because horses are designed to take starting and stopping in a straight line.  In a straight load horses can use their body the right way to adjust to traveling.  Slants use the horses sides to start and stop them.  Top performance horses can't afford to have a tired left back leg and a sore right shoulder.  If I want a top performance out of my ride how can I cram them in like sardines?  Long distance haulers use almost exclusively straights, so if I already have a straight then I can load up and haul anywhere with a minimum amount of stress on the horses.  Straights also allow you to load one at a time and unload or access one at a time.  Slants are like giant purses, the one you want is always buried at the bottom.

I think my next trailer will be a Hawk/Equispirt 3 horse straight/slant...more and more makers are producing similar models...I'll have mine bid out by 5-6 makers before I make my deal.

I didn't read all the post mentioned here so I may be repeating something already said.

I was told that if you stand and have someone push you gentle from the back, you will want to put your foot forward from falling, but if someone was to push you gentle from the side your body sways with the motion. This would be the same as if you were the horse riding in the horse trailer. So it kinda makes sense that the slant would be better for the horse to stand and have better balance while stopping and going, and even while turning.

I have also been told, and I have done this, is to put your horse in an open stock trailer so that it may turn it's body in any which direction it wants while you drive down the road. My horses have always turned their body sideways as if in a slant trailer. So yet again it makes me to believe that a slant is better.

I have also been told that you should be able to access all your horses at all times in the case of an emeregency. With the new slant trailers and them all having drop down windows, this becomes an ease. I have always personally liked the idea of a two horse straight load so that I may load and unload any horse to my liking unlike the slant were you have to unload the last horse to reach the first horse. Well my better mind got to me and even in a four horse stock trailer, you still have to unload the last two horses before reaching the front two.

So to wrap up what I think, the choice is mainly preference, but think of what your horses like the best. In my mind, even after perferring the straight load for so many years, I too will be getting a slant load.