EQUINE TRANSPORT SERVICE
Cliffe Equine is delighted to offer a DEFRA certified equine transport service. Available for tranport of horses to and from our Equine Clinic, to shows and events and further afield. Also available for Equine Ambulance duties at shows and competitions.
- Qualified and experienced staff
- Low side loading for easy in tranporting injured animals
- Can take 2 horses travelling rear facing
- On board CCTV for constant monitoring during journey
- Fully equiped with equine first aid kit and sedations if required
- 24 emergency service availability
Contact the office for competative rates and further details.
Over the last few years we have been called out to attend horses getting stuck in small horse box vehicles. Horses have jumped forward over the partition and become stuck. Either with front legs stuck over the partition or on rare occasions the horse has jumped completely over and the horse has become trapped in the jockey compartment.
Earlier this year we attended one such incident, where an owner had just collected their new horse from his old yard and loaded him into a mini horse box. Within a few miles the horse became agitated and jumped forward and became stuck on the partition by the stifles and the bulk of the horse within the small jockey area to the rear. Luckily one of our Equine Vets was driving past the distraught owners who had stopped on a busy road. The vet called the Animal Rescue Unit from the Fire and Rescue Service. The horse was sedated and then anaesthetised before the horse box was cut apart by the Fire Brigade to allow the horse to be freed and moved to safety. Fortunately the horse was unharmed and made a full recovery. The horse box wasn't so lucky!
In another incident a horse travelling in a forward facing mini box along the A23 jumped forward over the partition and kicked the driver in the head. With the assistance of one of our vets, Fire & Rescue freed the horse. Luckily both the horse and driver made a full recovery. These types of incidences are becoming common place over the county and reported regularly by the Fire & Rescue Service.
Although we have not had any problems, in response to this increased risk to horses travelling in such boxes, we have had a novel modification made to our horse box by Southdowns Motor Works Ltd. A removable bulkhead with loadlock bracing bars using reinforced material with a 2.5 tons breaking strength. See photo above.