Step up horse trailer?

[Maxpowers]

I'm currently browsing the used market to try and find a 2 horse trailer to move sheep around with.

Would you hold out for one with a ramp? I'm wondering if a step up horse trailer is a pain with sheep.

[PNP Katahdins]

You can make a small ramp and store it inside the trailer. That's what we do.

Peg

[Callieslamb]

We lift our sheep into a off road 4x4 pickup. I'd just build my own. The sheep can actually jump pretty well into something if they have a reason to do so.

[nobrabbit]

We have a small step up trailer; the sheep hop right into it.

[goodhors]

I would get the step-up if it was a good price and in nice condition. Sheep and lambs usually don't have a problem hopping up on stuff. You WILL need to block under the doors, floor if it is high like a cattle stock trailer, so animals don't go UNDER to escape. We handle our sheep a lot, so we just led each inside with a halter on and they jumped right in.

MAKE SURE there is some kind of full "coverage" for partial height, back-end horse doors, because sheep WILL jump out to kill themselves without a wire screen, snapped canvas tarp or storm door top, to close the rear end fully. TIE down any wiggly door latches so they can't bounce out of holders. Better safe than sorry!

I DO have a ramp trailer, but it is a heavy ramp which I avoid lowering if possible. Cattle and horses MUST use the ramp, not the sheep. We loaded sheep in and out of the side, full size escape door. They jumped in or out just fine with the halter leading them. Tiny lambs got lifted inside.

[wendle]

Mine have no trouble jumping in and out of the trailer in the picture. They travel in it about 6 times a year. They are also loaded 4 times a year into a double decker trailer that sits higher. The first year we used a couple hay bales to keep them from going under. Now we don't even bother doing that. Most of the lambs(over 4 months) follow the ewes right in the first time with only a couple going under. The few that don't figure it out get brought back by the border collie, and picked up if needed. I do quite a bit of dog training as well as host a couple stockdog trials here every year, so besides traveling, they get loaded and unloaded other times . I don't generally use food as a reward for mine, but they see the dog takes the pressure off them when they are in the trailer so they like it. That is besides going to new fields. I think they like that too. The only time I bother with a ramp is when I do demos and load the sheep in the back of the truck.

[wendle]

Then there are those sheep who just like to load anyway