Horse Trailers vs. Livestock Trailers

If you’re hauling horses and livestock, you have an important decision to make regarding horse trailers versus livestock trailers. Let’s give you some useful  information that will help you make the best choice. 

One of the first and most obvious differences has to do with height and width.

Horse Trailers

7 feet 6 inches tall by 7 feet wide

Stock Trailers

6 feet 6 inches by 6 feet wide

The Doors on Horse Trailers vs. Stock Trailers

The doors on a horse trailer are typically drop downs or Dutch doors over the ramp on the back and side. The side ramp is useful because when you’re transporting multiple horses, you don’t want to unload all of them just to let a horse at the front out of the trailer. 

Stock trailers have a full rear swing gate. They come without ramps, and with double back doors. The average stock trailer has a door for people at the front, too.

Dividers on Horse Trailers

Depending on your horse trailer, you will see multiple different types of dividers. 

Slant dividers are higher at the head and taper at the back. Stud doors and breast and butt bars for each stall and stud doors for box stalls. Don’t try to use a slant divider to create a box stall. Even if it makes a similar size divider, the two horses will have access to each other. 

Note on dividers, they should be padded to protect your horse from injury. They should never squeak or rattle, but they should be tightly secured. The squeaking and rattling noises will disturb the horses.

Stock Trailer Gates

When stock trailers are not custom made, they tend to have two gates that go from floor to ceiling. Some of them have a cut gate that looks like a slant divider with a high top and a downward taper. Stock trailers tend to have padded gates, too.

Construction Styles for Horse and Stock Trailers

Horse trailers have double walls with insulation and rubbing lining to protect the horse. It’s fully enclosed to keep the horse out of the rain, snow, and sun. The windows are 5 feet above the bottom of the trailer.

Stock trailers are not double walled. There’s no rubber lining on the inside. The lining is metal, and can potentially have sharp edges. 

The wall is four to four and a half feet high. There are slats that make it easier to engage with the cattle from outside the trailer. 

Flooring for Stock and Horse Trailers

Horse trailers get a smooth ribbed floor. There are rubber floor mats that help the horse get some better footing. However, there is a tread plate on stock trailers. The floor is corrugated or ribbed.