In the past I've had stock trailers. When I was at Open shows I'd simply tie my horses to the trailer with a hay bag by each tie, and they'd be occupied that way. Now I have a 2003 Featherlite aluminum trailer, it is painted white at the area where I tie horses.

I have a friend with a similar Sundowner trailer who will NEVER use a hay bag because she thinks the swinging of the hay bag will damage/scratch the paint and aluminum. I was worried after her advice, so when I was at the trainer's place this spring I left my gelding tied to the trailer without a hay bag while I rode my mare. When I returned I found he had nicely nibbled the aluminum window frames and put in a few shallow scratches (He's two and likes to be busy)

So the next time I went to the trainer I hung him a hay bag, figuring it would be less risky than him being bored. I also used a dog "No chew" product around the windows. The horse products in my tack store said not to spray their products on metal. My boy was happy with the hay, and didn't do any more chewing on the window. Of course there is no damage to the white paint yet from the hay bag, but will it happen with repeated use?

So my question is - do you feed your horse when tied to the trailer? If so, have you seen scratches, rub marks or other damage where the bag goes? As an aside, my friend simply loads her horses back up at shows, drops the windows and has the eat inside, but that is time consuming when I'm always rushing at the trainer's place. Also, my horses aren't hungry at the trainer's place as they eat in the trailer while traveling, I just think they're bored standing for an hour.

Thanks for any advice you may have to offer on this - hopefully I'll make the right choice to protect the exterior of the trailer.

Just depending on how much space I have,  I have often thrown some black Rubbermaid tubs in the back of the truck and throw my hay in those when I get to where I'm camping.  the hroses don't loose as much hay in the tubs as they do when I hang hay bags.  Besides the tubs help keep the horses away from the trailer. You can see here, We put out two tubs, One between each of two horses.

On this trailer you can see I am using hay bags and the horses drop a lot of hay,  They will clean a lot of it as the bags get empty. But I still waste more and have to worry about how much sand they will injest.

I guess the other thing I might mention, is that since I put the HiTies on the trailer. I've really not had to worry about the horses scratching up the side of the trailer.  As you can see it positions the horse 3-4 feet away and they don't crowd the trailer as much as if they are tied to the rings.

I appreciate everyone's advice, especially the photos posted by Painted Pony (woops, might have the name wrong now that I'm away from your comment!) I've only see the HiTies once, and that was in the distance, so I'm not really familiar with how they work. Are they spring loaded? Do they just fold up against the sides of the trailer when you travel? And what the risks of a horse getting a leg over the rope when eating at ground level?

We all lead such different horse lives. I mainly haul to breed shows, and at those my horses are kept inside the barn in stalls while I sleep in my trailer. Since they are basically only tied to the trailer for short periods of time, and even then quite sporatically, I probably won't invest too much money in something like HiTies, although they do look practical. What sort of costs are there with them? In my case I'll likely just keep tying to the trailer, although I'd like to move my outside ties - I only have one on the driver's side and two on the passengers side, and the two together are too close to be safe and/or handy.

Thanks again.

The HiTies are about $300 each.  They are a 1" fiberglass rod.  The rod flexes with the horses movements.  They also come with a bungie that you can use to tie horse vs his lead rope.  set up correctly the horse should just barely be able to stretch his nose to the ground. With everything this short. It's pretty tough for the horse to get a leg over the lead.  If you tie with too much slack in the lead, Then Yes, it could be a problem.

They fold flat against the trailer for travel.  It's too much hassle to open them up and close them after if you only use them for a few minutes. And for most women, It can be a pain just to reach the high tie to operate them, Since i locate them higher than most horses heads. You would ahve to stand on a bucket or something to reach the hinge pin.  So when I pull into a trail head and saddle up and leave, I don't bother with them. But when I camp I do use them. It's the only way I can get any sleep with the horses tied to the trailer.  Look in the photos, there are NO TREES to highline between at some of our rides.

Our trailers have extruded siding covering aprox the lower half of the exterior walls. The top half is a smooth skin, painted sheet aluminum. The .050" aluminum is prone to damage, and the painted surface can be scratched to the bare metal. Halter hardware and snaps can easily damage this surface. Constant abrasion can chafe and scuff the paint.

The lower extrusions are quite resilient. Most abrasions are hard to notice, and because it is a solid surface, a gouge will not show as a discolouration. If the surface were badly abraded, it could be sanded and polished. This is an ideal surface, and holds up well to pawing, buckets, hay bags and the like.

For us, the extruded skin is a more practical surface, than an all smooth skin exterior.

I always hang a haybag.   A friend of mine was concerned about her hardware on the haybag scratching, so she wrapped the metal with vetwrap.

The rug thing is a good idea for buckets.  When I've tied overnight or for long periods, I offer water occasionally but don't leave the bucket there unattended.

We got a 3 year old Appendix filly that thinks that this is the most fun thing in the whole world. Our Walking Horses, Icelandic, donkey's,  etc. have never bothered the window gaskets, but this "trottin hoss"  won't leave them alone!!!