Trailering: Tied vs. Loose

I generally leave untied. It's easier, leaves them their heads and necks to balance.
I also attended a Large animal rescue course and heard the same thing.
Often if I'm floating Prin alone I will tie her as she sometimes gets a little anxious leaving her friends and I worry about her turning around and getting stuck.

I also leave the halters on with ropes over the back and don't float in rope halters anymore.

I always make sure they're untied before opening doors etc.

I recently had a trailer accident this past summer where me and some friends were hauling to a rodeo in my friends trailer. The highway we were driving on was extremely rough causing the floorboards of the trailer to break loose. My horse and my best friends horse were drug along the highway. Needless to say we had to put our beloved horses down right there on the side of the road. The horse in the back which belonged to the girl who owned the trailer was uninjured, but had broke loose due to a cheap halter. Our horses had sturdy halters with good quality lead ropes that held the horses in the trailer. Had they not the horses would have came completely out of the trailer and possibly killed us along with many of the other drivers on the road. So yes for the most part I believe the safest thing is for horses to be tied. It's not always possible due to certain situations, but I think it's definitely important!
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If it's a straight load and the divider and bumpers are up I don't usually tie even with a horse on the other side because my horse doesn't have the room to move around. All the trailers I use I have a divider that reaches the ground so there's no chance of him slipping underneath it if he falls and the horses can't kick each other. In any other trailer situations he's tied.

Either way. Depends on the horse and the trailer and what I'm doing. My dad's trailer is a 20 ft (I think) gooseneck stock trailer. We've hauled both ways and never had a problem. The only problem that we have ever had in that trailer is that the middle divider is a fairly low and we had a cow decide to go over it and get caught. When hauling horses loose in there I would prefer to leave the divider open.