Horse Trailer Woes

Recently I've been spending my time dealing with some horse trailer woes.  We were driving down our road with no horses in the trailer, only about a mile from home, when we heard a bang and a whoosh.  A quick glance in the mirror showed us a veritable storm of shredded tire rubber cascading through the air around the rig.  It wasn't just a flat - the tire pretty much exploded as a result of running over something sharp.  In addition to the tire decimation, a wiring box was blown loose by the tire creating dangling wires of undetermined origin.  We were really grateful there weren't any horses in the trailer at the time.  It was also a good reminder of why we never haul a trailer with less than two axles (like some of the ancient one horse trailers you see in sketchy craigslist ads).  If it only had one axle and the tire blew, it would have been a simple thing for the entire trailer to tip over on the road.

As a result, the past week or so has been spent with too many trips to town to get the tire replaced, then taking the trailer into the shop to have the wiring repaired.  The trip to the shop was this morning, and when I arrived they asked if I was going to wait or leave it there.  I asked how long it was going to take, and they said about ten to fifteen minutes, so I decided to stay rather than run errands.  An hour and a half later the trailer wiring was finally cooperating, all the brakes had power, and all the lights were working.  Electrical repairs never end up as simple as they seem.

While I was waiting, I perused the lot full of shiny new trailers because I love to drool over nice rigs.  I'm hilarious and entertaining when I go to the stock show in Denver as I sniff and pet the fancy shiny trailers on display in the vendor areas with their cabin surveillance cameras and leather interiors.  At this lot there were some very nice new Trailswest trailers that would suit my purposes pretty well.  I've been pondering upgrading to a four horse trailer with large dressing room so that I can take more client horses to shows with me.

The sales guy was very accommodating, he even said he would get the guys in the shop to help me move my tack out of my trailer and into the new one.  I could trade in my Kieffer that very day and instead take the new one home and then to the show this weekend.  While the trailers were very nice, and I even found a couple used ones whose layouts I liked better than the new ones (also closer to my budget), none of them were EXACTLY what I wanted.  Interestingly, the dealer offered a very low trade-in value for my trailer because of it's uniqueness.  But to replace it with exactly the same thing but a little fancier would be very difficult for me because the things I really want in a trailer make it distinctive.  When I listed all the features I really want, I realized that I already have a trailer that fulfills all my requirements.  It's not as fancy as the newer ones, but it's oversized for my large sport horses, with modified living quarters that include lights, refrigerator, microwave, a mattress in the gooseneck, cupboards, and a very large area for my tack.  It is very comfortable over long show weekends.  In the horse compartment there are mats on the walls and floor, stud guards on all the padded stall dividers, a back tack compartment, and good ventilation.  As an added bonus it's already paid off.   There's something to be said for discovering that I desperately want exactly what I already have.