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| MORE TRAIL RIDES PLS |
I'm waiting until the end of April to figure out what my budget is for a trailer, though I'm thinking that CHEAP is a good way of quantifying it for now.
I'm really not very picky either, I only have three requirements:
1) I want a two horse trailer, since I'm already really anxious about having to back it up and drive it through the city so I don't want anything too large. Plus, I have one horse and am not planning on expanding my training business so much that I have to haul too many clients around.
2) It has to be warmblood-sized or at least a bit bigger than normal. TC is a big-ish horse. Not too big, but big enough. I don't know how big my next horse is going to be. Hopefully not big at all. I'd really want to be on the other side of the transaction when an adult ammy buys a super fancy dressage pony. But I know that even if my horse is small, I'll not regret getting a larger trailer.
3) It has to have a dressing room. I've seen a lot of those little straight loads with the tack under the feeder, but at pretty much every show I'm changing/crying/having a panic attack in the tack room, so I need to fit inside of it comfortably.
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| TC says BUY ME A TRAILER so I can get back into that show ring ASAP |
BUT I have never bought a trailer. My mom has, though, and has
I've already budgeted for maintenance, which is currently being rerouted into my trailer savings fund. I've got a place to put it (barn has free trailer parking, thanks amazing barn owner!), and I've already got all my shows and lessons and trail rides obsessively planned in the calendar. Now just to get the thing!
The Trail Boss and I got a great deal on a basic straight load (it disconnected from the sellers truck, and she freaked out and sold it - turns out she had the wrong size ball hitch on it). It is small (Tesla just fits in there - but loves traveling in it) and it is light and airy and easy peasy to pull. The whole thing is lined in rubber mats and the middle divider pulls out so it can be a box stall. It has one huge back door (so the horses don't feel claustrophobic going in.) Can't beat the basics!
ReplyDeleteBuy the one with as much room as you can afford. There are some very good videos on YouTube about prepurchase exams for trailers!
ReplyDeleteHorse trailer world is a good place to scope out used trailers or check prices if you find one somewhere else (since there is no convenient horse trailer blue book, haha). Also, my forever recommendation on trailer shopping now is to actually hook it to your truck to make sure everything works. We bought a trailer that worked just fine with the seller's Dodge but none of the lights worked hooked to our Chevy, so having everything rewired was an annoying/unexpected expense. Bringing along someone mechanically-minded is always a plus (or it is for me because I'm dumb about those things). Good luck shopping! 😀
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great list, I've seen several up lately in the Bay Area. I prefer slant but Im paranoid of getting crushed lol. Other than look for rust I dont have a lot to offer.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I prefer straight loads because they give each horse more *real* room (not just corner to corner, which is how slants are measured), and if you've got a larger horse it can really make a difference. I've also watched a horse slip off a step down and break both hind legs, which i'm sure was an absolute freak chance thing, but because of it I will only ever own a trailer with a ramp. Definitely hitch up your truck and take the trailer for a spin to make sure everything works, and get the maintenance records from the previous owner if you can. Tire age and when the bearings were last repacked are the most expensive things, so if you can find one that's been well maintained it will put off those costs for a while. Good luck!
ReplyDeletehorsetrailerworld.com is my favorite since you can actually filter search results with some degree of accuracy. I think we're looking for sort of the same thing, only I'm pickier/not in as much of a hurry. Fingers crossed the perfect one comes along in your budget!
ReplyDeletegood luck! truck and trailer shopping is like... basically imo just as stressful as horse shopping. i'm looking at probably upgrading my truck in the next little while and it's already freakin me out. hopefully tho your searches go well!
ReplyDeleteboth my trailers have been purchased new and financed. my current loan is through Farm Credit, and i can't for the life of me remember my last loan holder.... it's meant paying more than i wanted overall, but also gave me a lot more flexibility in getting something that i *knew* would be safe and not have any lurking issues waiting to be discovered at the worst possible moment. plus i put a pretty significant down payment on both of them (basically what i had expected to pay in total for a used trailer) so monthly payments have been on the order of ~$120.
but then again there are always some screamin deals on used trailers to be found out there if you've got your eyes open. there's a lot of trash on craigslist but a lot of good stuff too.
Ugh I had a nice big response typed out and then accidently hit "Sign Out" instead of "Publish". So annoying! The Sign out button should not be right under the comment box!!!
ReplyDeleteI bought used, but from a trailer dealer because it was my first trailer and I wasn't sure what to look for and I hoped that the dealer at least cares about their reputation enough to not sell me a trailer with hidden deferred maintenance issues, vs some rando off craigslist who disappears as soon as they have my money.
I also wanted all aluminum because we're on the coast, and rust is a big issue. Didn't care about straight vs slant, and Cupid is small so size wasn't an issue. Though many horses at my barn would not fit in mine comfortably, it works fine for Cupid.
I got a Classic Monarch, and am happy with it. Though some people caution against buying a brand that's no longer made (like Classic) because replacement parts might be harder to find. Hopefully this won't be a problem down the line. But you certainly wouldn't go wrong with a Sundowner, Featherlite, 4Star, etc.
Craigslist is the best list for horse trailers. It takes some stalking but there are some great deals on there. And well worth it to get dirty and crawl under to check for any rust on the frame. Although maybe that's not a thing out there for you guys since you don't live in eternal winter?
ReplyDeleteI used craigslist to find mine- it needed TLC, but we (Husband) was more than capable of fixing it. I also vote straight load because there's more "real" room in it for big horses.
ReplyDeleteI found mine on craigslist. I had been searching for a while and knew what the general prices were, what was a good deal and knew what I wasn't willing to compromise on.
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