The Traveling Hippo 2019

Another year another 365 days trying to get my horse to be good at traveling. This year it was less about getting him experience in new places and more about me wanting to use my trailer! At this point, I feel like I'm just keeping track of these things for fun.

Still the best picture I've ever taken of TC at the trailer

Here were our trips:

January
1/27 - haul to the ranch
Total Hauls: 1
Distinct Places: 1

February
2/12 - move to LO
2/18 - haul to the ranch
Total Hauls: 3
Distinct Places: 2

March
3/1 - haul to AB for a lesson
3/16 - haul to the ranch
3/23 - haul to HBR for a trail ride
3/31 - haul to HBR for a trail ride
Total Hauls: 7
Distinct Places: 4

April
4/7 - haul to HBR for a trail ride
4/21 - haul to HBR for a trail ride
Total Hauls: 9
Distinct Places: 4

May
5/4 - haul to HBR for a trail ride
Total Hauls: 10
Distinct Places: 4

June
6/8 - haul to HBR for a trail ride
6/13 - haul to ASH for a lesson
6/18 - haul to the ranch
6/20 - haul to the ranch
6/23 - haul to Henry Coe for a trail ride
6/25 - haul to the ranch
6/27 - haul to the ranch
6/28 - haul to ASH for a lesson

Total Hauls: 18
Distinct Places: 6

July
7/1 - haul to the ranch
7/2 - haul to the ranch
7/4 - move to breeder's barn
7/6 - haul to ASH for a lesson
7/13 - haul to ASH for a lesson
7/19 - haul to ASH for a lesson
Total Hauls: 24
Distinct Places: 7

Just don't ask me how much I spent in gas (or
how I managed to fit my rig into this tiny gas station)

August
8/1 - haul to ASH for a lesson
8/5 - move to WMF
8/10 - haul to ASH for a lesson
8/17 - haul to STCP for a trail ride
8/18 - haul to Salinas beach
8/25 - haul to ASH for a lesson
Total Hauls: 30
Distinct Places: 10

September
9/2 - haul to HBR for a trail ride
9/7 - haul to ASH for a lesson
9/14 - haul to ASH for a lesson
9/28 - haul to ASH for a lesson
Total Hauls: 34
Distinct Places: 10

October
10/13 - haul to ASH for a lesson
10/27 - haul to Greenville for a show
Total Hauls: 36
Distinct Places: 11

November
11/11 - haul to ASH for a lesson
11/16 - haul to RR for a Working Equitation Clinic
Total Hauls: 38
Distinct Places: 12

December
NONE! It's been rainy and my trailer needs to go into the shop anyway (just a check up and because it has a leak). We haven't had a month off yet so we took one.


Distinct Places:
The Ranch
LO*
ASH
Henry Coe*
HBR
STCP*
AB*
WMF
Breeder's Barn
Salinas Beach*
RR*

* = never been there before this year

So good at hauling (also he stopped rearing at the trailer this year!)

He's really settled down about hauling! It's also worth noting that this was the first year he didn't rear himself calm every time I left him tied at the trailer, good boy TC! Rico still rules as the best traveler, but TC is coming up on the same age when I bought Rico, and Rico wasn't perfect at hauling when he was 8 turning 9. So TC is ahead of the game!

Next step is doing more trail rides with friends and hauling with other horses. He's been lucky to have his trailer all to himself, but I have a friend at the barn who wants to go all the places this coming year and I told her I'd toss her horse in my rig whenever I left the property. So there we go! She gets her horse some exposure and TC gets to get used to sharing his trailer (and being sane when we head away from friends). Plus I'm excited to trail ride with my friends and hopefully with my parents some more this year now that TC is a good boy!

We Are Mobile!

Woohoo! 

Major shout out to Peony who I couldn't do this without (and Andy!). One of my barnmates wanted to sell her trailer even before I boarded there. She put us in touch and we got it all worked out!

So the trailer is a 2004 Sundowner SunLite 737. It's aluminum with a steel frame. It has a generous dressing room with a door into the horses (which is good because there's no escape door on the side). I can definitely keep a ton of stuff in there! The horse section is a 2 horse straight load with a ramp. It's warmblood sized so it's quite tall and wide (actually wider than my truck, gotta be careful).

Horse area, looking into the tack room

So excited!

I love it, I think it's perfect for us! And I can't believe this happened so fast. I got my truck up here a little over a week ago and then my dad came up to look at everything this last weekend (and just to visit since he hadn't been here yet, we found a brewery nearby!) before I officially handed the check over. And pretty immediately I put a bunch of stuff in there.

Yesterday I pulled it out to do some self loading training with TC. He thinks it's haunted, but he gets in it at least. And I've worked out a way to get him to stand in it long enough to put the butt bar up. He's stopped trying to turn around in it, which is good. And he finally figured out that he shouldn't try to enter diagonally like he did with the slant loads he's exclusively been hauled in.

I am the actual worst at parking it. But Andy gave me a lesson yesterday and I'll be pulling it out again this week to practice again. If worst comes to worst, I'll leave it somewhere out of the way on the property and text my barn owner to apologize.

Tack room! Saddles go under on the left

Saddle racks, they pull out toward you

First stop is a horse show this weekend! Then next weekend I for sure want to go on a trail ride. And the weekend after that... and the weekend after that. Plus it will allow me to be more flexible with getting training, going to clinics, shows, etc. I'm intimidated by it (especially by parking it omg) but I'm mostly excited.

I've hauled a lot so have a good idea of what items I want in the trailer/truck, but let me know if you have anything you keep in your trailer that you'd recommend. So far I have a contraption to change a tire, a whip, longe line, brushes, spurs, shipping boots, an extra saddle pad, extra boots, polos a bucket, a trash can, tack cleaner, extra shampoo/conditioner, a hay bag, and WD40. On my list is an extra halter/lead, a whole bunch of twine, a human and horse first aid kit, water, and a few more buckets.

Don't forget to enter the contest!

Trailer Hunting

Pretty much immediately after leaving the bay area, I wanted a trailer. I've been ever grateful that having TC relatively close to my parents' ranch has meant that I could borrow their trailer almost any time I wanted. This was crucial to getting TC used to going all the places and I think it made a huge difference in my confidence with him. Plus, shows and trail rides and lessons are super fun!

MORE TRAIL RIDES PLS

Now, it'd take me roughly five hours to go down and get their trailer and bring it back to my barn. That's a bit out of the question.

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.

TC says BUY ME A TRAILER so I can get back into that show
ring ASAP

Other than that, I don't care. I don't care if it has a ramp or not (TC has been in both) or if it's a straight or slant load (TC will get in anything if there are cookies involved, I'll make sure of it) or if it's a goose neck or bumper pull (truck has both and I've driven both).

BUT I have never bought a trailer. My mom has, though, and has been really intrusive offered a lot of great advice. I figured I'd ask the blogosphere though, what has been your experience in buying trailers? Any good websites/etc to look for them? Buy new or used (very much used for me I think given my budget)? Vet check for trailers? Anything to look out for?

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!