Gone riding

What a day yesterday was, I think we shopped out all the tack and trailer stores in Ocala. Being broke has it's advantages, since you can't spend any money on all the cool things that are available, like saddles, bridles, horse trailers... ya know, the high ticket items. I did manage to spend 50 bucks while I was there because of Stateline Tack . It's located in the Petsmart in Ocala, for those of you that are interested. Anyway, I walked out with a salt block, Cowboy Magic Detangler, and a bag of Calf Manna Apple Wafers. If you haven't tried Cowboy Magic on your horse yet, go get it. It's expensive, but a little bit goes a long way and it removes tangles from mane and tail in a snap. Good stuff!

So yesterday, we hit the trailer dealers as well as the tack stores, and let me tell ya, I got a powerful case of "I want!". My current trailer is a steel Bee Walkthrough trailer, which I bought brandnew back in 99. The truck that I have, a Durango (V8, 5.9 ltr) is more than capable of pulling this little trailer and I could have definetly gotten something larger. However, my mom wanted to be able to haul as well with the POS she was driving at the time, so we had to get something smaller. It's a good little trailer, the only two problems I have had with it are the fact that it's steel, which means that it rusts, and that you have to use hay bags in the manger area or hay will get all over your tack. Also, there isn't a dressing room, although there is enough room for one person to stand in the walkthough and change if need be (I can attest to this since I've been caught out in a rain storm more than once.)

My next trailer is going to be an aluminum trailer, and I can't decide which type I want to get. We saw two used trailers yesterday, one of them a Featherlite and the other one a Four Star, that were really nice. For the most part, they had the same features except for one main difference: The Featherlite was a straight load and the Four Star was a slant load.

So straight load vs slant load, which is better? Hard to say. First, let me explain the difference. In a straight load trailer, the horse walks into the trailer alone and faces straight ahead while traveling. With a slant load, the horse can be led into the trailer and they are tied at a slant to the side of the trailer. I've been doing some research today to see what is out there in regards to which is better, and everyone has come back with the same conclusion: no one is really sure. There have been some studies (and I use that term loosely) that indicate that the slant load is easier on the horse, since if a horse is allowed to haul loose, it will turn around and stand at a slant. It appears that the slant causes less strain on them during cornering and acceleration since they are able to lean on the dividers in a slant load as opposed to the straigh load.

On the same token, my horses have no problems loading into a straight load trailer and they seem perfectly fine being in one. I can remember one time where we took my cousin's horse somewhere in a slant load stock trailer and when we stopped somewhere, the trailer was shaking. We rushed over to check the horses and they were all fine, but my cousin's horse was shaking, either out of nerves or fright, we weren't sure. He was fine, but I think the unusual experience of riding in a slant load stock trailer was a little overwhelming for him, to put it mildly.

I think I'm probably going to go ahead and get an aluminum slant load trailer as my next purchase. Since that pretty much guarantees I will have a dressing room, that will be nice. However, the main reason for it is because of Ms. Glori. Prior to my purchase of her, she was in a trailering accident. Fortunately, she loads very quietly. However, when it comes time for her to be unloaded, she barely waits long enough for me to put the butt bar down before she comes flying out the back. Anyone who has ever unloaded a horse before knows how dangerous this is, you can be trampled by the horse if you trip and fall. We have done everything that we can to try and stop her of this behavior, but it seems like the only thing that really works is if you can lead her out. This is impossible with a straight load trailer, but you can do that with a slant load.

Now if I can just wait long enough to get it. :)