ridecamp@endurance.net: Learning to pull a trailer

Learning to pull a trailer

Ann Hatfield (keithr@nocdc.bc.ca)
Mon, 12 May 1997 22:19:28 -0700

Two things that were of great use to me upon learning to pull a trailer,
one I saw when first having my horse hauled and the other I remembered
later when I was just learning:

Doc. Henderson (my friend's kindly veterinarian father who hauled us to
many shows) demonstrated to me that he could indeed pull a trailer on paved
roads without spilling much from a (Ithink it was 1/2 full) plastic glass
of water. He also told me to ride in my trailer myself before hauling
horses in it. I know it's illegal but I did it years later and I learned
that our stock trailer has about 10 different loud rattles and it is darned
difficult to stand up in it without any divider to lean on.

I jam small wooden wedges in the most accessible of rattles and drive very
moderately particularly on corners. Seems to work. The horses load easily
and appear to travel fairly stress-free. In fact the old Appy makes a
ballet-like leap into it at the end of a hard day. ("Thank goodness a
chance to rest and eat, now let's go home right away, o.k.? And no stopping
for dinners for the humans en route!")

And while on the subject of horses loading into trailers, I have watched a
long-distance trail-riding friend's saddlebred-cross jump into the back of
his pickup. I mean from level ground to the pickup bed, not from any ramp
or bank. Danny hauled this horse in stock racks for several years before
buying a gooseneck stock trailer. I believe Danny made some money on bets
with unbelievers. "Arizona" was a real nuisance when he was working with
his truck in the pasture as the gelding would jump in and out and in and
out and had to be shooed off with a stick to keep him from leaping up into
a load of tools or fence posts.

Ann

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