Trailering question

[wingnut]

This year I'm going to try to do more than halter at our 5 club shows. I also have a new helper: a ten yr old horse crazy young lady from church. We're going to try to do junior showmanship with her.

In working my horses over the last few weeks I'm coming to some conclusions:

* My 5 yr old mare is like to be better suited to the showmanship class

* My 4 yr old mare that I've shown in halter last 3 years will continue to do halter and probably obstacle. The 10 yr old can't get her respect so if she does any jumping, I'll have to be the one handling her.

* My other 4 yr old mare has had less handling but I think will make the best jumper out of them all.

If I go this route, it means taking 3 horses to the shows. I have a 19' bumper pull stock trailer with a mid-trailer divider. I usually only take two horses at any given time. The are left loose in the back section. This has worked well for me and I plan to continue this.

What I'm trying to decide is whether all 3 horses should go in the rear section or whether one should go up in the front section or (finally) if I should open the divider and allow all 3 horse full use of the whole trailer.

All three get along very well. All three have been trailered at some point so this won't be new to any of them.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Considerations I may not have thought of?

 

[Riverrose28]

If you were hauling big horses you would want to even out the load, but with the ligth weight minis it doesn't matter. We now have a goose neck 32 footer, but when we first started out we had a trailer like yours only it was 16 feet with one divider. We could saftly haul three or four minis in the back section ane that leaves the front open for your show stuff.

 

[Jean_B]

Only thing....make sure you balance your load. If all of the weight is being the tires - you will have difficulty keeping that trailer on the road. I once put about 800 pounds of feed on the back end of my trailer and ended up whip-sawing back and forth all over the road, so had to keep it under 30 MPH. Luckily only had to go 3 miles - otherwise I would have had to stop and move the load forward.

 

[wingnut]

Thanks! That's what I'm leaning toward.

 

[wingnut]

Jean_B: thanks for that explanation. The total load would be roughly 800 (350, 300 and 200). My husband is the trailering guru here, so I'll get his take on the matter too. I trailer then 2 hours each way so I don't want that kind of problem if I can avoid it.

 

[Minimor]

When I trailer two horses I either put both in the front section of my stock trailer, or I put them one in front, one in the back half. I never put them both in the back half. It is not safejust as Jean mentionedto put all the weight on the back end of the trailer. There is more than one rig that has been flipped into the ditch because someone loaded their trailer to be back end heavy.

 

[wingnut]

I've have trailered successfully with two in the back for the last three years. The combined weight was between 400-500lbs. It does seem though that if I do choose to take all three horses, I should try separating them with at least one in the front (the heavier of the 3) to balance things.

I really appreciate the input everyone!