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Thinking of Buying a Horse Trailer? Three Things You Should Check First

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  So you’ve decided it’s time. You are tired of borrowing your friend’s horse trailer, you now have a vehicle designed to pull a trailer, and it’s time to go shopping. But not so fast. Before you plunk down that savings on a new ride for your beloved beast, here are three things you should check first.   The Floor. When we shop for horse trailers, we tend to think in numbers. How many horses will it hold? How tall is it? How wide is it? What does it weigh? And while these things are important, they can also blind us to a more important, and limiting, factor – the floor. You see, if the floor is bad, it no longer matters how many horses the trailer will hold (I’d say zero), what it weighs, or how tall it is. It is not a safe trailer . I repeat, if the floor is bad, the trailer is not safe. So how do you check the floor? You grab those mats, pull them up, and give it a look. Or better yet, pull the mats all the way out and inspect every inch of the floor. Look for any sig
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Three Things You Should Be Doing To Maintain Your Horse Trailer

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Horse trailer maintenance may not be the first thing on your mind when it comes to your horse. But, I ask you, what if your horse colics and needs emergency transport to the veterinary hospital. Now, suddenly, your trailer becomes very important. However, this is also when trailer maintenance becomes very important. After all, when you need to get your horse to the vet ASAP is not when you want to discover a broken door, flat tire, or suspicious water leak on your trailer. So what should you be doing to maintain your trailer? Here are three things: Have your bearings repacked every 12,000 miles or 12 months. Bearings are probably the most overlooked part of trailer maintenance, likely because we don’t see them. However, bearings are also the most insidious because once they go, you are stuck. (Changing the tire will do nothing to help you.) To prevent this and keep your bearings in optimal operating condition, the best recommendation is to have them repacke
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Haven’t Had Your Trailer Checked This Year?

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If you are like most horse people, you probably have your horse on a regular maintenance schedule. This includes Spring and Fall shots, worming on a regular basis, dental work, and visits from the farrier. And because you value your horse, you wouldn’t overlook these things – especially if you are showing. But when was the last time you had the bearings on your trailer checked? My guess is you can’t remember. Yet, horse trailer maintenance is no less important than maintenance of your horse. While the reasons should be obvious, let’s just consider a scenario. Let’s say that you are driving to a horse show about 2 hours away. Halfway into your drive, you notice that there is smoke coming out of your trailer’s front right tire. You pullover, inspect the tire, but everything looks okay. So your start up again, and as soon as you do, the smoke returns. You pull over again, mystified. Your horse starts to get irritated in the trailer, the cars are flying by on the freeway,
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