January 2005

Modern Trailer Choices Boil Down To Budget Constraints

Long gone are the days of cramped, stuffy—unsafe—trailers.

This Turnbow has the ramp and side escape doors we like to see.

Before the days of slats or bars on safety-glass windows, before sharp edges were filed down and rounded for safety, trailer shopping was scary—and uneducated buyers were easily taken. Old-make trailers were often too small, cramping even average-size horses, and little thought was given to ventilation or the horse’s comfort and health. Fortunately, you rarely see these major problems anymore, since the larger brand-name manufacturers now make their trailers with safety and the horse’s comfort in mind. 

So trailer shopping is now primarily a question of deciding what you can spend and what features are most convenient for your hauling purposes. We surveyed two-horse straight-load, bumper-pull trailers and found good things happening…