Horse Trailer Features You Wish You Had

@gottatrot , my 16.1 long bodied gelding could turn around in our 8' wide slant load trailer with a fixed rear tack. He only did it if he was loaded in the next to the last stall because he ruffled his hair on the door one time backing out and once he "hurt" himself doing something he was never inclined to do it a second time (he didn't even scrape the skin but he thought he was hurt LOL). It was pretty amazing to see how he could scrunch himself up to do that.



That was just one of his many quirks. LOL Loved that horse and still miss him!

I don't have a trailer anymore (or I should say, my family doesn't have a trailer anymore), but with borrowing trailers to use I have found some preferences.

I absolutely will not buying a straight load with only the one door. Last year, we had an incident with Minnie where the ramp came down and she immediately starting throwing herself against the butt bar in a blind panic (we were moving barns with zero notice, so I hadn't had time to practice trailering in a straight load). Everything would've been fine if we could of opened one door, let the first horse, open the second door, let her out. This was a trailer with a set-height for the butt bar, so she almost went underneath of it too. It was not a good experience.

If I get a straight or slant load, I want to be able to remove the center divider or swinging dividers. If I hadn't had access to the trailer that I did when I originally brought Minnie home, there would have been zero way to get her in. We used a two-horse straight load with the divider removed and it was inviting enough for her to load easily into it after not being removed from a pasture in two years (and loaded into a trailer before using a chute).

For slant loads, I will always get a stud divider for the first stall - they are SO convenient if you go away for horse shows or long weekends. Toss camp chairs, hay, extra buckets, etc in the first stall and load horses in the next stalls.

Having a camera to check on the horses is super convenient - we had one when I brought Minnie home. It would have been nice to have before then too. There was one time when Toofine, my gelding, someone put his leg through the nylon corner hay feeders and rode 3-legged all the way to our destination... I have NO idea how he did it, but we would've been able to notice and stop to fix it sooner if we had a camera on him.

I’ve had a lot of different trailers. (DH is a wheeler dealer.) My personal favorite is a simple 16’ stock trailer with a manger/tack area up front, a divider in the middle, and escape doors, one on the side and one in the back door. I can load 4 horses if needed but usually just haul one or two. I mostly haul locally to some trails but have hauled cross country twice with it. It does have a sliding saddle rack in the tack area that I really like. I can load or unload my saddle from either side by just sliding it. I really like that.
I also have a gooseneck trailer/weekender. 3 horse slant load with the tack area in the back. It has a ramp for loading. I thought that I would love it. I don’t. I had one horse that wouldn’t load into it at all no matter what I did. She was difficult to get into an enclosed 2 horse trailer so I think she was claustrophobic. No trouble going into the stock trailer. Even though the ramp has that rough black coating on it, my horses still slip unloading from the wet manure. (Why do they ALWAYS poop as soon as they get in?)
I guess that my advice would be do a lot of shopping around to see what features are really important to you. Don’t be dazzled by new, bigger, and “better”.

I will say when I bought my most recent trailer, although it is much smaller than what I wanted, it has so many features I didn't know I wanted until I had them.
1. Padded ceiling by rear doors. I am pretty sure it is intended for horses that like to throw their head last minute as they step off. Since my trailer is a little shorter than I would like for my 16+hh horses, it's great for when they step down and their body is in the auto-incline and they have to put their head up a little bit to stay comfortable. It's also been useful in training horses who liked to fly off backwards with their head up. No blood, no scrapes, no injuries.
2. Water tanks. I have one in the tack room and one in the rear with the horses along with troughs with plugs so I can fill those when we stop and drain them before we take off again. Super useful for longer trips and show days. While they do add weight, they are worth it.
3. Double Doors instead of one big swinging door. In the more cramped parking areas, it's easier to open my doors to let the horses off and to load up. I can open both doors to make it wide and appealing or just the one for quick and easy.
4. Under trough storage. Great for storing lead ropes and other stuff that doesn't really have a good place on a long trip or show day.
5. Storage under the seat in the tack room. Silly things are out of my way so I don't trip on them; like the battery for my interior lights, extra leathers, shedding tools that don't need to be in my grooming bag all the time, emergency 1st aid stuff that is too big to fit in the medicine cabinet.
6. Medicine cabinet in tack room. It has a mirror for show days and 3 shelves to store the little first aid things and other random stuff for shows.
7. The wall between the horses and the tack room has carpet in the tack room. When bridles and stuff hanging on that wall bang against it while we are driving, it's quiet doesn't bother the horses at all.
8. Drop down windows with separate screens. Super nice on long trips into the mountains with no shortage of dust and bugs flying at the windows. The windows slide and drop down and the screens drop down separately. They are also tinted which is nice when I am not using it to haul, I use it for storage and it stays slightly cooler than the tack rooms in the barn.
9. Locking saddle rack. My saddle rack swings out and it has a lever operated pin lock so it won't swing around in the wind. The lever is foot activated so I don't have to bend over, I just step on it to swing the rack out and again to swing it back in. The bridle and blanket rack also swings 180 degrees across the divider wall so I can have it out by itself or swing it into the wall and swing the saddle rack in front of it to keep everything from moving around while we are moving.

The one thing I wish was different was the spare tire location. It's in my tack room on the opposite back corner from the door. I have to swing out my saddle rack and move whatever is in there on the floor to get to it. Having it on the exterior over a wheel well or over the tongue would be so much more convenient. Or even right inside the door opposite my saddle rack. Just anywhere easier to get to. I also wish I had better tack room storage, but that's more my fault because I haven't purchased a door rack and I haven't added anything inside since I bought it. I had planned on some extra baskets and wall storage on the far wall away from the door for polos and stuff I am not always using along with hooks for my ropes. Those are the easy fixes that I need to make happen.

Three hours ago I finished an 1100 mile trip with 2 horses in my 3 horse slant bumper pull. No dividers.

It has drop down windows on the driver's side that daughter and I put screens into. The other side has a long slat that I can slide plexiglas in over the winter.

It has a front tack. I camped in the back end when I did day work.

I was worried about heat because *it was hot, *the roof isn't insulated, *it doesn't have roof vents. But, I have a thermometer that gives accurate temps wherever. I use it to check the temp of foods, drinks, rooms, back when I assessed healthcare facilities.

I was ready to stop if it got hot inside the trailer. I put the horses out at a cutting horse place for 2 hours yesterday while I had lunch with a friend. It was 91*F outside and I had to park in the sun. I checked the interior temp before I loaded and it was 81*F. A temp I deem tolerable. The horses never even broke a sweat.

Anyway, my basic trailer and lowly 1/2 ton truck did well. The horses are enjoying a piece of their new home, and I'm going to take a shower. 😊