Cob Jockey

Obviously adding the ramp was priority #1, but I had a couple of other relatively minor things I wanted added while the trailer was in the shop.

First, I wanted another tie ring.  The tie ring the trailer came with was on the drivers side of the trailer, so the opposite side of the tack room door, which made tacking up annoying.  I also like having options - with one tie ring on one side only, if that side of the trailer is inaccessible or dangerous, I was outta luck without a tie ring on the other side.

Liiiiiike here.  Not ideal to tie him on this side of the trailer here.

Because the tie rings have to be secured into studs and because this trailer is SO small, I don't get a ton of options as far as placement.  Now both of my tie rings are in this location on opposite sides of the trailer.

Gah can't wait until it's warm enough to get those black streaks off

The other thing I asked for was a butt strap across the back.  Remember because of the location of the big back door's hold open hardware, there's a risky few seconds where I have to leave the tied horse on the trailer with the trailer wide open and no visible humans while I walk around the door, unlatch it, and close it.  You can see the hold open hardware in the photo above, under the new tie ring.



I consulted with a local independent shop on whether I should go with a butt bar or a strap and their response was interesting.  They said because my trailer doesn't have a rear tack and therefore the bar/strap would have to go across the entire width of the trailer, it would be much safer to go with a strap because a full-length bar is an injury risk in an accident.   They didn't elaborate, but I can envision a situation in which the bar becomes dislodged, one end gets jammed into the ground and the other end goes into the horse.

So I asked Shadow for a butt strap.  I specifically requested that the strap height be no higher than 3'9" (pony butt height, I measured), which my dealer verified by sending me a photo with a tape measure and by putting a 14.1hh pony they had on the property into the trailer to make sure the strap wasn't so high Connor could get under.  Good customer service!






Although in the end, again because of stud placement, I couldn't get exactly what I wanted on the height.  One end is slightly higher than the other, and it's maybe 2 inches higher total than I would have preferred - but you can't just screw a strap into the skin of the trailer, so it is what it is. 

Connor is good about standing still when I shut the door, and my next horse is likely to be a couple of inches taller than Connor anyway judging by the slight upward trend in his breeder's babies in the 13 years since Connor was born, so I'm not really concerned about it.

And that's it!

My husband still asks me when the other half of my trailer is being delivered haha

With that, I have officially fixed all the things I said I didn't love about this trailer.  No regrets on waiting 18 months to make these changes - like a house, I think you have to live with a thing for a while before you are really sure about what you want to change. 

Now I can't wait to take it out!