Trailers: They “Ain’t What They Used to be”

We humans have been carting our horses from one place to another for 3,500 years. By some accounts, horses traveled in horse-drawn carriages, in trucks during World War II and, by the 1960s and 1970s, in trailers.

Twenty years ago, you went to the trailer dealer and purchased a small, dark, two-horse straight load with a manger in front and storage underneath. You could hitch it to the bumper of your truck and drive away.

But if your horse were larger than the average Quarter Horse or Arabian, you had to stuff him in that average 5-foot-wide and 6-foot-tall trailer. His tail might have hung out the back of the trailer, his hindquarters pressed up against the door, his hocks just barely clear of the ramp or back doors.

Horse trailers had steel roofs, and larger horses traveled with their heads in awkward positions, leading to respiratory problems. (According to research conducted much later, horses need to cough out the dust, and therefore need to be able to easily lower and raise their heads.) We closed our horses inside to protect them from the elements.

Horse trailers used to be relatively inexpensive. You could easily find a little two-horse steel trailer for a couple of thousand dollars or less. Trailers were just a steel box on wheels, so the materials were inexpensive and the construction very basic. Deluxe, back then, meant having a tack compartment.

Well, how times have changed. Now trailers are made to accommodate colossal draft horses and minis, and just about every size in between. Humans can tow trailers in the biggest, most powerful truck on the market or a smallish SUV because some trailers today are made of lighter material. Trailer owners can lounge by a gas-log fireplace in their RV-style trailers after the horse show or trail ride.

You can't find many horse trailers that cost less than $6,000 new, but you can find plenty that reach into the upper five figures. Changes in materials, design and mechanics of horse trailers have vastly increased the number of choices for customers, and helped improve the safety and comfort of their equine passengers.

Most horse trailer companies are small and independently owned-there are more than 600 manufacturers, according to one research report-so they often don't have their own research departments. Instead, they borrow materials and manufacturing innovations from the automotive industry, and interior and design ideas from the makers of recreational vehicles. In fact, in the newest horse trailers, you'll see many components reminiscent of RVs, such as lightweight shells, independent torsion suspension and pop-out walls.

Materials
Twenty years ago, trailers, like cars, were made of 100% steel. Nowadays, cars have steel frames and bodies of some kind of composite material, such as a fiberglass or aluminum combination. Trailers also can be made from steel, aluminum and fiberglass, or some combination, for the same reason: Lighter materials improve gas mileage and wear and tear on vehicles, and, most importantly, they don't rust. Remember the old family car that was slowly crumbling away? Horse trailers used to suffer the same fate.

Adding aluminum walls and shells to steel frames was one of the first major innovations in trailer construction, primarily to address the rust problem. And aluminum did take the market by storm, says Tom Sheve, co-author of The Complete Guide to Buying, Maintaining and Servicing a Horse Trailer, with his wife, Neva. The Sheves also own Equispirit Trailer Co.

The very first aluminum trailers came on the market in the late 1970s. In 1984 and '85, Sooner, Sundowner and Equisport introduced their first aluminum trailers, Sheve says. Early aluminum tended to rip, leaving sharp edges. Over time, though, the material has improved vastly because it is mixed with components such as silicon, copper and zinc. These combinations are called aluminum alloys. They tend to be stronger than straight aluminum, can more easily withstand the abuse a horse trailer takes and are safer in an accident.