10 Things I Learned This Weekend

Step # 1. Sign up for USRider!!!!!!! http://www.usrider.org/ They are FANTASTIC and worth every penny. They would have gotten you home in an hour. Your first call could have been to them, 2nd one to the pony man and your weekend would have been saved.

Glad you're all AOK.

Ugh. I have many stories.... One that turned out OK was a trip coming home from CA back to WA. I was driving by my self (mistake #1) and planning to do the 17 hour trip in one shot. I was hauling my horse plus someone elses. Driving a borrowed truck (my parents). I left at 4am in the morning. Truck broke down about 2.5 hours into the trip, on the side of the highway. AAA would only take the truck, not the trailer. I was driving on a holiday (mistake #2). I finally found a driver who would come and get me and the trailer (2 hours later). They took us to a service station (the only one open on the holiday) and the repair took about 5 hours. The horse I was hauling (not mine) was a bad loader, so I couldn't unload the horses for fear of never getting him back in. I got back on the road 10 hours later and rallied home. Hit a huge rain storm. And being up for 24+ hours straight makes me really grumpy.

I agree with Polly! USRider is the way to go! They also have a database of barns throughout the country that can house your horse for a night in case of a breakdown far away from home! Also, AAA is useless and won't come near you if you have a trailer attached :( Tried that one before...

A few years ago, I was a working student, and we were hauling 10 horses from MA to FL with a 6 horse trailer and a 4 horse trailer. Our plan was to stop over for the night at a place in NC. Well, about an hour out from the overnight stop, the truck hauling the six horse broke down. Thankfully, it was still running (sort of, it had no power) and we managed to get it off of the highway and into a truck stop. We ended up taking the four horse to the overnight barn while one person stayed with the broken down truck and 6 horses, then we came back and hauled the other six with the working vehicle. Luckily, there was a ford dealer right nearby, so we dropped the broken truck there (with a note on the windshield because it was closed!). Of coarse, this meant that we got on the road much later than we wanted to the next day, but the truck was working, so that was good. We got to the Florida boarder at around 3AM, and the guard kept us there for a good hour while he looked at all the coggins papers and matched up the horses (he gave us quite a bit of hassling because our vet wasn't very accurate with the drawings!). He THEN proceeded to tell us that he could have us arrested because we didn't have a commercial liscence (!?) and not all of the horses were ours.. we finally convinced him that we weren't being paid. FINALLY, he let us go, and we made it to ocala with 10 healthy, happy horses despite our nightmare trip down. However, now I ALWAYS make sure that the markings drawn on the coggins look EXACTLY like my horse!

US RIDER US RIDER US RIDER..........AAA is worthless if you are hauling anything. Broke down with a 33' motor home and 24' bumper pull. Sent two large tow trucks, within 90 mins at 3 in the morning, towed us about 100 miles to the nearest transmission shop, made arrangements for the horse, etc. Miracle. Worth every penny, that tow was over $600 alone.

Love your list.

Places I have broken down or had flat tires: I-91, MassPike, NYS Thruway, Route 2 CT, I-95, some nameless backroads (a Who's Who of New England intra- and interstate traveling).

Conversations I have had with a State Trooper: "No, I'm not going to take him off the trailer. I don't care if you want to pet him and give him a carrot" (yes, I'm serious-want to guess what state that was in?. Another time (while spending quality time on the side of the MassPike), a MA State Trooper told me a horror story regarding someone unloading their horse. Horse got loose and was hit by a tractor trailer).

Traveling suggestion: Always travel with your Giant Schnauzer. So, when you're changing a tire at 11PM , it keeps people you don't want to meet away.

Another traveling suggestion (goes along with the first aid kit): Always, always travel with water. So when you break down, you, the Giant Schnauzer and the horse don't die of thirst in 95F heat. (why don't I ever break down during the day, when it is 65F and sunny?)

And...Learn how to change the tire on your trailer. It impresses the daylights out of truckers.

And, ...Teach your horse to load into your friends fancy step-up stock trailer before you have to do it in the parking lot of a Home Depot at 2AM.

Anonymous,2:37PM, At the time I am certain it was terrible, but we do live a weird life don't we? Your "adventures" are humerous now. My "regular" friends from HS and college can not imagine driving a big truck, much less at 2AM, and then have a trailer attached, and filled with horses!

Only had one 'disaster' KNOCK ON WOOD. For the west coasters, (So Cal) we were hauling a full 4 horse over the grapevine to Ram Tap and the once we hit Pyramid Lake the truck started BILLOWING smoke out of the exhaust. We pulled over, ran out (thought we were on fire and were going to have unload horses on the shoulder of a frwy!) and a nice semi trucker ran out with a fire extinguisher (with a southern drawl too boot, he was so nice he had to NOT be from So CA!)! A Diesel mechanic pulled off to help too, turns out we had a blown turbo charger and it was leaking oil (hence the lovely smoke), we had a little bit of power, so he said as long as we were still smoking, we could drive. The grapevine is a nightmare mountain pass and we made it another 18 miles (SLOWLY, PAINFULLY, I think I bit off like 5 fingernails) to the 'town' of Gorman.
(OH yah and had to run out and tell a Highway Patrol man "YOU GOTTA LET ME KEEP GOING I HAVE HORSES IN there!" why he believed this logic who knows, we were smoking wildly...)
Hung out in Gorman, horses got to be walked around for 3 hours, loaded them, unloaded them, walked, hung out.(finding a BIG dirt parking lot was KEY, oh and shade is sweet too=)
We were rescued with a borrowed truck and AAA for the broken one. While we were wigged out, the horses were fine! Once we got to Ram Tap and unloaded and hacked, they were awesome, never been so relaxed! I think they enjoyed their break!
When the trip getting there is horrendous, scary and nail biting, it only means the show can only be better. Everyone went clean and it was awesome...getting home though....UGH another story.....

About 25 years ago we were on our way to an eventing clinic being held near Rice,
Minnesota. About 2 miles from our destination the Bronco we were towing the two horse trailer with started making ominous sounds. About a mile further it stoped moving. We got out and determined the drive shaft had broken. I told my husband to tack his horse and ride up to the farm where the clinic was being held and I would see what could be done about the truck. I went over to a closed gas station which was nearby and started to look through the yellow pages of the payphone book. A nice older man came out of the station and asked me what was my problem. Turned out he was the owner of the closed station and he offered to fix the truck. I then walked the mile to the farm and found that when my husband had arrived he told them he was ready for cross country as he had already done his roads and tracks.

In October, we were heading down to MidSouth with two horses from Ontario. Somewhere in the middle of Ohio, we heard a HUGE boom and looked back to see bits of the trailers tire flying all over the highway. Luckily we were right by a rest stop so we pulled in. We called AAA and they sent someone over but we had to take the horses off. Thankfully there was a massive grassy hill behind the rest stop and the boys happily grazed but it was freezing out. The guy from AAA showed up, but didn't have a trailer jack. He had to call someone else, who came out and also didn't have a trailer jack. He called someone else who finally had a jack but the entire process took about 4 hours. Everyone was really curious about horses being at the side of the highway and we had people taking pictures of us which was pretty funny though.

I will be back for the next installment although ome of these comments are killing me.

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