Monday, July 15, 2013

Decisions and Changes

Some decisions have been made and changes have occurred.  I have been hemming and hawing quite a bit as of late over my current hauling situation.  I've felt pretty much from the get-go that my current trailer is a slight squeeze for Charlie but told him he had to make do because of finances, i.e. no job.  It's not horribly tight, just not as roomy as it could be.  With this in mind, I began thinking about what type of trailer I wanted to get.  I knew it had to be a gooseneck, two horse straight load (I am NOT a fan of slants - personal preference kinda thing), and I kinda sorta wanted a front ramp.  In creating my dream list, I began to consider my truck.  It was about to cross over 100K miles and if I was going to trade it I needed to do it before it crossed that abyss.

I don't really want a new truck, I want a new trailer.  I did lots of research and asked lots of people (please note the folks at the dealership are idiots when it comes to determining load safety) and came to the conclusion my truck would be fine for a two horse gooseneck with a dressing room but no front ramp.  And I was ok with that.  And then I talked to my farrier.  He said I would be fine and the gooseneck would actually make the rig more stable because of how the weight was distributed.  Only thing I needed to be aware of is it would take longer to stop because the brakes on a 1/2 ton are much smaller than those on a 3/4 or 1 ton.  At first I was ok with this.  I mean, I have brakes on the trailer so everything should be fine, right?  Then I got to thinking; if anything ever happened and it came to light said anything could have been prevented if I'd had a bigger truck with bigger brakes, I would be devastated.  As in do my self harm kind of devastated.  So at 99,500 miles, I traded my 1/2 ton, fully paid for truck for this...

 

I'm now no longer debt free but I think it's going to be well worth it.  I won't have to worry about running a red light because I can't stop or being unable to avoid an accident for the same reason.  I've never driven a truck this big and I must say the difference between a 1/2 ton and a 3/4 ton is pretty significant.  I haven't pulled with it yet but I'm looking forward to it.  And now I can scour used trailer ads and not worry about whether or not my truck is big enough!

Onto the pony front.  Not a lot going on there other then grooming and cookie eating.  It seems like we've been averaging approx 2-3 inches of rain/day for the last two weeks.  To say the ground is soggy is a HUGE understatement.  The next town over got 9 inches of rain in a 2 hour period Saturday night (yup, you read that correctly - 9 inches in 2 hours).

 
Charlie is totally unenthused by the sight of more rain.  

I did go for a walk today and he got to try out his new pad from Ecogold.  They were having a sale (not a discount sale because nothing is ever really on sale there) where they donated 20% of sales to a girl who was hit by a drunk driver.  The money is going to help pay her horses expenses while she gets better.  Charlie is officially chubby!  I think he looks really good and his one girth that's typically a little large on him is now just right.  The others are a tad tight.  Is it odd that he has 6 girths?  Every horse has 6 girths, right?

 
He was confused - he hasn't worn this junk in forever!

 
Only good thing about the monsoon - the grass is going crazy!

Now for a little Sadie update - her wound is almost gone.  Nadine has been using a moxie stick (at least I think that's what she calls it) to prevent proud flesh.  It's some sort of eastern medicine thing that she swears by.  Seems to be working!

Almost gone!

17 comments:

  1. Ooh, love the Ecogold pad! Someday I'm going to get that exact one. And my horse has 4 girths, so we're not far behind you!

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    1. Haha! Good to hear we have "company" in the girth collecting club!

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  2. Congrats on the fancy new truck, I'm totally jealous!

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    1. Thanks! I promise the only fancy about it is the engine. It's about as stripped down as it gets, lol!

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  3. Love the truck, love the pad. Hasn't rained here in so long that I've sort of forgotten what that looks like. Wow.

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    1. I feel like its a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. Either your begging for rain or whining about it. Can't win!

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  4. Ooooh, shiny! Loving the new truck as well as the saddle pad. Admittedly, I only have 3 girths, 2 for close contact, 1 for dressage. BUT I do own over 20 saddle pads, which is a bit of a problem considering I only have one slightly out of commission horse. So, your girth collecting seems very minor.

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  5. I have the exact same truck...you will love it :) Mine is about as bare bones as you can get too, but it pulls the horses great!

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  6. I haul with the same truck...and HATE it! But I seem to be in the minority, so maybe mine is just a lemon. A lemon I would gladly drive off a cliff. ;)

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  7. I never would have thought to get those two colours of pads together, but they look AWESOME on him, so flashy and classy! I love it. Glad Sadie's shoulder is healing. It looks much much better. Congrats on that beast of a truck!

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  8. Like Kate I thought the wound was shoulder from that picture but its on her head right? Jowl area?

    Congrats on the new truck!!! That is exciting. I am jealous!

    As for the ecogold- that is awesome. I didn't realize you could later pads with it. I assumed it was supposed to do whatever it's supposed to do alone? Do you love your half pad?

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  9. What is the brown half pad you're using? LOVE the Ecogold, btw!

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  10. I always use an Ogilvy with my Ecogolds too...can never have too much cushion :)

    Nice truck! I hope you were joking about the no job thing...otherwise I would love to know how you bought said truck! Share your secret with me haha

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  11. The truck is nice! Now you just need a matching trailer!

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  12. Every horse should be so lucky as to have 6 girths. My poor creature only has 2. Woe is him.

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  13. I love your truck its amazing!!! Your horse is gorgeous as always.

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  14. Hello nice truck!!!

    Yet again I am lusting after your brown pad :)

    And the mares face/wound looks great!!!

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