After having spent 6 weeks straight living in an LQ
trailer, I have some ideas about what I like and do not
need...
First, if you are doing long trips, or even
multidays, I LOVE a midtack. The trailer we lived in for XP04 - (three
horses, three adults, a teenager, two cats and a springer spaniel) had an 8x8
MT--we had 20 bales of hay (no climbing on top or messing with tarps) 500 pounds
of feed, three saddles, a portable corral, folding picnic table, and
the kitchen sink...oh alright, that was in the LQ...
But I really loved that midtack.
What I don't need is slants or dividers in the
horse area--I think they are happier without, and it gives you the option of
making a big stall to get your horse out of the rain or in the case of one night
in Wyoming- the hoards of misquitoes. With no drop down doors in this
older trailer (the mothership) I had to get in with the horses to water on the
road, so no dividers made life easier. I have since taken the dividers out
of my newer three horse slant, and I think the horses like it better- it
sure gives them more room.
As far as awnings--I had a big one put on my
Featherlite and thought it was the cat's behind until one night in Virginia when
it got a little windy and the awning went up over the top of the trailer and
it's 'arms' stuck in the ground on the other side --right where my mare had been
standing until I put her in the trailer because it was sprinkling--damn, I am
glad I made that choice. The awning was wrecked and we never got the parts
to put it back on--and haven't missed it. On XP we never used the awning
we had on the mothership, but the kids managed to go under a low hanging tree
and put a hole in it while it was rolled up-- two $1800 awnings
wrecked-- I am thinking they are more trouble and money than they are worth
for us!
I have gone from sleeping in a stock trailer (with
a baby, no less) to sleeping in my SUV, to a plain, no LQ gooseneck with a
mattress, to the 45 foot mothership deluxe, to my currently being made, homemade
LQ, and you know what??? I still JUST WANNA RIDE!!! I don't care where I
have to sleep or if I get a shower, I just want the saddle to fit the horse and
the horse to be sound!!
Laura Hayes Vine Cliff Farms Brocton,
NY AERC# 2741
