Trailer Facelift

Part of the reason I haven't traveled hither and thither with my horses as much as opportunity presented itself over the past few months was because I was in the midst of some various trailer facelift projects.

Well, those projects are FINALLY COMPLETE and it's time to chronicle the process for posterity (but mostly my own memory).

The before, variability in the paint color/thickness not as evident in this photo

After, (inside of Dutch door still awaiting fresh paint; winter arrived and stalled painting process)

A Bit of Buyer's Remorse & Steps Toward a Solution

When I purchased this little trailer in February, I knew it would need a little work over time. By and large though, for a 23 year old trailer, things looked great. The floor was in phenomenal condition and the frame was super solid with very mild surface rust after so many years. These two things are very important to consider when purchasing a used trailer, so knowing they checked out was important to me.

However, to help guarantee further longevity of the trailer, I was prepared to do some critical maintenance work. Primarily, buffing of rust and application of a fresh coat of paint to slow the inevitable rust process that occurs on the east coast due to rain, humidity, snow, and salty winter roads. I've got lots of experience buffing and painting after numerous DIY projects through the years, so this seemed very doable.

Except after the joy of the initial purchase wore off and I looked at the trailer with fresh eyes, I realized I missed one thing...

From above, you see the rust but the issue isn't that evident...

But from this angle, which accentuates the problem best, you can definitely see the problem!

Yeah... That ramp definitely shouldn't be that way!

I beat myself up about it for a little while, but realized that it was just a learning experience that I needed to get through. As my BO has told me time and time again for various situations that I fret about, "Worse things have happened to better people." Or, in other words, it's not a big deal, calm TF down.

And so I set to researching what exactly needed to happen to correct the issue and then began seeking help. Right away, I was guided to our local high schools shop classes. They're always looking for learning projects. The work won't be the quickest or the prettiest, but the labor will be cheap. With an older trailer, I already accepted that pretty wasn't necessary, so I dropped the trailer off.

Well, long story short, they never got to the trailer before the summer break. They told me to bring it back in August and it would be their first thing, but I was Over It at this point.

Fortunately, my neighbors jumped in at this point and let me know that our friend Chuck was a very skilled welder and could do the job for me! Excellent. Except, well, if you know Chuck (and really, if you know any Canaan Valley person), you know things don't happen quickly.

I just accepted this slowness for what it was and didn't let myself worry about it. I knew he WOULD get to it and he WOULD do a good job and it would probably(?) be done before the end of the calendar year.

While I waited, I was cautious about hauling and loading and unloading my horses if they were on that side. I'm very fortunate to have horses who are very good about trailering and knew that for a limited time, things would be okay so long as I was conscientious about unloading them as that was the only time that cattywompus ramp could really cause an issue as there were no sharp edges exposed, it was mostly just a trip hazard in the interim. And honestly, for my horses that were used to a step-up trailer, that little 2-3 inch warped ramp area was nothing.

Evidenced here, Janky Trailer @ Loch Moy in September

But First, A Fresh Paint Job

It's not evident in many of the above photos, but the paint was irregular at best. Over the years the owners had spray painted areas of surface rust with a variety of gray-silver paints. While this protected against further rust formation for a temporary period, it resulted in the trailer looking rachety as all get-out.

Originally, I figured I would paint the trailer after the ramp was fixed. However, as Chuck was picking away at to-dos with the trailer as they fit in his schedule, he recommended I buff and apply primer on some areas to prepare for the work he would complete.

The weekend I set aside to complete this task corresponded with a beautiful unexpected opening in my schedule - by various strokes of luck, I had NOTHING scheduled.

So, logically, I bought a gallon of primer and decided to "see how far it would go".

Result? Basically the whole damn trailer!

The upper left demonstrates how irregular the paint was.
The lower left looks worse in unpainted areas because I'd buffed them with a metal brush on a power drill.
Right side photos show the completed [primer] paint job, though the final coat won't be much different in color.

Not the most professional of all paint jobs, but way better looking than before! Now it needs a
navy stripe and some reflective tape accents to help with night time visibility.

Irregular paint evident here...

Ah, much more uniform and well protected for several more years against oxidation-reduction -
an inevitable process you must be prepared to battle when you live in the wet & snowy east!

I even clambered up onto the roof like a responsible painter and put the requisite coats on it!

The only place I didn't buff and paint was the base of the trailer ramp where I knew more work would be done.

No need to paint this area! Much work to be done.

It was a ton of work, I won't lie. Buffing the damn thing was the hands down WORST, but good tools and sheer determination helped me get the job done. It's not the most professional paint job ever, but it's a freaking 23 year old trailer - any paint job was an improvement at this point and I'm all about form and function before beauty when it comes to these things.

The most important thing is that the trailer now has a good protective barrier to road salt and moisture. Rust will be slower to form for several more years, a good thing when you live where I do!

The Real Work Begins

As summer faded to fall and fall cooled down and rained a bit, Chuck's schedule finally lightened to the point where he put my trailer in his shop and began work.

First thing was first, patching up the metal along the base of the stalls behind the tires where road salt had eaten away at the trailer.

Inside the trailer where the plywood typically sits; bottom of the metal rusted out.

White strip is new metal that was cut, drilled, and caulked to protect this area from future moisture/rust.

From there, he painted and installed new plywood.

New plywood installed back in it's proper place. Bumpers not yet installed.
Old plywood was rotted along the back corner where the trailer had at one
point sat under a gutter and gotten soaked: cue rust and rot!

New plywood installed; rusty, warped ramp visible here, though you can see
that that left corner really isn't that dramatic in the grand scheme of things!
Still, it's better it was addressed once and for all as it only would have worsened.

And then took the ramp off to begin working on that whole debacle.

Discussing whether the plywood under the ramp mats would need replaced.
Spoiler: it didn't! It was in great shape.

Ah, hello there problem child!

Miraculously, the ramp wasn't warped that badly from where the hinge
rusted off allowing the spring to pull it upwards and askew from the trailer.

If you look closely, you'll note the left-most hinge missing completely. Lovely!

Chuck is an absolute WEALTH of knowledge on this type of thing and I enjoyed hearing how the process was going as he set about it. The "hinge" on the ramp was definitely NOT factory-built. It was some sort of repair somewhere in the trailer's lifetime and it was done piss-poor which is why the whole thing ended up the way it was when I got it. Basically someone drove a hexagonal bar through the hinges and called it good. It wasn't done well and resulted in one hinge rusting off of the frame resulting in a warped ramp.

Chuck's repair of the thing put it back to what it should have been - three independent hinges.

The original problem child looking much better!

The rest of the hinges along the ramp post-work

Final Steps

Putting the ramp back together was a bit of a process, but not too bad in the grand scheme of things.

I first prepped and painted the ramp where the plywood would go to further protect against future rusting, and then we fit the plywood back in, I screwed the mats on, and that was that.

Partially buffed in preparation for paint.

Buff job complete.

Painting complete.

Lining up the plywood to be screwed back in was a bit more complicated than it looks!

Bada-bing, bada-boom! A STRAIGHT ramp!

How lovely this is to look at!

No more rusted off hinge and warped ramp

We also patched up the sheet metal on the outside bottom of the ramp, too, to protect from further rust damage. Or I guess I can say that I patched up the sheet metal on the outside. Chuck cut the pieces, then instructed me how to caulk them and screw them on.

Left side patch caulked and screwed on...

And now the right side! All it need is a final paint job to neaten up everything!

What a process!

I still plan to add a final coat of paint to the whole thing with a sprayer - and honestly planned to have that done prior to sharing this post - but it will have to wait for warmer weather, which is hard to predict this time of year.

Conclusion

Could I have spent some more money or taken more time to find a better trailer? Absolutely! But you know what? At my price point, I did pretty damn well for myself and even with all of the extra work, I still couldn't have found a nicer trailer within my budget.

It was a lot of time and effort to flip this thing into something prettier than it was, but I have learned a TON from the process. And honestly? I really feel like I'm better off for having put in the hard work myself to make so much of it happen. I'm much more familiar with this hunk of metal on wheels and feel good about hauling my horses in it. Additionally, if a day comes that I want to upgrade to a better/bigger trailer, I have a much better grasp on what I'll be looking for and considering. Knowledge is power.

All that remains is a final fresh coat of paint and a better
organization system for storage!

I'm really pleased with how everything turned out. I plan to add some additional minor upgrades to the inside so far as hanging hooks and saddle racks, but that's child's play considering everything else that has been tackled to date. I'm also playing with the idea of painting some fun little caricatures of the horses somewhere, too, we'll see!

: : : : :

Have you ever flipped, renovated or given a facelift to your trailer? I know some of you have shared some blog posts here and there on the subject. I'd love to hear your stories if they haven't been documented yet. Or maybe you've chronicled some trailer improvements already and they're archived in years past on your blog?

Whirlwind Weekend: Tire Woes, XC Schooling, & Polo

Prep

I brought Griffin home to my backyard a day before our planned departure for our first big weekend. This involved a bit of work on my part to prep (weed eat, sink T-posts, set hot tape insulators on posts, string hot tape, and setup fence charger), but was well worth it. The idea was that having him home would greatly expedite travel plans as I could simply wake up, put prepped items into the truck, load him, and be off in no time at all.

Griffin hadn't been alone like this before. Unsurprisingly, he did fret a bit, but he eventually settled.
I wondered/worried how his mental stress would affect our weekend though.

My ultimate plan of being on the road early thanks to having Grif at home was fulfilled Saturday AM. Despite Griffin slipping on the ramp and faceplanting hard when loading (no harm done!), he still clambered aboard, albeit shaking like a leaf due to the fall and we were able to head out on our 3+ hour drive around 7.

Travel

Because my trailer is still slated to have some hinge welding completed, I borrowed my welder-friend's trailer to stand in for the weekend. It's older than mine and much more in need of a paint job, but beyond that cosmetic issue, it's in great shape.

...except we got about 30 minutes down the road and this happened:

I should have taken a closer look at the tires it seems. Live and learn!

I was lucky that I happened to be only 30 minutes from home and only a few miles from the closest town. The road isn't heavily traveled, it was early morning, and I still had cell phone service. While the situation would inevitably delay me, not all was lost! I tried to count my blessings and stay calm, but my mind was super frazzled about the whole ordeal.

I dialed welder-friend to let him know I'd be coming to swap out trailers because I had noted one other questionable tire on his trailer. While I was talking with him, a good samaritan pulled up behind me to offer aid. As I filled in my friend on the phone, I waved a greeting to the young coal miner who was exiting his car with a big, sympathetic smile. Still on the phone listening to my friend wax and wane poetically about trailer issues, I nodded a "yes" at the smiling stranger's request to bring a jack to help (again, live, learn, make sure you have the proper tools packed at all times!) and continued discussing options re: trailer swap on the phone.

Eventually, I finished my phone conversation, donned a day-glo reflective vest (I was prepared in some ways...) and awaited the return of the coal miner and his tools. He arrived minutes later with a floor jack and associated tire changing tools often found in a mechanic's garage. He proceeded to quickly change my tire as we chatted about growing up in the area, horses, coal mining, and the act of being a good samaritan.

I thanked him profusely for his help when he finished, then set to the task of swapping out trailers.

As I drove back home, my mind was abuzz with paranoia about traveling and having something else go wrong. The mundane task of backing and parking one trailer and then hooking up the other helped calm me a bit, but ultimately my mind refused to settle.

Fortunately, throughout this entire ordeal, Griffin was a holy saint of a horse. I really don't know how I got so lucky to have a horse with such a solid brain. Before 10am he: faceplanted on the trailer and still loaded, stood patiently through a [very fast] tire change, suffered a small, minor puncture wound from the only possible object in the first trailer, and got off one trailer and onto another. Despite the numerous bumps in the road, he tried his hardest to do everything I asked.

When we finally got underway again, we were 2½ hours behind schedule. Thankfully, wewould have no more complications.

XC Schooling!

We arrived at Austen's barn around 1pmI settled Griffin in his stall as quickly as possible once we arrived. He seemed visibly relieved to be done with travel and in a somewhat familiar scene and promptly dug into his hay.

I sat in a chair by his stall decompressing from my own mental anguish about the trip as I awaited Austen and Jenny's arrival.

Once they appeared, we ate food, I had a beer, and we chatted for a bit. Or rather, they chatted and I mostly listened. My brain was still recovering from the morning's activities and couldn't quite handle forming thoughts and sentences yet. Oi vey.

Eventually, we set a game plan for getting Pig and Griffin prepped and loaded to head down the street to school some XC! It would be a first for both Griffin and I and I was So Excited.

PC: Austen

A short 15 minute drive brought us to the schooling area where we made quick work of tacking the horses and headed over to the field. Austen verbalized from the get-go that Grif and I would be the main focus and she and Pig would just be out there having some fun since they do have some past history with XC.

Jenny instructed us to head immediately over to the water complex and let the horses figure that out. She encouraged us to let them take their time, assuring that as soon as they figured it out it would quickly become a nonissue. Both Pig and Grif are barefoot and I honestly think the gravel around the water was more of an issue for them both than the actual water! And sure enough, both boys made their way into the water with little issue after a moment or two.

Off we go!
PC: Austen

After making sure the water was less of an issue, Jenny instructed us to warm up by trotting and cantering around the perimeter of the area to let them see the jumps. Austen and Pig quickly set about this task going one way while Griffin and I headed another.

Grif was very looky at first, but settled into a rhythm in no time. Despite usually being so game for jumping, I quickly found that Griffin was pretty damn sluggish!

I've only had Griffin off property alone like this once before - last summer for the Stephen Birchall clinic. He was very sluggish much of that weekend, which I blamed on the oppressive heat/humidity at that time. As I had a sample size of n=1, I couldn't draw conclusions from that weekend alone and chalked up his sluggish nature as a fluke. However, I'm realizing now that his slow behavior seems to be a product of being off property as he continued to have more whoa than go all weekend this go around, too! I've never felt the need to carry a whip with this horse at home, but I absolutely plan to when we travel in the future.

Receiving instruction on position
PC: Austen

Once warmed up, I trotted Grif to Jenny for further instruction.

She pointed out the different types of jumps and asked what I thought was the simplest to start with on a green-to-XC horse.

"Something with minimal contrast to the surrounding environment and that is also rather uniform in it's appearance and low to the ground," I replied, taking into account all of the things that have ever caused Q or Griffin to spook. Jenny confirmed my answer and then proceeded to point out the first two obstacles we would focus on: a plain log on the ground and a hanging log with a little more height.

Further instructional conversations
PC: Austen

Griffin and I set off and tackled both jumps a time or two with some instruction from Jenny throughout about my position and how I should modify it for XC: two point with a very solid lower leg, a more upright upper body, and elbows bent at my sides. She instructed that the idea was to keep myself off of the horse's back so he could rise up to me as we moved/jumped.

This instruction confirmed a lot of my observations/readings. I did my best to fulfill it, but I definitely need to build some strength back and get my bum right ankle (thanks, mountain biking!) healed so I can properly bend it to lower my heel.

Griffin balked a little as we approached those first two jumps but still jumped them without stopping. After our first go at each, things got smoother.

Once confirmed with those two jumps, Jenny instructed me to jump them in succession, then go up and down a little hill constructed at a bank complex (but not jumping the actual banks yet) and then wrap around and jump another hotdog log.

We did this with relative ease, Griffin once again sucking back before jumping over the new-to-us jump at the end.

From here, we looped around and practiced over a slightly larger and more natural looking log (bark still on it vs. the telephone pole look of the others).  Griffin had zero problem with this as we've played around in the woods jumping downed trees a bit over the years.

PHOTO BIG LOG

With success at several jumps and our confidence and comfort built up, Jenny set us to practicing up and down banks.

My mind was a bit hesitant about the up, but it rode smoothly enough. Jenny assured that horses find the down banks pretty natural and that I shouldn't have much of an issue with them either. Because I have tackled things like that on trail plenty of times before, they rode even easier than the up bank and we quickly advanced to the larger of the three down bank options on the complex we were practicing on.

Wee! Griffin and I tackling the larger of the two "easy" down banks.
PC: Austen

As Jenny began setting us up with some jumps before/after the banks, I called for a timeout and struck off across the field to the woodline to pluck a switch off a tree.

The jumping was easy. What I was having a hard time with was the fact that Griffin was SO sluggish. He simply wasn't showing up for the work the way he usually does at home! All parties agreed I should absolutely carry a whip with him in the future. (I had small blunt spurs on but those were also making minimal difference.)

Once I had a whip, Griffin showed up and started actually working and staying more in front of my leg. (Though I need to add for myself that while improved he was still not as forward as he is at home.)

We practiced over a small ditch, too, just for the sake of Doing All The Things.

A little more certain over the ditch
PC: Jenny

Griffin was more uncertain about the ditch than anything else, but so was I! I know how attuned he is to my hesitations so I'm sure I am to blame somewhat for his hesitation. He never stopped, but he did give it a very good look before bouncing over it the first two times. The third was much smoother.

Once we conquered the ditch, Jenny asked me if anything "scared" me. I looked around at some of the larger jumps and mentally noted that none really "scared" me, but I didn't think Griffin would be capable of them at this point. I shrugged, turned back to Jenny and said, "Eh. What do you think we should do?" She pointed out a larger hotdog jump, noting how approachable and well it should jump and we tackled that a few times.

Tackling the bigger hotdog like NBD
PC: Jenny

We called it a day after the larger hotdog and I took Griffin to the water one final time before leaving to walk around. He drank a little and spent awhile walking hither and thither smelling the water. I eventually had to boot him out of it because he was not interested in leaving!

PC: Austen

On the whole, I think it was a really successful first outing. XC is every bit as fun as I always imagined it would be. I think a time or two more over jumps such as those and Griffin will be happier and more enthusiastic about it, too. He knew the answer to the jumping question, but the jumps were so different in appearance from our current normal that I'm not sure he put everything together as "wee fun" like he typically does when we jump.

Jenny's commentary and coaching was wonderful to have and I gleaned a lot of insight from her teachings. I'm so grateful she was willing to head out and help us for the afternoon!

The biggest positive takeaway for the day was how honest Griffin was about everything. When we jumped in an arena during our last visit to DC, he had some refusals. I think the color of the jumps played a large role in that and made a point of incorporating some bright orange into our home setup.

Ever since, Griffin has been more than reliable at home. I have complete trust in him when we jump at home. In fact, this XC outing was the first I've jumped with a saddle in over a month! We've been exclusively schooling in the bareback pad at home over 2'6" and 2'9" for awhile now. This has taught me that I won't fall off when we jump a 2'9" oxer from a near-standstill! While that moment was a Major Oops, it taught me that I really have nothing to fear so far as staying mounted through some less-than-perfect jumps.

Our main issues during our first XC schooling were:

• Griffin's sluggishness, 
• my current positional weaknesses, and 
• my total lack of being able to see a distance. 

The first two items are totally fixable in a short amount of time. Heat conditioning isn't easy, but we can focus on it when we have the weather to do so. (We're from an area much higher in elevation with temperatures that are regularly 10-15°F cooler than the DC area.) My position will get better as soon as I can get back to my workout routine.

The third item is trickier to improve upon without more knowledgeable eyes on the ground to help us. However, I can absolutely start measuring distances from jumps and placing poles to train my eye better. I plan to do this as soon as I have Grif settled in his new home.

We're getting there! I think we did great considering we'd never tackled something quite like this before. And most importantly, I know what to focus on moving forward. 😀

Polo

We left the XC schooling area and headed back to the barn where we quickly got ready for the polo match we would be watching.

I was surprised to find Emma at the barn when we returned! I had left my phone in my truck throughout the entire XC schooling and totally missed messages Emma had sent about rendezvousing with us. Sorry, girl!

Austen and I changed clothes and our group of 5 rolled out of her barn and down the road 15 minutes to the site of the polo match.

I have copious polo photos, but I shan't bore you with all of them.

I've always wanted to watch polo and was pretty psyched for this outing.

I tried to pay attention to the announcer and the game, but ultimately just ended up conversing with our little group about all things life and horses.

Shenanigans were had:

PC: Austen

The polo match continued. And a good time was had by all.

Eventually we packed it up and headed down the road for home.

The accumulation of morning travel stress, time spent in the sun, and a long day of horse-related fun had me totally and completely beat. I was excited about the dressage show, but not too excited to sleep. I crashed hard once we were home, wishing I could have about 3 extra hours in the night to sleep before our early morning the next day.

Stay tuned for the run down of our first dressage show!