Horse Trailers
Buy and sell horse trailers in Costa Rica.
A horse trailer does a different job from a cattle box: it carries one, two or a few horses standing still for the whole run, often on the way to an expo where they have to step out calm and ready to be judged. They come new and pre-owned, from compact two-horse straight loads behind a double-cab pickup to slant loads with a dressing room for show saddles. Most used ones come from riders who have moved up to a bigger rig or stopped travelling to shows, and a well-kept one shows it in the floor and the partitions.
Straight-load and slant-load horse trailers:
the layout decides how a horse rides and how you reach it. In a straight load the horses stand side by side facing forward, each in its own stall behind a partition, and back out at the end of the trip. It is the usual shape for a two-horse bumper-pull. A slant load angles the stalls so more horses fit in a shorter trailer, but to reach the front horse you have to unload the ones behind it. A stock-combo, slatted like a livestock trailer with a horse partition inside, does for a move to the next farm; a show horse is better off in a closed trailer with drop-down windows and bars behind the glass.
Stall height for a Costarricense de Paso or a PRE:
size the trailer to the tallest horse you will put in it, not to the one the last owner had. The Costarricense de Paso is a compact horse, and a trailer that carries one comfortably can be short in the head and in the stall for a Pura Raza Española stallion or a big Quarter Horse off the rodeo circuit. Check there is room above the poll with the partition closed, and enough stall behind the chest bar. A horse that cannot lift its head to balance will scramble on every bend, so measure the horses you own before you go to see one.
A ramp or a step-up at the back door:
a ramp is hinged at the floor and folds down to the ground; a step-up has doors that swing out to the sides. Ramps cost more, and they earn it on the way out, when a horse backing down misjudges the step and slips a leg under the trailer. A good ramp feels solid, does not boom when a hoof lands on it, and has springs that let one person lift it. On a step-up, the edge of the floor should be rounded or padded.
A dressing room for show tack:
a saddle with silverwork and the headstall that goes with it ride in the same rig as the horse on expo weekends, from the judging in Pococí to the PRE contests in Belén. A front dressing room with its own lock keeps them dry and out of sight while you are in the ring, instead of in an unlocked cab. Check it for damp: a leaking roof seam or a door seal gone hard shows up as mould on leather and rust on bits and stirrups.
A used horse trailer, stall by stall:
start inside with the partitions. Swing each one with its chest and butt bars, and look for bent pins, missing padding and latches a horse could knock open just by leaning. Open the escape door from inside and from outside. Lift the mats: on an aluminium floor, urine leaves white powder and pitting that works through from the top, so look at it from underneath as well. Ask for the documentation that goes with the trailer. If horses refused to load into it, the reason is often that it is dark inside: open every window and look at it from where a horse would stand.
A horse trailer listing a rider can judge from home:
say whether it is straight or slant, how many stalls, ramp or step-up, the inside height and stall length, and whether the dressing room locks. Photograph the interior with the partitions open and closed, the floor with the mats out, the ramp down and the hitch. Mention which horses it has carried and how they travelled. Many buyers will want to walk their own horse up the ramp before agreeing to anything, so offer that at your place, on flat ground with the trailer hitched, and leave time for a horse that takes a while to make up its mind.