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Story and Illustra�ons

By Tom Scheve

No matter how much you prepare your horse trailer for a trip, annoying situations are going to pop up, and you’re going to have to solve them. When they do, it’s wise to take a slow, deep breath and contemplate the possible solutions before reacting to the first thoughts that come to mind. By reacting rather than responding, you may find your first choice worsening the problem rather than solving it. The following is an example of one of those unanticipated, vexing situations that can unexpectedly arise.

PROBLEM. It’s a beautiful morning. You’re excited because you’re heading out to spend a long-awaited day out with your horse. You’re jacking your trailer up and before it raises high enough to drop it on the ball, the crank handle abruptly stops. Your immediate thought is it’s stuck, but don’t keep cranking the handle. If you do, you will hear a “pop,” your jack handle will start turning freely, and your jack is shot and so is your anticipated day with your horses. Generally speaking, when something on your trailer quits doing what it’s supposed to do, something is wrong. In this case, the jack had reached its limit. Before you read the solution, take a moment to test yourself. What would you do to fix the problem?

SOLUTION. You need to get the trailer weight off the jack so you can retract the jack stand to place blocks underneath it. But how?

Near the coupler, stack enough wood or concrete blocks under the trailer frame until it almost reaches it. Slowly crank the jack down until the nose of the trailer frame is resting on the blocks. Keep cranking the jack until the jack shank lifts off the ground high enough to place one to two blocks underneath it. If your bumper pull jack has a detachable wheel instead of a sand foot, remove the wheel and crank it down onto blocks without it. Now crank the trailer up off the blocks under the frame, remove them, hitch up, and enjoy your long-awaited day with your horses. See top illustration

Tips

• Bumper pull trailer jacks come with a detachable wheel or a sand foot. A sand foot is safer. With a jack wheel supporting the trailer nose, and four wheels in the rear supporting the body, you might find yourself chasing it if unhitched on uneven ground.

• Always place blocks under your bumper pull jack before unhitching your trailer for extra height. Four-byfour wood posts cut in twelve-inch lengths make good jack supports. Or you can buy pre-maid support blocks on Amazon or RV sites.

PROBLEM. The same problem could arise with a gooseneck jack, especially if the jack is on soft ground. The overall solution is the same as for bumper pulls; you have to free up the jack from the trailer weight to place blocks under it. Again, take a moment and consider how you might respond before reading the solution.

SOLUTION: Start by lowering the truck tailgate. Back the truck under the Gooseneck coupler until the coupler is over the rear of the truck bed. Crank the front of the trailer slowly down until the coupler (trailer weight) is almost resting on the back of the truck bed. Place a rubber mat, cardboard, or other protective material under the coupler to protect the truck bed. Lower the coupler down until the weight of the trailer nose is resting on the bed instead of the jack. Now you can wind the jack up off the ground and place blocks under it.

Tips

• Always place blocks under the gooseneck coupler before unhitching it from the truck.

• There are two basic styles of gooseneck couplers. One that you have to hitch at the coupler in the truck bed and one that you can secure outside the bed with a quick-release wire. If you don’t like the coupler you have, you can replace it by loosening the bolts and sliding it down and out the coupler sleeve.

Final Tip

Situations will arise, both small and large when you have horses. The way your mind interprets the situation can either help or hinder your ability to solve it. My advice is to take a moment, be present, assess and accept the situation, then do what your gut tells you.

Tom Scheve, with wife Neva have been advoca�ng horse trailer safety since 1984. Both have given safety clinics at many hose expos around the country and have wri�en numerous ar�cles for ar�cles for na�onal magazines, bout horse trailer safety. Their na�onally acclaimed textbook, The Complete Guide to Buying, Maintaining and Servicing a Horse Trailer and Equine Emergencies on the Road (with Jim Hamilton DVM have been adopted by most Na�onal Horse organiza�ons. Tom is also owner of EquiSpirit Trailer Company with corporate offices in Southern Pines, NC. For more informa�on on horse trailer safety, visit their website equispirit.com or email Tom at tom@equispirit.com.

Toll Free number is 1-877-575-1771.

ontinued from page oday it is downtown’s only AAA Four Diamond Hotel. Lovers of turn-of-the-century ambience will appreciate the front room chandelier and 1920’s ornamental plasterwork, fireplaces and grand staircases, �n ceilings and cloisonné hardware. Those smi�en by the whimsical will delight in such �ny but no less a�en�ve details as en suite baths with claw foot tubs, or handpainted shower �les with local quips and quotes (their “fun fact �les” earned men�on in USA Today’s Hotel-hopping with the Best of Them.)

And should you look closely (like I did) at the monogram on its kilnfired keepsake coffee mugs handmade by Deneen Po�ery, you too can espy a canine face grinning back at you.

“That’s our family’s beloved dog, Bates!” Sheila Smith Sperling told me, calling the Lab-type stray, “BEST dog ever.

“We grew up on Broadway and, when I was 12, our parents moved us ‘out to the country’ (two miles from downtown) and promised us that we could get a dog. We named him Bates, because the hotel and house reminded my parents of the Bates Motel… in the movie Psycho!”

The VIP Experience

I found keen senses of humor and welcoming smiles easy to find among the staff and Smith family. One could start a day discoursing the merits of various coffee beans with a busser before leaving for the track and the ceremonial donning of the Saratoga Arms ‘show’ piece necklace (more on that later).

All of which contributed to an easygoing camaraderie among the adult couples enjoying this Saratoga Arms Hotel Off to the Races VIP Experience. It proved an engaging, educa�onal, equine experien�al tour de force that lived up to its promise to take racing fans – and the ‘horse curious’ – behind the scenes of The Life.

The VIP Experience, like Morrissey’s first meet, was four days long (Sunday- Thursday). It began with a Sunday evening welcome on the porch with champagne accompanied by such “copious” hors d’oeuvres as tuna tartare cakes (worthy of Manha�an’s Balthazar) from the kitchen of execu�ve chef Tim James and sous chef Alex Kollar, before the first of two (Monday, Tuesday) closed, or “dark” days in track speak, began with a private trolley a�er breakfast to the Oklahoma Training Track for a walking tour of barns and morning breezings, and a visit through the Na�onal Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame with Museum Educator, Ma� Reichel.

Reichel rewarded us with some #iykyk gems: U.S. President Andrew Jackson owned and raced horses under the pseudonym, Andrew Donaldson; the skeleton donated to the Anatomy Gallery is a British, not American, Thoroughbred; and a solid gold Kentucky Derby trophy in the Edward P. Evans Gallery has a 14k base, 18k top and, Reichel joked, “Is worth more than they will let me tell you!”

A�er leaving us with the a�ernoon to explore shops, parks and cultural a�rac�ons (try Saratoga.com), Saratoga Arms presented the first of two nights of mul�-course dinners and wine pairings with Thoroughbred legends like Racing Hall of Fame jockey Ramon Dominguez and sports caller Tom Durkin, plus local horsemen like Saratoga Polo School founder Mario Dino Di Salvo (who says ex-racehorses make excellent polo ponies) among our dining companions.

The Paddock is so quintessential a photo-op even Saratoga Arms photographer, Morgan Campbell, was coaxed to the other side of the lens.

Yes, that winning racehorse feeling looked a lot like this! By Morgan Campbell

Sheila Smith Sperling wearing the Smith family’s beloved, offbeat and horse-themed ‘Showpiece’ necklace worn especially for the track pool. By LA Sokolowski