Evade Emergencies with a Horse Trailer and Truck Trip Pre-Check

A horse trailer and truck trip pre-check can help keep any horse hauling excursion from becoming a disaster. Anything can go wrong when hauling horses, yet many issues can be caught before you pull out onto the road. Therefore, developing a standard trip pre-check routine will help you evade emergencies by enabling you to check everything before loading and hauling your precious cargo.

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Check Your Horse Trailer And Truck Both Going Out and Returning Home

I recently came across a Facebook post where a rider returned to her trailer after a trail ride and found someone had un-hooked her hitch. No one knows why this event occurred; It could have been either a sick sabotage or perhaps an intent to steal. Either way, if the rider had not done a trip pre-check her ride home would have ended up in an emergency situation.

You can prevent some horse hauling road emergencies from happening simply by taking the time to do a trip pre-check of your horse trailer and truck EVERY time you head out on the road with your horse.

Here’s how you can develop your own routine for checking your horse trailer and truck before pulling out on the road. Follow along with this FREE Horse Trailer and Truck Trip Pre-Check checklist.

Develop a Horse Trailer and Truck Trip Pre-Check Routine

Check the entire rig after you hook up the horse trailer to your towing vehicle. Choose what side you’ll start your trip pre-check on. A suggestion would be the right hand side of the towing vehicle and go clockwise around the back ending up at the driver’s side door.

Before you load your horse(s) look over both the towing vehicle and the trailer. Develop your standard for “good to go”. The more familiar you are with what is good, the better you’ll be at discovering something amiss. Don’t get lazy, check everything, every time, as if you are going to find something wrong.

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What Not to Miss on a Horse Trailer and Truck Trip Pre-Check

1. Vehicle and Trailer Lights and Mirrors

• Check the working order of headlights, turn signals, and brake lights on both the vehicle and the trailer.
• Verify the working order of the interior horse trailer lights – have an emergency light source available.
• Check vehicle side mirrors – pulling them out if they are folded in.
• Make sure the side mirror is clean and not broken.

2. Tires

• Check for loose lug nuts on all tires. Physically try to turn the lug nuts on the vehicle and the horse trailer with your fingers.
• Look for cracks on the tire rims.
• Check wear level on all tires. Feel for the wear bar – if tire tread is below the wear bar the tire must be replaced.
• Check the tire pressure of towing vehicle and horse trailer.
• Note condition of tires. Be aware of sun damage to tire rubber. Tires should be replaced every 4-5 years. Look for manufacture date on tire.
• Remove Trailer wheel chocks once trailer is hooked up.
• Be sure your spare trailer wheel is in good working order with correct air pressure.
• Store a lug wrench in your horse trailer.

3. Tow Chains

• Bumper pull and gooseneck trailers must have tow chains attached with positive retention connections (not just hooked, but secured with load-specific locking carabiners).
• Cross the safety chains to cradle the bumper pull trailer hitch if it were to detach.
• Ensure chains are taught: no chain dragging on the ground with enough give when turning.

4. Hitch

• Make sure the Safety pin on trailer coupler is secured.
• Verify the Trailer brake safety is securely attached to the truck.
• Hitch pulling rating should match weight of trailer being towed.
• Check that the ball size is correct for hitch.
• Have a trailer coupler lock on hand for when you detach.
• When unhitched, prop up the hitch with a trailer hitch block.

5. Trailer Doors (Loaded)

• Once horses are loaded, check the back and side doors to be sure they are latched.
• Be sure the trailer door hinges are in good working order and not loose.
• Make sure the tack room door is latched before heading out.
• Ensure that your horses can not stick their heads out of the trailer through a window, a screen or open slat.

6. Trailer Tags and License Plate

• Be sure your registration tags are up to date.
• Verify that the trailer license plate is not covered in mud, banged up, faded or rusted out.
• DMV code requires the trailer license plate to have its own illumination.
• DMV code requires trailer license plates to be mounted horizontally.

Do a Trip Pre-Check Every Time

Be sure you are checking the above items every time you go out on the road with your horse trailer. These are the key things to check on a pre-trip check of your horse trailer and towing vehicle. Develop the habit of running through this check EVERY time you head out on the road with your horse in your horse trailer pulled by your towing vehicle. Get your FREE Horse Trailer and Truck Trip Pre-Check checklist so you can develop your own routine.

Developing your trip pre-check of your horse trailer and truck is made easier with our downloadable checklist. You can bring it up on your phone to use as a guide. Also you can print it out, slip it in a plastic sleeve and mount it inside your tack room door. Using a wet erase pen, you can then mark on it every time you haul horses.

Equipment for Making Road Emergencies Easier

Road emergencies do happen and it is best not to be caught out without proper emergency equipment. Visibility is vital to human and horse life when parked alongside a road, so be sure you have proper emergency identifiers. Additionally, working in low light, or darkness, makes the situation more challenging, so be sure you have a portable light source.

Tools such as a fire extinguisher, a shovel and a horse first aid kit can enable you to provide immediate assistance to your situation or anothers. Be prepared for on the road emergencies. Flat tires do happen so make sure you can jack up the horse trailer. Once at your destination you will most likely be detaching from your empty trailer, so be sure the trailer can be left with the wheels chocked.

Horse Trailer and Truck Emergency Equipment Checklist

• Triangle emergency reflectors – provide visibility along the roadside.
• LED flare disks – alerts other drivers of your presence along the roadside.
• Reflective safety vest to make yourself visible at night.
• Horse first aid kit – this kit has the basics and can be added to.
• Class BC Fire extinguisher – must be mounted inside towing vehicle.
• Shovel – always a handy tool to have around horses.
• Portable light source  – lantern style can be used hands-free.
• Trailer Jack – for easy lifting of trailer to change out a flat tire.
• Horse Trailer wheel chocks and hitch stand– be sure you can leave your empty trailer somewhere un-hitched.
• Trailer coupler lock – ensure your un-hitched trailer won’t go off with someone else.
• Trunk Organizer – Keep stuff from rolling around in your horse trailer tack room. This organizer will hold your helmet, gloves, brushes, leg wraps and more.

Don’t let road emergencies catch you off guard. Be prepared with the right emergency equipment on hand while developing the habit of doing a horse trailer and truck trip pre-check EVERY time you hit the road with your horse friends in tow. Make sure you have minimized the chances for running into problems on the road.

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Developing your trip pre-check of your horse trailer and truck is made easier using our downloadable checklist. You can bring it up on your phone to use as a guide. Also you can print it out, slip it in a plastic sleeve and mount it inside your tack room door. Using a wet erase pen, you can then mark on it every time you haul horses. We’ll continue to add horsing around stories to our website. You can stay up-to-date by becoming a SLO Horse News herd member. Already a member? No problem, you can get this checklist too, and your info will not be duplicated. Get your Horse Trailer and Truck Trip Pre-Check Checklist here >.