Got my mare and baby home...

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ClickMini

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Started out bright and early yesterday morning, heading out on the 4-1/2 hour trip to McMinnville to get my new mare and filly. Things were going fine but the traffic was a little heavy, seems the Seattle to Portland bike ride was on, There are thousands of people who make this journey each year. CRAZY! Anyway, seems there were thousands of extra travelers on the road yesterday. Got a little south of Portland when suddenly one of my trailer tires blew! There was no where to pull over...for those of you familiar with the area, we were on the Terwiliger curves...so scary! I limped along at about 10 mph for three miles until I could get off the freeway. I was thanking god I didn't have any horses on board. A good samaritan helped us out and got the tire changed and we were back on our way, now a couple of hours later than we'd planned.

Of course you can't go to that farm without looking at the herds of horses, so we passed a nice afternoon looking at all of them, and then decided we had to hit the road. We loaded up my new mare Stepper and her baby, I had bedded a big box stall in the trailer deep in beautiful straw for them. We headed down the road, only to be caught in horrendous traffic, it was taking about twice as long as normal to get where we were going.

Just north of Centralia, still a good couple of hours from home, I saw in my rear view pieces of my trailer heading the other direction down the highway! ANOTHER BLOWOUT!!! And of course now we have NO SPARE!!! It is late on Sunday evening, and all I can say is THANK GOD for USRider Roadside Assistance Program for Equestrians. They managed to locate a service that would bring us two new tires and mount them for us. The bad news is the person was way up in Tacoma, and it would be a while before we would be "rescued." Well to make this sorry story a little shorter, we ended up sitting on the side of Interstate 5 for 3-1/2 hours dead in the water. At 10:30 p.m. the service showed up and got us fixed up. It took about 45-50 minutes all told, so by the time we actually got back to the house it was 2 a.m.!!! Those poor babies had been in the trailer for 10-1/2 hours!!! I was so distraught I can't even tell you.

Anyway, here we are none of us the worse for wear. I have no idea what caused both tires to blow...they were not on the same side, in fact it was a diagonal pair...drivers side rear tire and passenger side front. The service guy seemed to think it was because the tires were older, they were year 2000, but only had less than 10,000 miles on them and looked to be in good shape. I would never have known to replace them, but I guess the moral of the story is you should change your tires every 6 years no matter how many miles.

I took a few snaps of my new babies today, they are so beautiful and I am thrilled to have them. Here is a little web site I put together showing some photos of them from this afternoon. They are still a little wild, they do not want a lot to do with me yet although we are on our way to becoming friends. That is, once Stepper told me once and for all with a set of three double barrels to my thigh that she would only do it on her own terms, LOL! Here is my site: http://www.finchmeadowfarm.com/photogaller...Filly/index.htm

I also found out that Quail Run Minis owns a daughter of my new mare Stepper, her name is Sundance LB Something to Talk About, and she is an accomplished show filly, obtaining a reserve champ Jr. Mare in her first show as a yearling. You can see her on this page. http://www.quailrunminiatures.com/Mares.html I feel very happy and lucky to be able to purchase a mare that produces as well as she. Plus I think she is a nice addition to my pastures on her own merits.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the pics and remember everyone to CHECK YOUR TRAILER TIRES!!! :eek:
 
Oh, Amy, that is a trip from H-E-L-L any way you slice it. I know the Terwilliger curves quite well and that is NO place to have a disabled vehicle of any kind. The lanes are narrow and there is NO shoulder not to mention it's all curving and heavy traffic. Awful.

I'm sorry that all happened!

Do you cover your tires when you park your trailer? The tires will sit in the sun and get damaged by the UV rays, and yes, check them!!! I am glad noone was hurt (two or four-legged) and glad that is behind you.

Gorgeous new horses!!!

Congrats.
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Liz
 
Oh Amy! :new_shocked:
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: I probably passed you on the freeway coming home, I think I came through Olympia around 7:30-8PM and traffic was indeed awful. I'm so sorry you had the trip from You Know Where.

We get our tires checked every single spring by the trailer place and I think they get rotated and such but I'm not sure what else. I will remind Mom to see how old they are so that we don't have to use our US Rider coverage!

Leia
 
Congratulations on your new girls and thank you for the warning about replacing tires. I also would not have known to do so.
 
Congratulations on your two new horses and I know all too well about trailer tire blow outs!

I had two blow outs last summer within a month of each other. These tires were on my 2003 gooseneck trailer that I purchased new that year. Less than 20,000 miles on the tires! What I learned is that trailer tires need to be kept inflated at their maximum psi and should be replaced at 3 - 5 years no matter the mileage on them. And as Nootka pointed out, keep them covered! Needless to say, my trailer got a whole new set of tires last summer.
 
Sorry to hear about your horried trip! I too have US Rider! I one year (with the big dressage gelding I once had) was coming home from a 4 day clinic by Columbus, MO and blew a tire on the side next to the beasy highway! Traffic was awful! I didn't have the US RIder at the time... a older lady in her late 60's stoped (my angel) and she had the US RIder and she's like....... You tell them you are with me! And they came and changed my tire........ It was SO hot that day too! I was SO thankful for that! I made sure I got that US Rider before I went down to Nationals last year..... Luckily I've not had to use it (yet)..... but it has such great services offered...... you can't afford not to go with out it either!

Glad to hear you got home (everyone) safe & sound! That is the most nerve racking thing to be broke down with horses on the trailer!!!!
 
Wow, so thankful you made it home with them ok.
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Congrats on your new pretties.
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We had a "tire incident" a few years ago, not a blow out though. It was a worse.
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: It was on a Saturday, hubby got called into work (he worked for a major natural gas company in Orlando at that time, and there was a restaurant somewhere downtown that had a gas leak that he had to go investigate), and our son had a Western Speed Game Show that he was to compete in later that day. I was going to go on ahead with him and meet hubby at the showgrounds when he finished up at work. Well, we were loading up to leave and my son noticed we had a flat on the trailer. I wasn't able to change it (had just had surgery back then and wasn't strong enough yet
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: ) and my son was only 9 or 10 at the time, ... so anyways I called hubby and he called a "tire guy" from the local auto shop to come out and change the tire for us.

By the time he showed up and we finally got the tire changed, hubby arrived home. Just in time for us to hit the road, because now we were really late, and would barely have enough time for any warm-ups before my son's races began. So we got our mare loaded and hopped in the truck and off we went.

Got about 3 miles down the road, going a good 55mph down the highway... and then all of a sudden we had a guy come up from behind us whailing out his window asking us please pull over that something was VERY WRONG with our trailer. We stopped and got out and quickly saw TOTAL HAVOC on the road behind us. Then we saw our trailer sitting on its axel...NO TIRE ANYWHERE!!!! The WHOLE TIRE that was JUST CHANGED by the "tire guy" totally CAME OFF and flew into the oncoming traffic. Thankfully, it was only a single car, but MAN!! It had some how flown up over her hood and hit her windshield head on. :new_shocked: When we got to her, we were so thankful to see she wasn't hurt, just understandably shaken. As were we!!!!!
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We got back to our trailer and checked our mare, she was fine too, thankfully. She was a huge 1200lb TB mare, and we were so thankful that her weight didn't throw her and flip the trailer when that tire went flying off like that. Then after seeing everyone was Ok, we unloaded our mare, my son stayed with her, while my hubby and the guy who stopped us searched for the missing tire, and I unhooked the trailer and went to the nearest store to call in the accident. (Didn't have cell phones back then either.
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: )

Anyways, after all was said and done, from that point forward, we learned a very valuable lesson...
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Not only check the tires BEFORE you leave anywhere...no matter the distance expected to travel...but also, if you have anyone else working on your trailer...ALWAYS...ALWAYS....be sure to DOUBLE check their "handywork" TOO!!!! :eek:
 
Wow sorry to say sounds like you had one of my regular road trips LOL

It can be so frustrating I have to remember my horses are usually way less stressed out and distraught then I am

Congrats on the new horses

What is the difference between the services offered by US Rider and Triple A?
 
Yeah Leah you definitely passed us. We were on the side of the highway from 7 - 11:30 just north of Chehalis. I couldn't believe in all of that time, not one person stopped to see if we were all right. Not only that, we didn't see ONE SINGLE STATE PATROL in that entire time. What is that about???

I will be getting some top of the line tires to finish out my set, that is for sure. And carry two spares. I also forgot to mention that my darling son and husband had removed my lug wrench from my trailer and failed to return it to its home. :new_2gunsfiring_v1: :ugh: :new_argue: So from now on I am going to have a "pre-flight checklist" that will be gone over in detail prior to any trip in excess of 30 minutes, that will include laying my eyes on the spare and the lug wrench. I actually thought I did have that done for THIS trip, had checked the oil, brake fluid, radiator, TIRE PRESSURE on truck AND trailer (and had them filled and equalized at the local Les Schwab tire center!!!), and had my truck serviced just about six weeks ago including a full tune-up. I really thought I was as prepared as I need to be, however would never have guessed that my lug wrench was sitting in my son's/husband's unused car, and that I would need more than one spare.

Liz that is a good reminder about covering the trailer tires; what do you use to cover them? I do use my trailer for short jaunts fairly often, but it does certainly sit more than my car does.

SWA...that is a NIGHTMARE STORY! I am so glad everyone was ok, after all was said and done!!!

Lisa, here is a page that shows the benefits of US Rider. They are geared specifically to helping the unique needs of equestrians on the road. Something to consider for people before that long trip to Nationals! They have horse-specific benefits like emergency stabling and also vet locators, etc. Here is a link to a comparison page:

http://www.usrider.org/compare.html

I would never be without this assistance plan ever again!
 
Yeah Leah you definitely passed us. We were on the side of the highway from 7 - 11:30 just north of Chehalis. I couldn't believe in all of that time, not one person stopped to see if we were all right. Not only that, we didn't see ONE SINGLE STATE PATROL in that entire time. What is that about???
Boy do I feel rotten now. :no: I know there were some really weird traffic snarls in that area that were driving me insane but I never did see any cause for them, nor do I really remember seeing a horse trailer on the side of the road. If I did I know I would have assumed they had stopped to check their horses the same way I sometimes do and I wouldn't have stopped unless there were road flares or obvious damage; not when I'm hauling an exhausted horse of my own in heavy freeway traffic two lanes over and the only thing I could have offered anyone to help was a cell phone which everyone already has these days.
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: Chehalis is a bad area to get stuck in because as you said, there is a distinct lack of official-type help available. Good if you're speeding, bad if you're stuck! :eek:

I'm glad you made it home safe. SWA, that's a scary story! :new_shocked:

Leia
 
Oh No Amy! I wish I had known. I could have hooked up my trailer and come and gotten the girls. We live off exit 88. I am sorry.

Poor girls, glad you are safe and sound. And a tire flat is what scares me completely. If I were by myself I don't know what you would do with a bunch of horses....
 
I wonder if it would be a good idea for us along the I-5 corridor to start an "emergency network" of phone numbers and contact info for people along the way...just in case. If you would like to volunteer your own information and receive information about others who could help, maybe you could email me at [email protected] and I will compile the information! I think that would have been a great help in this situation...at least I could have had someone bring me some hay for my babies! I felt so bad for them! I did have them bedded deep on straw and did have water, thank goodness.
 
:new_shocked: how scary. Thank Godness everyone is okay.

Congrats on your new minis.
 
COngratulations on your new girls. So glad you were able to get them home safely after that ordeal! So glad you were able to find help!!
 
Oh my gosh, Amy, that is so scary......and like Kim, I am not too far away, I would be happy to come help out, even if it was just for a little bit of munchies for your fur-kids......... that area is so congested a lot of the time too.....scary.

I will send you a PM with my info......I am more than happy to help people that are stranded in my neck of the woods......course I can't change a tire, but I can offer feed, water, animal shelter if needed. :bgrin
 
Amy i feel for you, we have been standing on the side of the road, a total of 4 of us, trying to hold 6-8 riding horses while changing a tire and waving the STUPID people away who were almost running over my husband's legs as he lay there working on it...and of course not a soul would think to stop and lend a hand! sorry you had to go through that but so glad your ordeal ended well! if i lived in that area i would be happy to join your network, i think that is a great idea! we just had 4 brand new tires put on the big trailer, asked them to save the best skins off the old tires for extra spares... well, we were barely able to get 2. there were even chunks coming off the insides of one of the tires! the hot dry weather here is really hard on tires...

and SWA :new_shocked: what a horrible experience! glad you all were safe as well.
 
Amy, if you check with an RV store, or trailer store, they can help you with the official covering for your size tire (they are usually round and vinyl-looking). I think you could use anything as long as it's thick enough to block the UV rays. It makes the rubber really brittle over time, and ages the tires faster to leave them in the sun.

I sure hope nothing like that happens again, but again I'm so glad you're all safe.

Liz M.
 
I've been told you can simply lean a piece of plywood up against the side of your trailer too to block the sun. Apparently ours have not been changed in six to ten years so thanks to your story we have put new tires on our list of things to get this year.

Leia

P.S.- Mom says my time table was a little off, she thinks we went through that area around 6:30-7PM and she doesn't remember seeing a horse trailer on the side of the road. I feel slightly less guilty now! :lol:
 

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