2+1 vs Mid-tack in horse trailer

[FLeckenAwesome]

Hello all! I’m at the point where I feel like I need air conditioning and a cowboy shower in my horse trailer so that I don’t have to keep getting hotel rooms. For awhile it was fine, but… now I want to just stay at the shows. I’m debating just putting those options into my current trailer, but I really want more room. So I’m also tossing around the idea of upgrading, but the prices are getting so high. So… IF I do… I want to make sure I get exactly what I want because if I’m going to spend the money… it better be worth it. Also, I don’t ride at home. I haul out on average 4 times a week to ride, so… it can’t be a huge trailer and it also serves as my tack room. I can consolidate some but really, it would be nice to have more tack room storage area.
I know my definite wants… 2 horse straight load gooseneck with a ramp, ideally butterfly doors in the back as we usually haul with the top windows open, I need at least drop down windows at the horses heads, but doors would be nice, and I need lots of ventilation as it’s always hot and humid in GA. I currently have just this with a small tack room/gooseneck. What I am debating is… getting a 2+1 and using the +1 as my tack room area… like putting my saddle racks in there and putting in some permanent (or semi-permanent) storage containers and basically using that as my tack room. I don’t know that I would haul a 3rd horse very often if at all. Usually it’s only one horse to shows, but sometimes two, but I do haul two to go ride at home. Then I could use the gooseneck area as my personal space and keep the tack and human stuff separate. The cowboy shower would either go in the +1 area or the horse head area on the passenger side. The other option is getting a mid-tack instead of the +1. So… I would have a 6’ tack area with a window to the horses probably and possibly a door to the gooseneck area and have my saddle racks in there. That means the shower would definitely have to go into the horse area.

So my questions are…

Does anyone use the +1 as their tack room? Do you find that it works? Is it hard to organize and stay organize with that space and all the doors/ramps/etc? Does your tack get filthy with it being more airy and open? Do you find it works for you?

Does anyone have a mid-tack and find that it works beautifully for them? Would a cowboy shower in the horses stall front work? Any suggestions like showering in a muck tub to avoid water problems? Or some sort of shallow flat pan?

Thanks in advance. I greatly appreciate it.

[Guilherme]

We did something like this with a 2002 Featherlight four horse that had a dressing room and a mid tack. A prior owner had finished the DR. We removed the wall from the mid-tack and created a “weekender” setup. We’ve got A/C, a microwave, a reefer, and an Incinolet (electro-evaporative toilet). We have a hot water heater for a bar sink and we ran a line to a “cowboy” shower" in the first stall (it’s a slant load). No black or gray water tanks; there’s a bucket under the sink and the shower water runs out the back. We either plug into a 30amp circuit or use a small generator (presently it’s a pair of Honda EU-2000 that can be hooked up in parallel).

Depending on how your horse box is set up I don’t see much trouble with a “cowboy shower.” We bought some interlocking foam pieces at JoAnn’s (IIRC) that we put down on the deck of the horse box if we’re going to use the shower and wear flip-flops as no matter how clean you get a horse box it’s not like your shower at home!!!

We have a roof rack which we use for long trips but that’s only once a year or so.

Your space might be a bit smaller so you might not have all the amenities we have (especially the Incinolet as the toilet enclosure takes up quite a bit of space). There are portable potties that you can get and use in the horse box. We have an old Coleman that we bought years ago. It’s sort of like a “casket” toilet and if fine if you need to take a leak at night and don’t want to traipse to the community “facility.”

We built ours out in two stages, IIRC, and total cost ran to around $12,000.

If you do business with a shop regularly you can ask them about the cost to fit out your selected trailer. Winter is a slow time for a lot of trailer shops and you can get some concessions on price as well as get in and out as the shops are not so busy.

Spend some time with your Yellow Pad writing down what you want and doing some sketching. This will help out the shop.

A lot of our materials were bought at Home Depot.

G.

[Blume]

This might not be too helpful but I have two trailers; an old 2+1 that is my “daily hauler” and a two horse straight load with midtack and LQ for camping/ shows. Before I got the LQ trailer I did stay in my 2+1 camping and at a few shows. If you get a 2+1 and stay in the real backroom/ gooseneck make sure to get it insulated. Mine is not and one time camping it dropped below freezing and even with a space heater going in there it was FRIGID and miserable. Also, the tackroom in my 2+1 would not be large enough to add amenities like a sink. It has one outlet I had installed at an RV place that I can plug in a hot water kettle, toaster oven, etc. When I stayed in my 2+1 I only stayed at placed that had bath houses so never set up a cowboy shower or the like. Using the + part for a tackroom might interfere with your ability to use the side ramp depending how you configure it. You also would need to secure items very well to prevent things from moving into the horse area while driving.