the ##%!# trailer tires

Amazing how crabby a person can get after a couple days without riding!

Especially when they get bad news about trailering.

This horse trailer is great on the inside, but has been a bottomless money pit since the day I got it. But I'm just too lazy, too stubborn, or too discouraged to try to sell it. So I keep sinking money into it, thinking "now it'll be completely safe..." And then it needs something else. Not to mention the half-finished paint job, we won't even go there.

The "spare" it came with turned out to be a completely shredded blowout with no rim. The tires are old and don't match. I know this, but have been under the impression that only one tire is really hopeless to drive any distance; I figured the others were worth gambling on. Took the trailer in this morning to a place I use and trust, to have the bad tire pulled and saved as a spare, replace with new wheel. Guy takes one look and says "this other is worse, it's a passenger tire, overloaded and full of cracks." Now two tires are too shot to risk on the highway. It'll cost me almost a month's rent to replace them.

I tell the guy I'll think it over. I tow the trailer home with a heavy heart, knowing I can't afford the tires right now. I have to decide if it's worth going into debt (plastic) to take Butch to California. If I don't bring him, I can't double-check the tree before making the saddle. Plus he'll be stuck in a pen for 10 days. But he might be stuck in a pen for 10 days anyway - I'm told I won't have time to ride in CA. So the main reason for bringing him is to be sure the tree fits. Is it worth a month's rent? Then again, I'll still need new tires if I want to have a usable trailer for hauling anywhere out of town. Sigh.

Then I get home and, of course, can't back the trailer where I want it. Because I haven't practiced enough and by now, I'm in a VERY bad mood and impatient. I only have about an hour left before I have to leave for work. (I got booked for 3 sessions! Yay! But I want to ride first.) It's a wonder I didn't sideswipe another gate.

Which brings up another point... never mind the trailer, am I safe on the road? I'm not at all sure if I should risk Butch's safety driving him 500 miles for only the 4th time I've ever pulled a trailer, first time on a highway.

Finally get trailer parked, mule saddled, & out to the wash for a quick 1-mile loop.

Transformation!! The sun came out, life is sweet again! Nothing beats time in the saddle for instant therapy. Especially with a good partner. My funny Butch mule.

It'll all work out one way or another. I suppose if I can't bring him, I'll be nervous about the saddle fit, hugely disappointed and fretting about how he's doing. But it won't be the end of the world. The worst that could happen is the saddle won't fit and Butch will have dug a hole to China and started weaving in frustration. I can always sell the saddle. Or use it to fill the hole!