Hi...looking for some advice.

We are looking to buy a 16 foot stock trailer for our two horses. As my Thoroughbred is 16.1, we will likely order the 7' tall and 7' wide trailer.  We want the bigger trailer (16 foot) as we do not need to have a storage area within the trailer and would like to be able to accommodate 4 horses in a pinch, since when we move to our small ranch in the Colorado Rockies we will probably end up with another two horses in addition to the two we have now.  We also would like to be able to use the trailer to haul hay up to our ranch.  Besides the Corn Pro, we've also looked at Calico, Titan and Ponderosa trailers (those in a similar budget range) and most horsey acquaintances in our area seemed to point us towards the Corn Pro as a good basic kind of first trailer.  We do not expect to do a lot of trailering as we can ride into the national forest from our land, but will need it for occasional trips out and emergencies.  We do not currently have indoor storage for a trailer, but would probably buy a cover for it.

If anyone has experience with any of these basic stock trailer and would like to share the positives and negatives, I'd be grateful. 

Thanks!

Sorry, our last stock trailer was a steel '98 bumper pull.  We have a friend who uses a 4 horse capacity stock trailer, and he goes on rides every year out to Nebraska from Missouri.  His is all aluminum.  Seems happy with it.

We had an 18' 3 horse BP stock combo for 15 years. We bought it new, with several options: 7' height, 5k axles, optional tires, escape door, camper door, lights, bumper , mats etc. It wasn't pretty, but it was built like a tank. It tracked perfectly with no aids, had very good brakes and long wearing tires.

We had a major problem in the beginning. After owning it for a few weeks, and only using it for short trips, we made plans to make a longer, high speed trip. When I inspected the wheel bearings, none of them on one side had any grease. The spindles were purple and burnt, the entire hubs, bearings and brake drums had to be replaced. Why they never seized, I don't know. It originally came from IN to OH at 70 mph to the dealer, a several hour ride.

After about twelve years of ownership, the body paint was departing as fast as the rust was arriving. (We live in the rust belt). I had to do a complete body restoration to save it. We sold it last year. It was still mechanically perfect, the frame was solid, the original flooring was like new, and the Lexan windows I installed kept the interior dry during our winters. It looked good and performed very well. It sold for $500 less than our original cost, to the first add enquirer.

It was an excellent trailer, and we kept it after the purchase of a large LQ trailer. We hauled everything that fit inside, including furniture and tractors. With the large swing open tail gate, any horse would load. The front bulkhead swings open or it can be removed, making the hauling of four horses a realistic proposition.

We only sold it because we needed some bathroom facilities in a shorter length trailer. We replaced it with a GN trailer of the same length with a weekender LQ.

I would recommend a Corn Pro trailer. They have earned a good reputation for durability and function. Shortly after I bought mine, two of my friends also bought similar trailers. One still has his and hauls cattle quite often.

Gard

I ditto most of what Gard said.  I had a 18' 3 horse slant stock type Corn pro.  It was 7 tall and a true 7' wide (not the 6'6" you commonly get).  It was built like a TANK.  I never knew it was back there when I pulled it except for the rattle of the metal when I hit bumps.

The slant stalls were BIG and even my friends 17hand LONG paint fit in it fine.  I had a nice little camping set up in it but when I got cold last fall I decided to trade it for a modest LQ trailer. 

If I had my own farm (I board) I would have kept it for around town trips but since I couldn't keep both on the farm it had to go.  It was a handy trailer and pulled nice.

Having sold many brands of trailers for over 10 years, I would definitely favor the Corn Pro or Titan trailers.  The Calico and Ponderosa trailers aren't built quite as rugged, nor do I feel like there paint "prep" and quality is as good.  Weld splatters and burrs are much more evident on the latter two trailers mentioned.  Corn Pros are built in Indiana and Titans in Kansas.  As far as paint is concerned; I would say that Titan has the best paint offered of the four.  They also use galvaneel steel in there steel sheet material.  Just my opinion.