Behind every good company is a story about good people. And here at Double D Trailers, we’re no different. We shared a bit about our company history in a recent blog article. This week, we want to share some of the ways we are trying to make a positive difference in the horse community.
We’ve devoted much of our energy to education, green technologies, scholarship, horse rescues, and developing a safer trailer for our customers. Take a moment to learn more about each of these programs below:
If you’ve had time to check out our website, you’ll see that education is a HUGE part of what we do here at Double D Trailers. The informational articles on our site can be a valuable resource for our customers looking to buy a custom horse trailer. Our articles can also be a great way for other folks, people unfamiliar with our brand, to find answers to their important trailer safety questions.
Besides our bi-monthly Blog postings, we have an Articles page where we break down some of our top resources by category, provide several FREE Downloadable Booklets available, along with horse trailer videos and information about Buying Custom Horse Trailers.
One of the main topics we try to stress over and over is how to determine if your tow vehicle is properly equipped to haul your trailer. Oftentimes, people assume their enormous truck and hitch are going to handle any size trailer. But, we’ve spoken with many people over the years who were hauling an unsafe load and had no idea!
Brad Heath, owner of Double D Trailers, added, “We’ve seen ‘dealers’ in the past who will tell an unsuspecting buyer anything they want to hear in order to make a sale. Yikes! It’s a potentially bad combination and could result in an unsafe load for sure unless buyers are educated.”
Why spend so much time writing these articles about safe towing, horse trailer safety, latest trends, and more? Easy! We want you to be as well informed as possible so you can make safe choices when it comes to your horses.
Brad also wants you to be well educated so you’re not taken advantage of. “Horse trailers are not regulated by the federal government. So basically, any builder can make whatever trailer they desire. Often, they sacrifice quality and safety for corporate profit.”
Horse trailers don’t have engines like cars or use energy like homes, so it may sound a bit strange to talk about an environmentally friendly trailer. But there are some things we can do to use “green” building materials and minimize use of harmful chemicals.
First off, we’ve almost eliminated all painting and harmful chemicals within our trailers. Instead, the trailer’s materials are either zinc-coated (Z-Frame) or aluminum. Rather than using bolts that promote rust, we use a chemical bonding process to make your trailer last much longer.
The SafeKick walls on our trailers use Polylite – a recyclable product. Then, our most popular floor option is Rumber – made of recycled tires!
Our annual scholarship started back in 2014 as a way to offer financial aid to aspiring students. This $500 award is given to a student working towards their Bachelor’s Degree in the United States or in Canada.
Students should demonstrate an interest in horses through ownership or involvement in equine organizations such as Pony Clubs, 4-H, FFA, etc.
Brad explained, “We wanted to give something back to the community and help aspiring young folks reach their goals!”
To learn more about the Double D Trailers scholarship contest for this current year, check out our information page.
(2022 Update: The Scholarship is no longer offered).
Over the past several years, we’ve compiled one of the largest resources for horse rescues organizations called Horse Rescue Corner.
Our interest in horse rescues began with a simple photo of a horse named Phoenix who didn’t want to load on his trailer. It turned out, Phoenix was a rescued horse living at SAFE Horse Rescue in Washington state.
As we learned more about his story, our hearts broke for the hundreds of horse rescues in our nation working desperately to save abused and neglected horses. We decided to create the Horse Rescue Corner database to help promote their message.
Since 2014, we’ve written ten full articles about the issue of horse rescue and rehabilitation. We’ve also interviewed and profiled more than 150 horse rescues across the United States and Canada! We are honored to help tell their stories and hope our database helps spread awareness and generate donations for these horses in need.
Finally, we can’t finish off this article without mentioning our most important work. It has been our continual goal to make horse trailers safer for both horse and handler. That is why we’ve moved away from full aluminum horse trailers towards a much safer Z-Frame design.
One of the most dangerous parts of using a horse trailer has to do with loading and unloading. This is a time when a nervous horse could easily injure himself or his handler. In fact, it was just such an injury that spurred us into designing our flagship product – the SafeTack horse trailer.
Conventional slant load horse trailers have a stationary rear tack area in the back of the trailer. This leaves a very narrow door way for both horse and handler to walk through. Back in 1998, we heard the story of a woman who broke her arm using one of these trailers.
We quickly went to the drawing board and created what would become our SafeTack layout. It has a fully enclosed tack storage area that swings out like a second door. This allows a full-width loading area for both horse and handler. It is MUCH safer.
Brad calls the SafeTack “the greatest contribution we’ve made to the trailer industry as a whole.” He continued, “We’ve not had a related injury to horse or handler during loading or unloading since it was created. It’s one of the best safety records around!”
If you would like to learn more about our SafeTack Horse Trailers or any of the other items above, please contact Brad here.
And thank you for helping us make a difference in the horse community!
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