After spending countless hours preparing yourself and your horse for barrel racing or a show, it's time to hit the circuit and perform. While you're prepared to actually participate in an event, are you prepared to get to the events and back to the stable safely? There's always a risk of breaking down along the way, which can result in a stressful situation for you and for your horse. Here are several things you can do to prepare for a breakdown with your horse trailer.

Weigh the Loaded Horse Trailer & Towing Vehicle

If you need to call a towing service to rescue your broken down towing vehicle and horse trailer, you will need to be able to tell the customer service representative of the roadside assistance service how much your towing vehicle and loaded horse trailer weigh. That way, the roadside assistance service will be able to send a tow truck or two that will be capable of towing your trailer and vehicle, if necessary. Find the nearest weigh station to weigh your vehicles before you set out on the road to your event.

Keep Your Mobile Phone Ready

Always keep your mobile phone fully charged while on the road and have a backup battery charger. Don't assume that you will be able to charge the phone while you wait for roadside assistance. It's a good idea to have a backup battery charger, such as a portable charger or a solar-powered charger. The reason for this is because there's always a risk of being unable to get power from your towing vehicle, particularly if the battery dies or the alternator fails. Also, you'll want to have a roadside assistance number stored in your mobile phone's memory, especially if you don't have a data plan or your data plan runs low and places you at risk of not being able to look up phone numbers for roadside assistance.

Make Copies of Your Horse's Health Documents

If you regularly keep your horse's health documents in your towing vehicle, it's a good idea to make copies of the documents and store them in the horse trailer in case the roadside assistance service sends two tow trucks to your location, one for your vehicle and one for the horse trailer. That way, a set of documents for your horse will be available to the towing service in case they separate the horse trailer and tow it separately from your vehicle.