We pull horses all over the country. Long or short bed does not make much difference except for the extra storage around the gooseneck. Give serious consideration to one more stall in the trailer then you need. Install a stallion wall on the most forward stall and you will have a very large dry storage area. Most of the time the most forward stall in a slant trailer also has an escape door so you have access while traveling, very nice for water and feed while on the road.

 

This one looks good to me;

http://www.popuphitch.com/sb1coupler.htm

I was going to buy one of these when we were considering a supercrew with a 5 1/2' bed. Might still do it one of these days.

David

 

You can get by with a squarish nose, just don't install the ball too far forward, and don't try to turn real hard, as in close to 90 degrees. They will do the average daily driving, just if you get into a situation that requires a real hard turn, you will be in trouble. My sister borrowed a 94 extended cab short bed (only a foot shorter) and got into a situation that she had to turn it real hard, and it took out the back window. You can see marks on the cab where that had happened befoe. The ball was too far forward to add to the problem. Had it been back just ahead of the axle 1" instead of ahead of the rear axle by about 4", it would have helped. This was a F250, you can put the ball directly over the rear axle on 350's.

 

Nah, that's hype.... you can do fine with a short bed I tow a 2007 Featherlite 20ft stock trailer with my 2002 F150 shortbed truck and I can certainly do 90 degree turns. You just have to watch which trailer you buy. Most are designed for shortbeds these days, but the largest ones are not. I'm a big Featherlite fan, take a look at their offerings.

You probably do not want a slant load trailer with drafts. Many times they just aren't big enough. All the draft people I know use stock trailers instead... that way the horses have far more room. I use my stalls to allow my stallions to have space to rest and turn as they wish.

Goosenecks seem to be better. I've towed both before, and I'm liking my new trailer, but it is more of a deal to hook up. I can hitch a tag-along trailer in 2 minutes, it takes me closer to five and much more effort to hitch the goose. Big difference? Not really... but over time it gets to the point of "nah, I don't want to hitch it up... I'll just ride here today". What can I say... I'm lazy.

I drove my rig 1200 miles from Colorado to Kentucky, and it did remarkably well. The same trip with a tagalong would have been much more difficult.

 

I agree, if you watch how the nose is shaped, it will be ok, it's just the square noses that give you the troubles.
My sister custom ordered her trailer, and made the slant areas wider for her stallion. Works just fine when you do something like that.