Complaint Review: Ponderosa Trailers

In April of 2002 we ordered a custom built Ponderosa horse trailer. There are many details to this and I tried working with the sales person, up to the VP of the company who sadly is now the President of the company.

In a nutshell, we ordered an extra tall horse trailer with custom dimensions so that we could put two horses in the front and either put our carriage in the back, or other horses. All of our intended uses for this were explained to the sales person that took the order. Another use was to be able to haul a mare with a foal at her side in each part of the trailer, front and back.

The trailer was first mis-delivered, contrary to how the sales person said the trailer would be delivered. This cost us time away from work as well as added expenses as we had to go out and buy a hitch for the trailer, and other items that we already had at home. This was all because the trailer was mis-delivered.

The trailer itself is the main problem. The inside part of the horse trailer is 8' tall. The back has a ramp and no other door to hold in horses. This means, the back of the trailer has a ramp that comes up 4' and the remaining 4' high by 7' wide part of the top back of the trailer is wide open. I have had very young foals jump over 4' high before and this trailer is not safe to haul ANY horse in the back. The then VP of the company had very little knowledge of horse management and there are other quality issues with the trailer, too numerous to mention.

I've shown this to several other horse professionals, vets, etc. and they say this isn't safe to haul any animals. I tried working with the manufacturer to have them build a gate for the back, but they would not build a full gate even if we would pay for it.

I reported this to the Better Business Bureau, and they had other complaints about the company at the time that were not resolved. They did not resolve our problem either.

Our choices at present seem to be to, 1. Sell this trailer to a construction or some other type of person that might be able to use it to haul materials... which they incidentally would not be able to safely lock up because the back is wide open. 2. Pay a local welder to fabricate some sort of a gate that will not match the rest of the trailer, but will make it resonably safe for whatever use. 3. Find another really stupid horse trailer dealer and trade this on one we can inspect before we purchase.

Every time we look at that trailer we are very frustrated and feel completely ripped off. We had to pay for half of the trailer before it was made and have a money order for the other half of the trailer when it was delivered. If we had told them to take the trailer back at delivery, they would still have our half of the money and the trailer.

Professional Horseman
Thousand Oaks, California
U.S.A.



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