7 Reasons Your Horse Trailer Needs Wood Flooring

7 Reasons Your Horse Trailer Needs Wood Flooring

There’s a reason we’ve used high-dense Douglas fir lumber in every horse trailer we’ve built since 1987. This proven design is the best and safest option for your animals. Properly spaced (1/4″) 2X10 Douglas Fir floorboards are durable, and hold up better to barn-yard chemicals than any other flooring on the market today. Here are seven reasons you should pick a wood floor for your next horse trailer.

  • Wood floors are safer and less stressful to horse’s joints.
    Wood floors have a slight give, which allows your horse a softer ride. As you’ve probably noticed when you balance on wood, there is a slight give in the board. Though definitely not enough to be noticeable, your horse’s legs will thank you at the end of the journey. This slight give is just enough to help your animals relax instead of standing in a rigid position for hours.
  • Wood floors provide a quieter ride for your horse.
    Wood floors are quieter because they produce fewer vibrations than aluminum which equates to a quieter ride and calmer horses. A quiet environment means your horse is more ready and less nervous for the event, competition or trail ride you have traveled to.
  • Wood floors provide a cooler horse trailer.
    Wood floors does not conduct heat from the road unlike aluminum. The inside of a horse trailer can start to feel very hot in the Summer sun. Make sure your flooring isn’t adding to the problem. Wood has less heat transfer from the hot road surface than aluminum making the inside of the trailer cooler than one with an aluminum floor.
  • Comfortable and spacious interiors with dividersWood floors insulate from the cold instead of retaining it.
    If you laid a piece of wood and a piece of medal in your corral overnight in the middle of winter, which would you rather pick up? The wood, of course. Just as wood can’t conduct heat, it doesn’t hold on to cold either. This makes for a much more comfortable ride in the colder months as well.
  • Wood floors don’t rust.
    Since wood doesn’t oxidize, it can’t rust. Wood floors will last so much longer than the other available options. Aluminum floors oxidize and can’t hold up to the levels of acidity that is prominent in horse urine and poop.
  • Wood floors have less maintenance.
    Properly installed wood floors with 1/4″ spacing provide better ventilation inside the horse trailer because they drain better. Urine and water drain through the gaps in the boards instead of pooling. Moisture is the primary problem for any type of flooring and starts the failure process. Because the proper spacing of wood floors provides the opportunity to dry moisture, the need to remove your rubber mats to spray your trailer out to let it completely dry out is reduced significantly (up to fives times less) compared to an aluminum floor.
  • Wood is a renewable resource that is easy to replace.
    Though very rare, when your wood flooring starts to show signs of wear, you simply slide out the old planks and replace them with new ones. No welding required. Since wood does grow on trees, it’s an easy and inexpensive solution.