Dear Ms. or Mr.,

I know you are a good person and would never want to hurt an animal. I know you’re probably a good driver with a good record. I would like to address something that you might not be aware of. Be careful when pulling out of side roads and onto the highways. When I am trailering horses, the inertia of the load is huge.

Maybe you’ve had to wait and were getting impatient. Maybe you had a pressing appointment. If you pull out and the distance to a horse trailer in your lane choice is not enough for you to get to even three-quarters of the speed limit before the distance on the highway closes, you are endangering yourself, the horses and myself. 

During the past months I have had three incidents where the person pulled out with less than 150 yards of distance on a 65-mph highway, then only make it to 25 mph before I had to brake much more abruptly than was safe.

Going from 65 to 25 with four horses in a short distance is dangerous for two reasons. It’s a heavy load with a lot of inertia and you can do nothing abruptly with live animals in your care. You and I have seat belts but the horses don’t. Please try to look for horse trailers when judging oncoming traffic and give us a little extra margin. If you catch up to me after I pass, I promise I will slow down a little when you have an opportunity to pass.

Thanks,

Eckert De Ninno, Pinedale