10/01/2026
This popped up on my personal Facebook as a memory from 2 years ago, today. Let’s talk about it 😁 *this will not be a quick read 😂
Fun Fact: I DO have my Class A CDL & I DO have experience driving a loaded semi.
Straight out of truck driving school I hopped into one of the most challenging driving fields possible. Figuratively and literally. Farming.
In truck driving school you learn to drive an empty trailer. You learn not to get your wheels off the pavement if you can help it. First day of driving for a farmer: I drove a load of beans out of a river bottom field up a rutted chirt path. I had to drive up the steepest hill I had ever attempted. While loaded.
I didn’t go work for a company who gave me a new truck and a team driver for my first few weeks to talk me through everything. I rode with him while he pulled a load to the granary and I got to drive it back empty so he could see me drive. That was it. And I got handed an old 10 speed Mack. I honestly love that truck to this day!
Some days we drove in separate trucks to the same location. I did have to call the other driver one day and tell him to come back and help me because I had killed it at a light and it wouldn’t start again. Why/how did I kill it? The hi/lo shifter was backwards. So 1st was actually 6th. And the list goes on…
One day it needed a battery. One day I did my inspection and it needed a new belt. I got pulled over for a turn signal out. My mirror had to be fixed because every time I adjusted it and drove the wind would flop it back out of place so I had no mirror to use for guidance unless I stuck my hand out the window and held it where I needed it. The air hose in the cab had a leak so I had a constant wind noise. Sometimes the air leaked out of the seat and I’d have to stand up real quick and air it back up then sit back down. It wouldn’t go up if you were sitting in it. Sometimes it randomly did this while driving down the road. There was never washer fluid and the windshield was always covered in dirt and dust from the fields. Really I could keep going but you get it.
At first all of these things scared me. This was not anything like what I was taught in truck driving school. Some days the little inconveniences were aggravating. But I worked for the BEST and NICEST farmer and he helped me any time I needed it and fixed absolutely any and everything I mentioned. It wasn’t a bad job at all. I thoroughly enjoyed it. He called me about a month ago asking if I had any time to come drive for him this fall. I had to politely decline because you guys keep me so busy, I couldn’t be reliable as a driver for him! Gee, thanks. 😉
How does all of that matter when it comes to running CallHer and hauling your animals? Simple.
I have pulled into/out of/up/down some of the sketchiest scenarios when picking up or delivering. I use my 4 wheel drive sometimes weekly depending on the weather and set up that is available. But if I could pull a load of beans or corn (corn is HEAVY) up/down some of the things I did, I’m confident I know what I can (and cannot) safely go through with my horse trailer.
I pay attention to every single different smell, noise, feeling on my truck. My husband gets multiple calls telling him something that happened and I rely on him to say pull over and fix that or drive it home and he will take a look at it. Bless that man! 😂 but I have so much more confidence in my own knowledge to figure out if it’s something worth calling him over. Something I’m not sure of myself.
I do my inspection on my truck & trailer religiously. It has saved me before when I had a slow leak on a dual outside tire and I found it before heading to a pick up. I had to delay that haul for a couple hours while we got it fixed. But it saved me from discovering that when it was too late. I have found other minor things on my truck/trailer and been able to fix them without being stranded or in trouble somewhere. Also the peace of mind in knowing I did my safety inspection before hauling several hundred miles in a day is priceless to me. I will always take those extra seconds to do a quick walk around. Every time I get fuel my truck and trailer get a walk around inspection mid haul. I do this thanks to driving a semi and making sure there wasn’t weird noises that shouldn’t be there. Or triple checking my belly dump/tarp/pole handle were all where they were supposed to be.
I can drive confidently at night with no mirrors & a messy windshield through a narrow construction zone with concrete barriers on each side. Now that’s not my ideal driving environment. But I can do it. Because I did it with a fully loaded semi. Of course I can do it with my one ton and stock trailer.
I will absolutely say I have ran red lights. Not intentionally. I was going the speed limit and the green light changed to yellow then red so fast. I knew I could stop. But I’d have to throw a horse into the nose of the trailer. So I slowed down as much as I safely could. I looked around to make sure nobody else was running through and I very slowly rolled through just slow enough to see it turn red as I went under. I knew that was the best and safest thing to do with a horse on the trailer.
I have gone across the granary scales at just over 6 figures. That’s right. Weighing a little over 100,000 pounds total. That’s heavy. I asked to never be loaded quite that heavy again and after that day they loaded me in the high 80’s to about 95k range. But I have been literally unable to stop at a stop sign and red light before. I had to run them because I had no choice. I promise you I was not speeding weighing that much! But I had to learn my stopping distance and how to account for that much weight. One day a log truck ran a red light side by side with me because we both were heavy and had no chance of stopping. 😂 it happens. But that’s the only way you learn. That’s the only way I can see a light turning and know if I can make that stop safely without possibly injuring an animal or if there’s no way. And if there’s no way, I’ll prepare to run it. Look all around and check other vehicles in other directions. Not freak out and lock up the brakes. Stay calm and be fully aware of all surroundings. And I’ll take that ticket and tell the officer that the lights turn entirely too fast and I was not jeopardizing the animal on my trailer. Some lights really do change almost instantly. Let me also say I do not run red lights often. I avoid it at all costs if I can help it.
Last story. I’m wrapping it up, I promise. On days I hauled corn/beans to the granary I knew what I weighed. Some days I took it to the bins & unloaded it myself and went back to the field to be loaded again. Those days I have no idea what I weighed. One time I got a call saying “did you spill corn all in the highway?” I said I didn’t think so. I looked around and stuff seemed normal. So I kept going, unloaded at the grain bins and headed back to the field. As I got to the turn at the end of the highway I saw it. Bright yellow corn covering the entire road. About 3 lanes wide and 4 cars long. A huge patch of yellow corn in the middle of the highway.
I wondered “how on earth did that happen?! We live in a farming community; surely that wasn’t from me”. It was from me. Obviously. 🤦🏼♀️ I took the turn too fast and that day I didn’t close my tarp because my trailer was so full to the top. My tarp literally wouldn’t go over it without spilling corn. Usually my tarp was rolled over it. They told me if my tarp had been closed I would have rolled the truck right there. I didn’t know I was taking it too fast. I had nobody around to tell me. I drove around the corner like I always did and kept rolling. I am still thankful I didn’t roll the truck and trailer that day and it was just a small portion of corn spilled compared to what could’ve been. But I learned.
Pulling live loads is a whole different ballgame than pulling anything else. Especially in box stalls. They move freely. Sometimes (depending on the animals) they lay down. Then they stand up. Every time moving the truck and trailer. They turn around. They look out the sides and front. They move to eat hay and drink water. Sometimes they weigh over 1,000 pounds. Sometimes they weigh less than 100 pounds. And I have to keep that in mind and account for it every time I stop. Every time I go. Every time I turn.
I check my mirrors constantly. I take turns slow because just like corn can spill, animals can stumble and fall over. I stop at red lights gradually. Learning to float gears on my own was super fun and helped me learn this! Not sarcasm. I really had so much fun teaching myself! I take off gradually. I’m okay with the car beside me taking off quickly and not feeling like I need to keep pace with them. I feel for an animal to stay perfectly still or take a little step to know if they can balance themselves well or if I need to be extra extra careful when stopping and going because maybe they are young or old and can’t counter their balance.
I am beyond lucky and grateful to get to drive the wonderful animals I do. I could not confidently do this job without having the experience I got when driving an old semi with a heavy load through a field. Messing up and learning from those mistakes. I still mess up and learn. And things still go wrong no matter how much I try to prepare for and prevent them. That turn signal ticket I got… I did not do an inspection on the truck & trailer that day. I do now though.
Me making a tight maneuver with my little trailer confidently in forwards & reverse… that’s because I took out a fence or mailbox with a semi and big grain trailer at one time. Everything I do in my business today comes from experiences I had when driving something bigger & heavier.
I don’t share a ton of personal posts on here. I try to keep it light with the cute animals I haul and trips I make. But I want you to be confident in me hauling your animals just as I am confident in myself. And now you know a tiny bit about me that you probably didn’t know before. 🤗
