When shoeing in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, it’s a fair bet you’re going to get wet. The region sees 179 days of precipitation during the year — averaging more than 60 inches of rain and 4 inches of snow. For the sake of comparison, the national average is 38 inches of rain.

Zach Morris lives and works in the Willamette Valley shoeing Arabian and half-Arabian show horses. That means spending time making and assembling padded plate packages. While three-door trailers are easy to get around, they aren’t effective at keeping him and his team dry while working.

“At any point, it’s raining sideways, the sun comes out and it’s raining sideways again,” says the Lyons, Ore., farrier. “We need a place to get out of the weather.”

Morris’ solution is a 12-foot customized Bloomer trailer with an 8 ½ feet long by 7 feet wide by 7 feet tall shoeing bay that’s hauled behind a Dodge Ram 3500 pickup.

Assembly Line Efficiency

Although staying out of the weather while putting together triple pad packages is important, the design of the workstation is critical for efficiency.

“When we’re putting pads on shoes, you start at the drill press in the front of the trailer,” he says. “Then we move to the vise where we rivet…