Stuck on trucks

I think the time has come to buy a real truck. I've been putting it off for two years, thinking some day, but not yet. We don't really need it...not yet. 

Well, yet has arrived. Yet arrived unexpectedly in the form of a mini-gelding named Minimi, who I am henceforth going to call Truck. You'll see why. Truck lives, for a few more weeks, at the barn where the 11-year-old 12-year-old rides. This barn owner and I have a lot in common, in that strays and other wayward creatures tend to find us and make us their own. Truck, the mini, found the barn owner by running down the road, loose, in front of her property one day several years ago. Nobody claimed Truck, so my barn owner grabbed him, gelded him (She thinks he was 18 at the time. He is one of the ugliest ponies I've ever seen, so not at all sure what his owners were thinking), and stuck him in a stall. He's lived amongst her warmbloods and boarders' ponies ever since.

Recently, she found herself short one stall. She asked if I'd consider taking Truck to our place, to live with all the wayward ponies in our home barn. To sweeten the deal, she will give us half off the board on the 12-year-old's boarded pony. That works out to just about the price of one truck payment every month. Well, a used truck payment maybe.

New truck must be able to haul this relic of a  trailer.

So, I am learning about trucks and trailers. Half-ton, 3/4 ton, load ratings, etc.. Oy. Here in the heartland, everybody drives a Ford. I tried a couple out. They were fine, but didn't really wow me. Then I tried some Chevys. They were fine too, but I still couldn't pull the trigger. I tried a Toyota that I loved, but I don't think it will haul our old steel, 3-slant trailer, so I'll have to pass on that one too.

Geez.

The problem is, of course, that pickups cost a lot of money, even if they are subsidized by a gelding named Truck. Pulling the trigger is going to be hard, but I do believe it's time. No more hay and lumber deliveries for me. I can haul it home myself, thank you.