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This was Joker B's Trailer
SOLD!
Joker B -- The very famous appaloosa stallion from the 1950s and 60s
Yes, I'm almost giving away this nice old horse trailer. Joker B used it for many years, and later I used it to go to endurance and competitive trail rides for quite a few years. When my horse died I kept this trailer for a long time, always intending to keep it, just in case I ever got another horse.
I wouldn't even have known it used to belong to Joker B if there hadn't been a problem with the registration when I bought it in early 1987.
The guy I bought it from had gotten it from the original owners, Mr and Mrs Benoist (pronounced ben-wa) but while he had the registration transfer "pink slip" it had never been signed by the Benoists, and he had never tried to register it.
So he phoned them, and asked if I could go to their house in Long Beach, about 15 or 20 miles away, and have them sign it. They agreed, and said they would be waiting for me.
This is where the story gets a bit silly. I went to the address that was on the pink slip, never thinking that it was the address they lived at when they originally registered the trailer in 1950 . So when I got to the address and went to the door, the woman who answered the door was quite alarmed, and told me she had never heard of them. I still wasn't thinking, and insisted this was the correct address.
It gets sillier. I then went to a phone booth, looked in the directory and found their phone number. I called and they didn't answer. So I left them a message on their answering machine, saying I was at the phone booth, and telling them the number there, so they could call me back and tell me their address. 
So I waited and waited, and then I thought maybe I had called the wrong number, so I got the book again, and looked harder, and then the "lightbulb" went off. Their address was in the book too, right next to the phone number. So I got out my map, and found I was just a short distance from the house, so off I went.
When I finally got to the house, I found them a charming old couple, but both were clearly in poor health. They had a hospital bed in the living room, for him I assumed, as she was the one who showed me around, while he stayed in his chair.
She took me to the special room they had set up all about Joker B. It had trophies, framed magazine covers, a saddle or two, and in the center of the wall a huge picture of Joker B. What a beautiful appaloosa!
Not wanting to look too stupid, I sort of pretended that I knew all along they were the ones who had owned and promoted Joker B. She told me all about their times with him, and she told me about how they'd had the trailer custom made for him, and how they went to the place in Compton every day to watch it being built.
So now I don't have a horse, and the trailer has been just sitting out in the weather since 1996, getting older. For a couple of years we used it to hold up a sagging fence, but the fence was replaced a long time ago. I'm storing some things in it that I would probably be better off throwing away, but as long as I have the trailer it's easier to just leave the things in it.
I'm sure there is someone out there who would really like to have this trailer, both because it was really well built (they don't make them like that anymore) and because it has a special sentimental value because of its history.
The person who takes this trailer will be responsible for getting it out of my former husband's driveway without doing any damage to the property. It won't be terribly difficult, but there's not much room to maneuver.
4/27/2006 - New pictures taken today!
The trailer is in Southern California. Rancho Palos Verdes, in Los Angeles County.
Donna@Shady-Acres.com
Note: Sometimes my email doesn't get to me. If you email me and I don't reply, please assume I didn't get it and try again.