how did you do it?  We have a very nice elite 3 horse living quarters horse trailer with a 12 short wall and it is time to down size. My hubby doesn't want to trail ride and camp any more but I still trail ride and have granddaughters ( 7 yrs and under) which I hope will ride. I would like to come out money head.

I don’t know but I am wanting to do the same. We have a 17ft LQ with all the bells and whistles but it’s WAY bigger than I am comfortable hauling, it’s hell to get in and out our one lane dead end road and horse shoe drive way, and hubby never goes anywhere with me. I am trying to find something I can use as an everyday run around trailer, get in and out of places easy but has the necessities. I am finding it really hard to find a decent small LQ! If you find something let me know! 

I don’t imagine it’s much different than upsizing...figure out what you truly need and what your list of must haves is and find it.

Personally I prefer to deal with dealers who’ve had them through the shop etc if you’re looking to buy used.  And you could potentially get into a smaller trailer very affordably if you’ve got good equity in your bigger one.

its at least worth going to a bigger dealer lot and walking through smaller trailers so you know what you want, IMO.  It’ll be years if not more than a decade before we need to swap out of ours - but I love crawling through trailers, the newer floor plans are amazing!  I like ours, but if I ever had to gut it we’d change some things up.  

One thing I want next time for sure - stairs to the bed in the nose.  I have 1 step now and my mattress comes completely to the edge of the nose.  It’s a struggle to get up there some days.

i know theyre harder to find sometimes in smaller shortwalls, but I’ve always had a dinette set over a couch.  I like the extra “counter space” in the table and having a place it sit and eat in the AC is nice, or play cards during a rainstorm.  That’s just my preference.  I would stay with 8’ wide for sure, you’ll really miss the extra width when the length goes down.

I have a 3H with 8' LQ. It has everything I need and its small enough to run around locally in.

I just UPsized in a major way.. went from 3 horse with 6ft SW to a 4 horse 14ft SW... I'm scared lol! I've yet to pull it. I will be pulling it for the first time Sunday to drop off a horse to the trainer.. his place can be a little tricky to get into but it's super easy to turn around in there, hes got plenty of room for that. I love our trailer but that sucker is gigantic to me now... gotta learn all over again 

What’s the total length and what brand is yours?

I believe its 23 or 24' on the floor.

My trailer is a 2004 Exiss. People will tell you to stay away from those but I've had it going on 5 years and no issues with it other then general maintenance.

Yeah I have heard that a lot on here but Exiss and Lakota seem to be some of the only small LQ available where I am and there are three Exiss dealers and one Lakota dealer and that’s about it. Used is proving very difficult to find and I am seeing mostly those two brands at every race I am at here locally.

I am hoping to stay under 20ft floor length mostly for ease of getting down my one lane dead end road and through my horseshoe driveway. We have two big horses and a mini horse. Mostly I haul one horse, sometimes a second for my son to ride but I would like the option of hauling all three on the occasion we go on a trail ride with my husband as well. I am thinking a 2 horse collapsing tack may provide the hauling space for the mini on the rare occasions we haul 3 and works well for most of the time we only haul one or two. Then I could do a little larger LQ. Or I could do a 3 horse smaller LQ and have the extra storage of the first stall and easily haul the mini when needed. I am thinking we need one that doesn’t have a cowboy shower so might have to do a 2 horse to stay at the length I want

There is a super cute 3 horse Hart with a sharp 6ft short wall on here for sale, now.  It is in Montana.