If you take pride in your trailer, you tell the world you take pride in your work. That’s a lesson Eric Billingsley has learned over his nearly 30-year shoeing career.

“Whether I shoe horses well or not, people look at this rig and assume that I can shoe horses,” jokes the Phoenix, Ariz., farrier.

After more than 20 years shoeing out of the same rig, the 4-Star goose-neck trailer in Billingsley’s driveway continues to provide the efficiency and dependability that is critical to his success as a horseshoer and businessman.

He purchased the rig, which is pulled by a 2003 Dodge 3/4-ton flatbed pickup truck, as an empty shell after the frame on his previous rig broke as a result of overloading. Billingsley was trying to weld his way out of that dilemma when his wife, Leigh Ann, asked him a pivotal question.

“She said, ‘Why don’t you just get a new rig?’” Billingsley recalls. “I said, ‘I didn’t know that was an option.’”

Billingsley took inspiration for his rig setup, which he designed himself, from the inefficiencies he identified in his previous workspace, as well as setups he observed when riding with other farriers. The hilly terrain and barn locations that encompass his 100-mile-radius service area were also considerations.

“I knew I wanted to…