On the trip to Stepping Stone Farm there are two turns I hate. Deal with or avoid? Overall, the trip is easy. It is less than 20 miles on low-traveled, country back roads. There is one stoplight.
The first turn I hate is at a T-intersection on the way to the barn. Traffic from the right is on a curve. Not a bad curve nor a blind curve, but a curve none the less. A driver at a moderate speed and/or a driver paying attention would have no trouble seeing me pull out.
At the stop sign. I stop. I look. I roll down the passenger window to listen for oncoming traffic. This works when I am driving the truck by itself. With the trailer, it takes so long to get moving off the slight hill, that a car has time to come around the turn. At which point, I either keep going and hope they stop OR stop in the middle of the intersection and hope any traffic from the left can stop in time. Neither is a good option. The alternative is to go down the road to turn at a nice, open 4-way stop. The detour is 1.3 miles.
The second turn is into our driveway. We have to swing wide to avoid putting trailer wheel in the roadside ditch. This puts the truck and trailer in the oncoming lane briefly. As above, there is a moderate curve. To avoid this, I go around the block so that I can turn left into the driveway. This way, the turn is already wide. The traffic behind you knows about you. The traffic in front can see you. The detour is 2.5 miles.
Although the mileage is short, the detours feel long because I have left the direct path. Am I being a weenie? OTOH, what is a few minutes to avoid an accident? Then again, if I go a few miles/minutes for a better route, what is the limit? 5 miles? 10? 20? There may come a time when I can’t avoid a tricky bit of driving. Should I learn to cope now?
Thank you for reading & advising,
Katherine Walcott
Virtual Brush Box 
While the likelihood of an accident is low, the risk of damage is high if it does occur.
As with children, horses depend on your wisdom. If anything happened to one, a horse or a child, on my watch, I would be devastated. If you were risking your own life and limb, I’d say depends on how you feel that day. But you have another soul to protect. Could you live with yourself if you hurt your horse?
Being careful is not being a wimp. It’s being considerate.
Take the time.
I think your mental peace of mind far outweighs any minor inconveniences. We are past (or fast approaching) the age where the idea of having to feel like a weenie for making smart choices has overstayed it’s welcome. Give yourself permission to do whatever feels best to you in the moment, and carry on.
What she said.
One of my previous barns the driveway was best approached from one direction and definitely not the other. Sometimes I felt grumpy driving around to get to the better approach, but trailering is an exercise in patience anyway and I never regretted taking the extra moments esp considering it reduced my overall stress.
Ah, but the weenie flogging stick is strong.