I recently moved to Virginia and have decided I will have to have my own horse trailer. Never had one before and I've never had a truck. I only need a two-horse trailer, but it has to be a "big horse" two-horse for my draft pony. I am leaning toward a bumper-pull hitch.

The truck I'm considering is a used F250 4WD "super duty" with a 5.4L gas engine, automatic transmission, 8' bed. It's a 2001 with 64K miiles. This part of Virginia has rolling land and gravel roads, but I don't expect to be in the mountains. Though I would not plan to be out in lousy weather, I could also run into snow or sleet. The truck would almost never be used except for towing, but the trips would generally be local (less than 25 miles each way).

Is this truck gonna do the job?

That's the base engine, and it should pull a 2 horse say 8000 # loaded trailer OK. If it has a 4.10 axle it would be better. There is an axle code in the safety sticker in the drivers door frame. Take that code to a Ford service center and decifer the code.

I will look for the code. I believe these trucks were sold with a 3.73 axle as standard equipment in 2001.

That sounds right, 4.10 was an option. The 6.8L gas engine went as low as 4.30.

3.73 it is (mechanic called Ford to confirm). Mechanic also said what you point out, 4.10 was an option.

Hitch and ball are rated at 10K lbs.

The trailer I am looking at has an empty weight of 3,800 lbs and my horse is estimated by the vet to weigh 1,500 lbs. The other horse I am likely to tow from time to time is somewhat lighter, so I call the total load around 6,600, including tack and miscellaneous other stuff.

Looks like this arrangement ought to be OK.