Horses and trucks just go together. And, the more horses you have, the bigger your truck (and trailer) needs to be. Case in point \u2013 Johnny Barker III and his cool cabover Freightliner and matching nine-horse trailer. I first met Johnny of Malvern, PA at a truck show a few years back. Johnny had his father\u2019s Peterbilt 379 out at a show and I snapped a few photos of it and sent them to him via Facebook. We traded contact information and stayed in touch, and last summer we set up a time and date to shoot his classic horse-hauling combination.<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_0_placeholder\n
Johnny got his start hauling horses at a very young age. His parents were both professional horse trainers at the time on their horse farm in Virginia. Living on the horse farm gave Johnny the opportunity to not only learn to care for the horses, but also allowed him to learn to operate machinery and drive trucks. \u201cI\u2019ll never forget my first time hauling horses in a big truck when my dad and I were running out of Florida. I probably shouldn\u2019t say how old I was, but he turned to me and asked, \u201cYou ready?\u201d We swapped seats and I\u2019ve been rolling ever since!\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnny\u2019s truck pictured here is a 1988 Freightliner cabover. Powered by a Big Cam Cummins 350 mated to an RTX 9-speed, the truck is used to transport Johnny and his wife\u2019s horses. The truck was originally a Ryder truck based out of Florida, and then became a commercial horse hauler for a company named Southern Venture. The truck was eventually sold off from Southern Venture, making its way to a few private farms, before Johnny saw it in 2018 at the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, KY. As Johnny put it, \u201cThis truck was always destined to be a horse hauler.\u201d And he was right!<\/p>\n
The truck has been an ongoing work in progress over the last two years, with Johnny working on it here and there, when he has the time. The latest additions include watermelon lights with incandescent bulbs, because \u201cGlass is Class!\u201d He also recently installed unique bubble windows, in the shape of the old Plymouth logo, in the sides of the sleeper. Johnny has a few other plans for the COE, including more lights and pinstriping to finish out the exterior. The bunk is still in the process of being redone, as well as a few other details. Johnny\u2019s favorite things on the truck are the lights.<\/p>\n
The trailer is a 1989 Nine Horse Streamliner DeLuxe made by Branson Bodyworks in Bristol, Virginia. These trailers were all hand built and custom spec\u2019d to each owner\u2019s personal taste. The trailer was originally owned by a private farm in North Carolina, and later made its way to California, used by the Orange County Mounted Patrol to transport their horses. The trailer later made its way back to the East Coast. \u201cMy father and I spent about two years restoring the trailer to what it looks like now. The interior is made up of butcher block oak, oak plywood, and vinyl,\u201d Johnny says. According to him, the trailer is advertised as a 9-horse unit, but by today\u2019s standards, it\u2019s good for about six horses.<\/p>\n
The inspiration for this truck came from his father. Johnny said, \u201cMy dad taught me everything I know about horse hauling and driving trucks.\u201d Johnny grew up riding around in a nearly identical truck to this one, with that truck being a 1983 single axle cabover with a 9-speed and a Big Cam Cummins. \u201cI loved riding in the truck. I didn\u2019t care where we were going, I just wanted to ride! But there were plenty of times when I didn\u2019t even make it out of the driveway before I fell asleep. My dad loved to tell people I\u2019d fall asleep on the doghouse because I was too scared to get in the bunk,\u201d Johnny went on to tell me.<\/p>\n
When he isn\u2019t running his dad\u2019s Peterbilt 379 or his cabover, Johnny is piloting a truck for a commercial horse transportation company called Johnson Horse Transportation in Shartlesville, PA. Johnny met his wife through horses, and they currently live on a gorgeous horse farm in Malvern, PA. They share property with Johnny\u2019s father-in-law and now have quite a few horses of their own.<\/p>\n
We shot this combo (and bobtail) at two locations about a year apart. The first location was on an absolutely gorgeous horse farm right around the corner from Johnny\u2019s residence. The owner of the property was gracious enough to allow us to use it. The latest shoot, which was completed just a few weeks ago, was done on the beautiful horse farm Johnny lives on.<\/p>\n
Needless to say, the truck has a look all its own. It was luck, sheer luck, that brought the truck and trailer together, especially with the paint schemes being really close to matching. While it is still a work in progress, Johnny hopes to have it done in the not-so-distant future so he can finally sit back and enjoy it \u2013 and then start \u201chorsing around\u201d in style!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Horses and trucks just go together. And, the more horses you have, the bigger your truck (and trailer) needs to be. Case in point \u2013 Johnny Barker III and his cool cabover Freightliner and matching nine-horse trailer. I first met Johnny of Malvern, PA at a truck show a few years back. Johnny had his<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":27679,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-27668","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-special-features"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27668"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27682,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27668\/revisions\/27682"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}