horse-drawn vehicle
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

A horse-drawn vehicle is a piece of equipment pulled by one or more horses. These vehicles typically have two or four wheels and were used to carry passengers or a load. They were once common worldwide, but they have mostly been replaced by
automobile A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, peopl ...
s and other forms of self-propelled transport but are still in use today.


General

Horses were domesticated circa 2000 BCE. Before that oxen were used. Historically, a wide variety of arrangements of horses and vehicles have been used, from
chariot racing Chariot racing (, ''harmatodromía''; ) was one of the most popular Ancient Greece, ancient Greek, Roman Empire, Roman, and Byzantine Empire, Byzantine sports. In Greece, chariot racing played an essential role in aristocratic funeral games from ...
, which involved a small vehicle and four horses abreast, to
horsecar A horsecar, horse-drawn tram, horse-drawn streetcar (U.S.), or horse-drawn railway (historical), is a tram or streetcar pulled by a horse. Summary The horse-drawn tram (horsecar) was an early form of public transport, public rail transport, ...
s or trollies, which used two horses to pull a car that was used in cities before electric
tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...
s were developed. A two-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle is a cart (see various types below, both for carrying people and for goods). Four-wheeled vehicles have many names – one for heavy loads is most commonly called a
wagon A wagon (or waggon) is a heavy four-wheeled vehicle pulled by Working animal#Draft animals, draft animals or on occasion by humans, used for transporting goods, commodities, agricultural materials, supplies and sometimes people. Wagons are i ...
. Very light carts and wagons can also be pulled by donkeys (much smaller than
horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 mi ...
s), ponies or mules. Other smaller animals are occasionally used, such as large dogs,
llama The llama (; or ) (''Lama glama'') is a domesticated South American camelid, widely used as a List of meat animals, meat and pack animal by Inca empire, Andean cultures since the pre-Columbian era. Llamas are social animals and live with ...
s and
goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a species of Caprinae, goat-antelope that is mostly kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the ...
s (see
draught animal A working animal is an animal, usually domesticated, that is kept by humans and trained to perform tasks. Some are used for their physical strength (e.g. oxen and draft horses) or for transportation (e.g. riding horses and camels), while ot ...
s). Heavy wagons, carts and agricultural implements can also be pulled by other large
draught animal A working animal is an animal, usually domesticated, that is kept by humans and trained to perform tasks. Some are used for their physical strength (e.g. oxen and draft horses) or for transportation (e.g. riding horses and camels), while ot ...
s such as oxen, water buffalo, yaks or even camels and
elephant Elephants are the largest living land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant ('' Loxodonta africana''), the African forest elephant (''L. cyclotis''), and the Asian elephant ('' Elephas maximus ...
s. Vehicles pulled by one animal (or by animals in a single file) have two ''shafts'' that attach either side of the rearmost animal (the ''wheel'' animal or ''wheeler''). Two animals in single file are referred to as a ''
tandem Tandem, or in tandem, is an arrangement in which two or more animals, machines, or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction. ''Tandem'' can also be used more generally to refer to any group of persons or objects w ...
'' arrangement, and three as a ''randem''. Vehicles that are pulled by a pair (or by a
team A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal. As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interdependent with respect to in ...
of several pairs) have a ''pole'' that attaches between the wheel pair. Other arrangements are also possible, for example, three or more abreast (a '' troika''), a wheel pair with a single lead animal (a "unicorn"), or a wheel pair with three lead animals abreast (a "pickaxe"). Very heavy loads sometimes had an additional team behind to slow the vehicle down steep hills. Sometimes at a steep hill with frequent traffic, such a team would be hired to passing wagons to help them up or down the hill. Horse-drawn carriages have been in use for at least 3,500 years. Two-wheeled vehicles are balanced by the distribution of weight of the load (driver, passengers, and goods) over the axle, and then held level by the animal – this means that the shafts (or sometimes a pole for two animals) must be fixed rigidly to the vehicle's body. Four-wheeled vehicles remain level on their own, and so the shafts or pole are hinged vertically, allowing them to rise and fall with the movement of the animals. A four-wheeled vehicle is also steered by the shafts or pole, which are attached to the front axle; this swivels on a ''turntable'' or "fifth wheel" beneath the vehicle. From the 15th century drivers of carts were known as carmen, and in London were represented by the Worshipful Company of Carmen. In 1890 there were 13,800 companies in the United States in the business of building carriages pulled by horses. By 1920, only 90 such companies remained.


Basic types

File:Driving Competion (3716743220).jpg, Cart - Two wheels, one horse File:Horse driving at Stiegl 2011 11.jpg, Carriage - Four wheels File:Pair of percherons.jpg, Wagon - Four wheels, agricultural or delivery File:Final Judging of the Coaching Marathon (3716748680) (cropped).jpg, Coach - Multiple passengers and horses File:London omnibus in 1865.jpg, Omnibus - Urban transport for numerous passengers


Passenger vehicles

* Barouche: an elegant, high-slung, open carriage with a seat in the rear of the body and a raised bench at the front for the driver, a servant. *
Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
: A four-wheeled covered carriage developed in the 17th century. * Brake: Originally ''break'', a heavy four-wheeled carriage frame for breaking horses, later several passenger vehicles built on the same framework and size. * Britzka: A long, spacious carriage of four wheels, pulled by two horses. * Brougham: A specific, light four-wheeled carriage, circa mid-19th century. * Buckboard: A very simple four-wheeled wagon, circa the early 19th century. * Buggy: a light, open, four-wheeled carriage, often driven by its owner. * Cabriolet: A two-wheel carriage with a folding hood. * Calash or Calèshe: see ''barouche'': A four-wheeled, shallow vehicle with two double seats inside, arranged vis-à-vis so that the sitters on the front seat faced those on the back seat. * Cape cart: A two-wheeled four-seater carriage drawn by two horses and formerly used in South Africa. * Cariole: A light, small, two- or four-wheeled vehicle, open or covered, drawn by a single horse. *
Carriage A carriage is a two- or four-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle for passengers. In Europe they were a common mode of transport for the wealthy during the Roman Empire, and then again from around 1600 until they were replaced by the motor car around 1 ...
: in the late eighteenth century, roughly equivalent to the modern word "vehicle" alker It later came to be restricted to "passenger vehicle" and even to "private, enclosed passenger vehicle" ritannica This last is the sense adopted by the linked article. * Carryall: A type of carriage used in the United States in the 19th century. It is a light, four-wheeled vehicle, usually drawn by a single horse and with seats for four or more passengers. * Chaise: A light two- or four-wheeled traveling or pleasure carriage, with a folding hood or calash top for one or two people. * Charabanc: A larger wagon pulled by multiple horses. * Cidomo: a form of horse-drawn carriage popular in the
Lesser Sunda Islands The Lesser Sunda Islands (, , ), now known as Nusa Tenggara Islands (, or "Southeast Islands"), are an archipelago in the Indonesian archipelago. Most of the Lesser Sunda Islands are located within the Wallacea region, except for the Bali pro ...
of
Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...
. * Clarence: A closed, four-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle with a projecting glass front and seats for four passengers inside. * Coach: A large, usually closed, four-wheeled carriage with two or more horses harnessed as a team, controlled by a coachman. * Coupé: The horse-drawn carriage equivalent of a modern coupe automobile. * Curricle: A smart, light two-wheeled chaise or "chariot", large enough for the driver and a passenger and usually drawn by a carefully matched pair of horses. * Diligence: a French stagecoach. The 19th-century ones came in three sizes, ''La petite diligence'', ''La grande diligence'' and ''L'impériale''. * Dog cart: a sprung cart used for transporting a gentleman, his loader, and his gun dogs. * Dos-à-dos * Drag: a coach used for pleasure or driving clubs (after the era of coaches for mail and passenger transport) * Droshky or Drozhki: A low, four-wheeled open carriage used especially in Russia. * Equipage * Ekka: a one-horse cart of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. * Fiacre: A form of hackney coach, a horse-drawn four-wheeled carriage for hire. * Fly: A horse-drawn public coach or delivery wagon, especially one let out for hire. * Four-in-hand coach * Gharry: A horse-drawn cab especially used in India. * Gig: A high two-wheeled carriage pulled by one horse. * Governess cart: a sprung cart with two inward-facing benches, high sides and entry at the back. The upper part of the body was often of wicker. * Growler: the four-wheeled version of a hansom cab * Horsebus * Hackney carriage: A carriage for hire, especially in London. * Hansom cab: a one-horsed, two-wheeled, maneuverable public hire vehicle. * Herdic: A specific type of horse-drawn carriage, used as an omnibus. * Jaunting car: a sprung cart in which passengers sat back to back with their feet outboard of the wheels. * Karozzin: a traditional Maltese carriage drawn by one horse or a pair * Kid hack: a van used in the US for carrying children to and from school. * Landau: A low-shelled, luxury, convertible carriage. * Mail coach: A stagecoach primarily for the carriage of mail, though also carrying passengers. * Meadowbrook cart: An unpainted (natural wood) cart * Omnibus * One-horse shay: a light, covered, two-wheeled carriage for two persons, drawn by a single horse. * Phaeton: a light-weight horse-drawn open carriage (usually with two seats); or an early-nineteenth-century sports car * Post chaise: A fast carriage for traveling post in the 18th and early 19th centuries. * Ralli car: a light two-wheeled sprung cart ( gig) with two forward-facing and two rear-facing seats back-to-back, and a sliding fore-and-aft seat adjustment to allow the vehicle to balance with different numbers of passengers. * Rockaway: A term applied to two types of carriage: a light, low, United States four-wheel carriage with a fixed top and open sides that may be covered by waterproof curtains, and a heavy carriage enclosed at sides and rear, with a door on each side. * Sleigh: a vehicle with runners for use in snow * Sprung cart: a light, two-wheeled vehicle with springing, for informal passenger use. Its name varied according to the body mounted on it. See dog cart, gig, governess cart, jaunting car, and trap. * Stagecoach: a public coach traveling in timetabled stages between stables that supply fresh horses. * Stanhope Gig: a light, open, one-seated carriage: originally with two wheels, later also with four. * State coach: a highly decorative ceremonial coach used by a monarch or head of state on state occasions. * Sulky: a very light two-wheeled cart for one person, especially used for harness racing. *
Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...
: A popular American doorless, four-wheeled carriage of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, usually two seated for four passengers. * Tanga: a light horse-drawn carriage used for transportation in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. * Tarantass or Tarantas: A Russian four-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle on a long longitudinal frame. *
Tilbury Tilbury is a port town in the borough of Thurrock, Essex, England. The present town was established as separate settlement in the late 19th century, on land that was mainly part of Chadwell St Mary. It contains a Tilbury Fort, 16th century fort ...
: A light, open, two-wheeled carriage, with or without a top * Trap: an open sprung cart. Often used in a general sense to cover any small passenger-carrying cart. * Troika: a sleigh drawn by three horses harnessed abreast. Occasionally, a similar wheeled vehicle. * Vardo: a traditional horse-drawn wagon used by English Romani Gypsies. * Victoria: a one-horse carriage with a front-facing bench seat. The body was slung low, in front of the back axle. Driven by a servant. * Vis-à-vis: Refers to the seating arrangement, with a rear seat facing forward and the forward seat facing to the rear. * Wagonette: a four-wheeled vehicle for carrying people, usually with a forward-facing seat at the front and two rows of inward-facing seats behind.


Load carrying vehicles

* Bow wagon: A simple agricultural wagon with laths bowed over the wheels in the manner of mudguards, to keep bulky loads such as straw from contact with them. An Australian design. * Cart: Particularly in Australia and New Zealand, an un-sprung cart. In Britain, even in the 18th century, the name came to be associated with brewers' deliveries so that the later vehicle that was more correctly called a trolley also came to be known as a ''brewer's dray''. These are still seen at horse shows in Britain. :Also a sledge used for moving felled trees in the same way as the wheeled skidder. (See implements, below). It could be used in woodland, apparently with or without snow, but was useful on frozen lakes and waterways. ED* Chasse-marée: A four-horse adaptation of the cart principle for the rapid delivery of fish to French markets. * Chuckwagon: a wagon working as a field kitchen. * Conestoga wagon: A large, curved-bottom wagon for carrying commercial or government freight. * Covered wagon: the name given to canvas-topped farm wagons used by North American settlers to move both their families and household goods westward. Varieties of this wagon include the ''Conestoga wagon'' (larger wagons able to carry large amounts of goods and primarily used on flat trails, for example, the Santa Fe Trail) and ''prairie schooner'' (smaller wagons more suited for mountainous regions, for example, the Oregon and California Trails). * Float: A light, two-wheeled domestic delivery vehicle with the centre of its axle cranked downward to allow low loading and easy access to the goods. It was used particularly for milk delivery. * Lorry: A low-loading platform body with four small wheels mounted underneath it. The driver's seat was mounted on the headboard. * Pantechnicon van: Originally, a van used by The Pantechnicon for delivering goods to its customers. * Telega: A Russian wagon, crudely made, usually unsprung. * Travois: An A-frame of poles, its apex resting on the back of the horse and dragged on the ground behind it; the space between the poles bridged to carry a small load. * Trolley: Like a lorry, but with slightly larger wheels and a slightly higher deck. The driver's seat was mounted on the headboard. * Trolley and lift van: A standardized trolley and a lift van, a standardized box, designed to fit each other or any other of the same sort. The lift van was the direct counterpart of the modern container in the materials and size appropriate to its time. * Un-sprung cart: A simple two-wheeled vehicle for workaday use in carrying bulk loads. It was usually drawn by one horse. *
Wagon A wagon (or waggon) is a heavy four-wheeled vehicle pulled by Working animal#Draft animals, draft animals or on occasion by humans, used for transporting goods, commodities, agricultural materials, supplies and sometimes people. Wagons are i ...
: a four-wheeled vehicle for transport of goods * Wain: Early English name for a wagon, especially those used in farm work.


Vehicles on rails

*
Wagonways A wagonway (or waggonway; also known as a horse-drawn railway, or horse-drawn railroad) was a method of rail transport, railway transportation that preceded the steam locomotive and used horses to haul wagons. The terms plateway and tramway (indu ...
: horse-drawn trains *
Horsecar A horsecar, horse-drawn tram, horse-drawn streetcar (U.S.), or horse-drawn railway (historical), is a tram or streetcar pulled by a horse. Summary The horse-drawn tram (horsecar) was an early form of public transport, public rail transport, ...
or ''streetcar'' (US) or ''tram'' (outside the US): public transport vehicle on rails * Slate waggon or ''slab waggon'' or ''rubbish wagon'': a small four-wheeled rail car for carrying blocks of slate out of a
quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mining, open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock (geology), rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some juri ...
* Dandy waggon or ''dandy cart'': an additional small rail car added to a gravity train to transport the horse downhill, after which the horse would pull the line of cars (often slate waggons) back up the hill.


Vehicles on water

* Horse-drawn boat: a general term relating to broad or narrow canal boats for passenger or freight carriage *
Narrowboat A narrowboat is a particular type of Barge, canal boat, built to fit the narrow History of the British canal system, locks of the United Kingdom. The UK's canal system provided a nationwide transport network during the Industrial Revolution, b ...
and widebeam boats: pulled by a single horse walking on the towpath adjacent to UK canals * Flyboat: a boat operated on the UK canals pulled by a running horse along a stretch without locks, causing a shallow boat to plane across the water * Trekschuit: (Netherlands) boat on tow-canals used to transport people between cities * Horse ferry: a horse-powered ferry


Agricultural and other implements

* Harrow *
Hay rake A hay rake is an agricultural rake (tool), rake used to collect cut hay or straw into windrows for later collection (e.g. by a baler or a loader wagon). It is also designed to fluff up the hay and turn it over so that it may dry. It is also use ...
* Manure spreader *
Plough A plough or ( US) plow (both pronounced ) is a farm tool for loosening or turning the soil before sowing seed or planting. Ploughs were traditionally drawn by oxen and horses but modern ploughs are drawn by tractors. A plough may have a wooden ...
or plow * Potato spinner * Reaper * Reaper-binder * Seed drill *
Skidder A skidder is any type of heavy vehicle used in a logging operation for pulling cut timber, trees out of a forest in a process called "skidding", in which the logs are transported from the cutting site to a landing. There they are loaded onto t ...
* Snowplow * Thresher


War vehicles

* Chariot ** Ratha - an ancient Indo-Iranian chariot. ** Scythed chariot * Gun carriage * Horse artillery * Limbers and caissons * Tachanka * War wagon


See also

* Cart * Combined driving *
Draft horse A draft horse (US) or draught horse (UK), also known as dray horse, carthorse, work horse or heavy horse, is a large horse bred to be a working animal hauling freight and doing heavy agricultural tasks such as plowing. There are a number o ...
* Municipal horse *
Driving (horse) Driving means guiding a horse in Horse harness, harness to pull a load such as a horse-drawn vehicle, a farm implement, or other load. Horses, pony, ponies, donkeys, mules, and Working animal#Draft animals, other animals can be driven. Typica ...
* Guard stone *
Horse harness A horse harness is a device that connects a horse to a horse-drawn vehicle or another type of load to pull. There are two main designs of horse harness: (1) the Breastplate (tack)#Harness, breast collar or breaststrap, and (2) the Horse collar, ...
* Naturmobil *
Wagon A wagon (or waggon) is a heavy four-wheeled vehicle pulled by Working animal#Draft animals, draft animals or on occasion by humans, used for transporting goods, commodities, agricultural materials, supplies and sometimes people. Wagons are i ...


Notes


References


Citations


Sources

* ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' (1960) * Ingram, A. ''Horse-Drawn Vehicles Since 1760'' (1977) * Oxford English Dictionary (1971 & 1987) * Walker, J. ''A Critical Pronouncing Dictionary and Expositor of the English Language'' (1791)


External links


The oldest surviving horse drawn tramway operating in Douglas on the Isle of Man

Articles about Horse-drawn Carriages
{{Authority control Animal-powered vehicles Horse driving Wagons