A horse trailer or horse van (also called a horse float in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

and

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

or horsebox in the

British Isles The British Isles are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Outer Hebr ...

) is used to transport

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. There are many different designs, ranging in size from small units capable of holding two or three horses, able to be pulled by a

pickup truck A pickup truck or pickup is a Truck_classification#Table_of_US_GVWR_classifications, light or medium duty truck that has an enclosed cabin (truck), cabin, and a back end made up of a cargo bed that is enclosed by three low walls with no roof (th ...

or SUV; to gooseneck designs that carry six to eight horses, usually pulled by 1-ton dually-style pickups. There are also large

semi-trailer A semi-trailer is a trailer (vehicle), trailer without a front axle. The combination of a semi-trailer and a tractor truck is called a ''semi-trailer truck'' (also known simply as a "semi-trailer", "tractor trailer", or "semi" in the United Sta ...

s that can haul a significant number of animals. In the UK, a horsebox may also refer to a motorised vehicle adapted to carry horses (generally known as a horse van in North America or

Australasia Australasia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising Australia, New Zealand (overlapping with Polynesia), and sometimes including New Guinea and surrounding islands (overlapping with Melanesia). The term is used in a number of different context ...

), or a railway vehicle specifically designed to carry horses. The least expensive type of trailer is the stock trailer, a trailer designed for cattle that is enclosed on the bottom but has slits at roughly the eye level of the animals to allow ventilation. Trailers designed specifically for horses are more elaborate. Because horses are usually hauled for the purpose of competition or work, where they must arrive in peak physical condition, horse trailers are designed for the comfort and safety of the animals. They usually have adjustable vents and windows as well as suspension designed to provide a smooth ride and less stress on the animals.

History

Highly valued race horses were originally transported by specially outfitted railroad cars, but this transport was difficult to use due to issues of scheduling and delays. In December 1918, ''

Popular Science Popular science (also called pop-science or popsci) is an interpretation of science intended for a general audience. While science journalism focuses on recent scientific developments, popular science is more broad ranging. It may be written ...

Monthly'' reported on a new concept for transporting racehorses in specially modified "Motor-Trucks" that eliminated these transport delays. In World War 1, horses were used with

infantry Infantry, or infantryman are a type of soldier who specialize in ground combat, typically fighting dismounted. Historically the term was used to describe foot soldiers, i.e. those who march and fight on foot. In modern usage, the term broadl ...

in France, and many were injured in the course of the war. If these animals could be transported back to animal hospitals, many could be saved. For this purpose, a special horse ambulance vehicle was developed which could be rotated so that horses could walk forward both onto and off of the ambulance truck.

Motorised horse boxes

Horseboxes (motorised) can vary in size, depending on the number and size of horses to be carried. In Europe, horseboxes are developed from vehicles ranging from gross vehicle weight, through to legal maximums of over . Some horse trailers are designed to contain human living accommodation, as competitions may involve staying at a venue for one or more nights. file:NYPD Mounted Unit truck Horses.jpg,

NYPD The City of New York Police Department, also referred to as New York City Police Department (NYPD), is the primary law enforcement agency within New York City. Established on May 23, 1845, the NYPD is the largest, and one of the oldest, munic ...

Mounted unit horsebox File:Mercedes Benz Ketterer Horsebox.JPG, Horsebox built by Ketterer Horse Trucks (Germany) on a Mercedes Benz chassis File:3.5t horsebox towing a horse trailer.JPG, A 3.5-tonne horsebox pulling a horse trailer in Sweden File:DAF horsebox and carriage trailer.jpg, A large DAF horsebox towing a trailer for carriages. Taken at the Royal Windsor Horse Show, 2011. File:LiAZ-4292 horse carrier (front view).jpg, LiAZ (Russia) bus based horse carrier in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

Layout and features

Access

In Europe, most motorised horseboxes will feature a single main ramp on the rear or to the side, though those with rear ramps may have a second smaller side ramp. Within the European Union, regulations dictate that a horsebox ramp (used for commercial transportation of horses) should be no steeper than 20°. It is also a requirement that the driver or other attendant be able to access the horse area without using the ramp. This is often achieved through fitting a small hatch or doorway (called a groom's door in the UK). Many smaller horse trailers, particularly towing and gooseneck models that hold two to four horses, do not feature ramps, either by having a low height floor or a demountable structure.

Horse stall dimensions and orientation

Horses can be transported facing the direction of travel (forward-facing), facing the opposite way of travel (rear-facing) or on the diagonal (herringbone). It is also said that horses need sufficient room to take one step in either direction, so as to better support their weight when the vehicle is in motion. Many American horse trailers have stalls which are slanted at about a 45-degree angle to the line of travel, this design is thought to be more natural to horses, as many times horses travel slightly canted to the line of travel when hauled in a stock trailer without dividers. It also has the benefit of being able to haul more horses in a shorter unit. Some scientific research has been done to establish in which position the horse is most comfortable. The bulk of research suggests that horse have reduced stress and fatigue when travelling backwards. Travelling forwards also has reduced stress compared with travelling sideways Sufficient headroom for horses must be provided, at least above the height of

withers Withers are the ridge between the shoulder blades of an animal, typically a quadruped. In many species, this ridge is the tallest point of the body. In horses and dogs, it is the standard place to measure the animal's height. In contrast, catt ...

Railway horse boxes

Horses were carried on the railways of the United Kingdom until 1972, using

rolling stock The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, Railroad car#Freight cars, freight and Passenger railroad car, passenger cars (or coaches) ...

known as horse boxes. These were often used to carry

racehorse Horse racing is an equestrian performance activity, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its bas ...

s between the parts of the country where the breeders and trainers were based, and the racecourses. Some railway-owned horse boxes were hired on a semi-permanent basis to racehorse trainers (such as

Frank Butters Frank Joseph Arthur Butters (1878–1957) was a racehorse trainer specialising in flat racing who trained in Austria, Italy and England in the first half of the 20th century. He trained for two of the most successful owner-breeders in British raci ...

) or owners (such as the Earl of Derby). They were conveyed either in small numbers attached to ordinary passenger trains, or special trains consisting of several horse boxes coupled together. A typical

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commis ...

horse box of the late 1950s had a body length of and a width of . In that space there was a section for three horses standing abreast, with padded dividers to prevent the horses from falling sideways; to the rear of the horses was a compartment for the storage of

straw Straw is an agricultural byproduct consisting of the dry wikt:stalk, stalks of cereal plants after the grain and chaff have been removed. It makes up about half of the crop yield, yield by weight of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, ry ...

bales; in front of the horses was a grooms' compartment with windows and coach bench-type seating; hatches in the partition between the horse compartment and the grooms' compartment allowed the grooms to feed and watch over the horses. Beyond the grooms' compartment, a passageway along one side led to a toilet, and also to a

fodder Fodder (), also called provender (), is any agriculture, agricultural foodstuff used specifically to feed domesticated livestock, such as cattle, domestic rabbit, rabbits, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs. "Fodder" refers particularly to food ...

compartment at the end of the vehicle. Each compartment, except the toilet, had external doors; the lower part of each horse compartment door was hinged horizontally, to form an access ramp. There were six windows: four in the grooms' compartment (two of these being droplights in the doors), one in the passageway and a

frosted glass Frosted glass is produced by the sandblasting or acid Glass etching, etching of clear sheet glass. This creates a pitted surface on one side of the glass pane and has the effect of rendering the glass translucent by scattering the light which ...

window in the toilet.

References

{{commonscat, Horse trailers Trailer Livestock transportation vehicles Trailers