A postilion or postillion is a person who rides a harnessed horse that is pulling a horse-drawn vehicle such as a

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of Athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

, rather than driving from behind as a

coachman A coachman is a person who drives a Coach (carriage), coach or carriage, or similar horse-drawn vehicle. A coachman has also been called a coachee, coachy, whip, or hackman. The coachman's first concern is to remain in full control of the hors ...

does. This method is used for pulling wheeled vehicles that do not have a driver's seat, such as many ceremonial

state coach A state coach, also known as a gala coach, is a highly decorative ceremonial Coach (carriage), coach used in Europe by a monarch or head of state on state occasions. A four-wheeled vehicle for four passengers, it may be drawn at a walk by six o ...

es and artillery

limbers and caissons A limber is a two-wheeled cart designed to support the trail of an artillery piece, or the stock of a field carriage such as a caisson or traveling forge, allowing it to be towed. The trail is the hinder end of the stock of a gun-carriage, whi ...

. Postilion riders are generally arranged one rider for each pair of horses, riding the left horse. Originally the English name for a guide or forerunner for the post (mail) or a messenger, it became transferred to the actual

mail carrier A mail carrier, also referred to as a mailman, mailwoman, mailperson, postal carrier, postman, postwoman, postperson, person of post, letter carrier (in American English), or colloquially postie (in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Unite ...

or messenger and also to a person who rides a (hired) post horse. The same persons made themselves available as a less expensive alternative to hiring a coachman, particularly for light, fast vehicles. A carriage or coach that was arranged without a driver's seat and intended for guidance by postilions, had appended, such as "coach à la Daumont". Daumont is a corruption of the French from the 8th

Duke of Aumont Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ...

who preferred this manner of travel.

Mount

Postilions ride the left or nearsideBecause horses are mounted from the horse's left side (the horse prefers no surprises) that side is nearest to the rider. The postilion rides the left horse of the pair because there is no access to the right-hand horse from its left-hand side. mount because horses are mounted from the left. With a double team there could be two postilions, one for each pair, or, especially in France, one postilion would ride on the left wheel (rear) horse in order to control all four horses.

Livery

Purposes

* Privacy for passengers in their conversations. * Better control of the horses, for example, when moving guns at high speed on a battlefield. * Extravagant display by their noble owner, as when attending a state occasion. The display might extend to liveried men walking on foot beside each horse.

Travel by post

This style of travel was known as "posting". The postilions and their horses (known as "post-horses") would be hired from a "postmaster" at a "post house". The carriage would travel from one post house to the next (a journey known as a "stage"), where the postilions and/or spent (exhausted) horses could be replaced if necessary. In practice unless a return hire was anticipated a postilion of a spent team frequently was also responsible for returning them to the originating post house. Posting was once common both in England and in continental Europe. In addition to a carriage's obvious advantages (a degree of safety and shelter for the inside passengers and accessibility to non-riders) on long trips it tended to be the most rapid form of passenger travel. Individually mounted riders are subject to their personal endurance limits, while posting could continue indefinitely with brief stops for fresh horses and crew. In England, posting declined once

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

s became an alternative method of transport, but it remained popular in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and other countries.

Artillery

The gun detachments of the

King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery The King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery, is a ceremonial unit of the British Army, quartered at Woolwich. It is a mounted unit and all of its soldiers are trained to care for and drive teams of six horses, each team pulling a First World War-e ...

are each driven by a team of three post riders. The King's Troop is a ceremonial unit equipped with World War I veteran 13-pounder field guns drawn by six horses in much the same configuration as the guns of the 19th and early 20th century would have been. Officers and senior non-commissioned officers ride separately. The United States Army's Old Guard Caisson Platoon also rides postilion. The section sergeant, on a separate horse, is in charge of the team and there are six other horses teamed together. This configuration is used at

Arlington National Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery is the largest cemetery in the United States National Cemetery System, one of two maintained by the United States Army. More than 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington County, Virginia. ...

Derivative terminology and use

To adapt to the rigours of horses traveling long distances at a

trot The trot is a two-beat diagonal horse gait where the diagonal pairs of legs move forward at the same time with a moment of suspension between each beat. It has a wide variation in possible speeds, but averages about . A very slow trot is som ...

, postillion riders adapted a method of rising and falling with the rhythm of the horse's

gait Gait is the pattern of Motion (physics), movement of the limb (anatomy), limbs of animals, including Gait (human), humans, during Animal locomotion, locomotion over a solid substrate. Most animals use a variety of gaits, selecting gait based on s ...

and given the name "posting" or "posting to the trot."

Notes

References

{{Horse-drawn carriages Road transport Horse driving Coaches (carriage)