Horse boxes

Man of Honour
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17 Oct 2002
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Is there a more erratically driven menace on our roads than these things?

The perfect storm of what is usually a commercial sized vehicle driven mostly by hobbyists :eek:
 
I have always wondered why there are so many of them too. No matter what day of the week it is or where i am traveling to i will see a horse box. Where are all these horses going?
 
See lots of them around here. Don't usually find them driven erratically, but they are irritating when you get caught behind them.

I have always wondered why there are so many of them too. No matter what day of the week it is or where i am traveling to i will see a horse box. Where are all these horses going?

To shows, cross country events, etc etc.

My girlfriend is a horsist. She wants to get our X-Trail fitted with a tow bar so she can eventually tow her horse to such events.

I'm dreading it.
 
Horse box trailers. Usually all over the place on roundabouts before going too quick or slowing erratically. Usually driven by someone who looks down their nose. (Personal experience of them)

"I can see why they should be glue these things," Jeremy Clarkson. :p
 
[TW]Fox;28793265 said:
I'm thinking about the actual 7.5 tonne trucks rather than trailers. The sort of thing usually driven by a trained professional but, at weekends, driven by horsists :eek:

I believe you still need a proper HGV licence to drive a 7.5 ton horse box, so one would assume some level of competency.
You can drive a 3.5 ton with a standard licence though and these are usually not much more than modified vans.
 
There is no other such vehicle of their size predominantly driven by women. They struggle with an Aygo so it's no surprise that they wreak havoc in their glue boxes.
 
I believe you still need a proper HGV licence to drive a 7.5 ton horse box, so one would assume some level of competency.
You can drive a 3.5 ton with a standard licence though and these are usually not much more than modified vans.

The grandfather rights on pre-97 licences will still allow you to drive a 7.5t on a standard licence
 
Living in the sticks, and riding horses myself, I find they're driven fantasticly well. But then you see them where you espect them I guess. That said it's not wealthy faddy hobbyists round here, it's their lives and livelhoods and they do nothing but horses.

Not a truck, but my mums friend pulls a horsebox and is a farmers wife. She could park a trailer with her eyes closed. It's amazing to watch. She properly goes down the road too, none of this 30mph in an NSL rubbish.
 
There is no other such vehicle of their size predominantly driven by women. They struggle with an Aygo so it's no surprise that they wreak havoc in their glue boxes.

:D

There should be some kind of enforced driving test for transporting horses, most of the ones I've been behind seem to think 15MPH is the safest way to drive them.
 
Used to have one of those lorry sized horse coach things parked in our residential area quite often, surprised those are even legal to park there. Barely left any space for even one car to pass through, not to mention insisted on parking it on the corner, often creeping into main road quite a bit.

Roads were pretty bad for visibility as it is with the amount of cars parked so people had to creep out to see if anything is coming, that thing thought just created a plain dangerous blind spot where people would be half way on the main road before they could see anything coming. Not like there weren't spaces available few minutes walk away where it wouldn't bother anyone but guess no one seemed upset enough to do anything about it as it was there every week.
 
I see a lot of horse boxes here in leafy Bucks and can say I've never sent one erratically driven, just slowly.

Yes, my licence allows me to drive a 7.5 tonner but it's not something I particularly want to do as I did once and disliked driving it more than I dislike driving cars.
 
Newer ones are fine. It's the knocking on 20 / 30 year old ones that are obviously run on a shoe string with aging suspension that throw the horse around so they have to go even slower belching fumes.

How some of them pass an mot beggers belief.

Also driven by people who have driving about 5 down on their priority list at the time.
 
A woman in work recently went though her HGV test so she can cart her horse(s) around, good god horses must be an expensive hobby...

people seem to recoil in shock at the cost when i tell them i do a few track days which cost probably £300-400 a day all in but i bet that's nout on owning a horse!

I also deeply hate horses :p
 
Neigh, I've never seen one being driven erratically , They've always stuck to lane 1 and stuff. The only people that seem to consistently drive erratically are Audi drivers and Motorbikers who think filtering on the left, then the right, then the left again of any given car is alright.
 
Horse related road users are generally very bad ime.

When living with my parents on a narrow country road close to an equestrian school, I would regularly encounter the following annoyances:
- riders three abreast on a road wide enough for one car.
- riders wearing POLITE notice high vis vests acting like the police.
- riders on horses not trained enough that would rear up on the road.
- novice riders being walked down the road by a tutor on foot.
- horse boxes with unsecured tailgates.
- horse boxes with handwritten plates on display
- horse transporters being driven with L plates on by teenagers.

It really is mind blowing.
 
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