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 They were once common worldwide, but they have mostly been replaced by automobiles and other forms of self-propelled transport but are still in use today.
Horses were domesticated circa 3500 BCE. Before that oxen were used. Historically, a wide variety of arrangements of horses and vehicles have been used, from chariot racing, which involved a small vehicle and four horses abreast, to horsecars or trollies,[note 1] which used two horses to pull a car that was used in cities before electric trams 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. Very light carts and wagons can also be pulled by donkeys (much smaller than horses), ponies or mules. Other smaller animals are occasionally used, such as large dogs, llamas and goats (see draught animals). Heavy wagons, carts and agricultural implements can also be pulled by other large draught animals such as oxen, water buffalo, yaks or even camels and elephants.
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 arrangement, and three as a randem.[1] Vehicles that are pulled by a pair (or by a team 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.
Cart - Two wheels, one horse
Chariot - Two wheels, two or four horses, driver usually standing
Carriage - Four wheels
Wagon - Four wheels, agricultural or delivery
Coach - Private or hired, several passengers
Omnibus - Urban transport for numerous passengers
: much the same purpose as the modern sense. Details of the design varied but would be a lightly built and well-sprung, enclosed vehicle with provision for seated casualties and stretchers.
Ambulance
: 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.
Barouche
: A four-wheeled covered carriage developed in the 17th century.
A cab designed by Joseph Hansom
Berlin
: Originally break, a heavy four-wheeled carriage frame for breaking horses, later several passenger vehicles built on the same framework and size.
Brake
: A long, spacious carriage of four wheels, pulled by two horses.
Britzka
: A specific, light four-wheeled carriage, circa mid-19th century.
Brougham
: A very simple four-wheeled wagon, circa the early 19th century.
Buckboard
: a light, open, four-wheeled carriage, often driven by its owner.
Buggy
: a shortening of cabriolet. Joseph Hansom based the design of his public hire vehicle on the cabriolet so the name cab stuck to vehicles for public hire.
Cabriolet
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.
Calash
: A two-wheeled four-seater carriage drawn by two horses and formerly used in South Africa.
Cape cart
: A light, small, two- or four-wheeled vehicle, open or covered, drawn by a single horse.
Traveling in France or Le départ de la diligence; drawing by George Cruikshank (1818)
Cariole
: in the late eighteenth century, roughly equivalent to the modern word "vehicle" [Walker]. It later came to be restricted to "passenger vehicle" and even to "private, enclosed passenger vehicle" [Britannica]. This last is the sense adopted by the linked article.
Carriage
: 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.
Carryall
: A light two- or four-wheeled traveling or pleasure carriage, with a folding hood or calash top for one or two people.
: A closed, four-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle with a projecting glass front and seats for four passengers inside.
Clarence
: A large, usually closed, four-wheeled carriage with two or more horses harnessed as a team, controlled by a coachman.
Coach
: The horse-drawn carriage equivalent of a modern coupe automobile.
Coupé
: 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).
Covered wagon
: 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.
Curricle
: a French stagecoach. The 19th-century ones came in three sizes, La petite diligence, La grande diligence and L'impériale.
Diligence
: 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.
Bow wagon
: 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.
Cart
or streetcar (US) or tram (outside the US): public transport vehicle on rails
Horsecar
: horse-drawn trains
Wagonways
or slab waggon or rubbish wagon: a small four-wheeled rail car for carrying blocks of slate out of a quarry
Slate 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.[3]
Dandy waggon
: a general term relating to broad or narrow canal boats for passenger or freight carriage
