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Transport Regulations

What you need to know when towing a trailer or driving a horsebox with horses or ponies in.

TRAILERS

1. Know, do not guess the weight of your animals.
2. Know the weight of your trailer empty.
3. Know the train weight of the towing vehicle.
4. Have your trailer serviced regularly by someone who knows what he is doing.
5. Check your lights every time you connect up.
6. Check the floor regularly. You will not know that your animal has put its foot through the floor until it is too late.
7. The trailers brake must be in a correctly adjusted condition.

To check if your towing vehicle can tow your trailer and animals follow the next procedure.

Once you have weighed your trailer empty (use a public weighbridge), put your heaviest horses in it and weigh again. If you subtract the weight of the empty trailer from the weight of the trailer laden this gives you the weight of your animals. Don’t forget to add about 50 kilograms for the water, etc. you normally carry. The next thing you must do is to find the maximum train weight for your vehicle. This can be found from a plate fitted by the manufacturer to your vehicle, or from the owners handbook or from the agents for the vehicle. This will be somewhere around 85% of the gross vehicle weight, but this varies from vehicle to vehicle.

HORSEBOXES

1. Know the weight of all the horses or ponies you will be carrying, don’t guess it.
2. Know the gross vehicle weight of the vehicle you are using.
3. Know the weight of the vehicle empty including each axle.
4. Beware of using down rated wagons (i.e. 10 tonne wagons down rated to 7.5 tonnes so you can drive them on a car licence) as these type of vehicle tend to be over weight with very little in them.
5. If your vehicle is over 7.5 tonnes gross then you MUST possess a current LGV Class C or C+E. There are no exemptions.
6. If you are unsure seek advice.

To find the carrying capacity of a horsebox is similar to trailers. First take your horsebox to a weighbridge and weigh it empty, but this time note the weight of the front and rear axles as well as the gross vehicle weight. Ask the weighbridge for a weight ticket. They may charge a small fee. Before going to the weighbridge fill up your diesel and water tanks. Put in what you would normally take out with you when you go out. Look at the ministry plate which will be fitted to the cab area and compare this with the weights you obtained at the weighbridge. If you weighed your vehicle without the animals in, you then will be able to work out how many animals you can carry. Remember to use your horses that you would normally take with you if you are weighing them with the animals in.

TRAIN WEIGHT : This is the total weight of the towing vehicle + the weight of the trailer including the weight of the load.

GROSS WEIGHT: This is the total weight of the towing vehicle including any load but not including any trailers.