Towing 3 or 4 horse trailers??

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Sunnyafternoon

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Hi all, I’ve been lurking on this forum for years but there has always been a thread on any questions I wanted to ask until now! My three kids are riding and I want to be able to travel my horse and three ponies (although I don’t yet have a horse and won’t for a while because I’m spending all my money on ponies!). I love the little 3.5 ton trucks but they are so expensive and I’d need a horsebox as well. So I’ve been looking at these large horse boxes. There a couple that take 4 horses. Has anyone any experience with using these? If so what vehicle was it towed with? I’m thinking a Toyota landcruiser but in the pictures it always seems to be a Range Rover pulling them!! Thank you in advance for any info! (Below are a couple of pics of the kind of trailers I’m thinking of, 1st one is 3horse, 2nd is 4horse)

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The multiple horse trailers I have seen I think you would struggle to fit a horse in without having to slant quite extremely. And pretty sure you wouldn’t get 3 ponies and a horse in. You seem to have to put them across the box to fit in length wise which is then too narrow for a horse.
 
Thank you Kamikaze, I’ll have to check that out. I think because they’re herringbone some of them are two horse or 3pony. But that second picture is to carry 3 horses/4ponies. I have been 10-15 years out of horses and I don’t remember ever seeing them when I was riding. I was thinking they must be a fairly new thing. Do you remember what people towed them with? Or people having trouble with them? Fautras, equitrek and cheval liberte all do them so they must be safe but gosh they’d be pretty heavy!
 
The only one i know of was the ifor Williams stalled for 3 i think. That was towed by a discovery. Even then I’m sure the woman had to watch she wasn’t overweight with it.
 
A friend of mine had a 3 horse Ifor, she towed it with a big LWB 4x4 but I can't remember which one! She still had to watch the weight, and she said when she put 3 in it it tended to swing/wag so they only ever used it for 2!

Could you find a fairly Spartan looking 7.5t that is stalled for 4? As that would (imo) be your best bet for an easy life.
 
You's need to watch the payload. You'd certainly need a proper meaty 4x4 tow car, whether a Range Rover, Shogun, or similar, but even they only tow 3.5t max.

Say your trailer weighs in at 1450kg and that's the 4 horse Cheval Liberte, which IMHO are flimsily built. That only leaves 2050kg left for horses, which is only doable with 4 up if they are lightweight types.

For comparison, my Ifor 510 double trailer has a payload of 1700kg, so can comfortably take two big hunters.
 
For travelling four you really need a wagon. The cheval with three is ok but the only person I knew regularly using one sold it and went the wagon route. He went back to a standard two horse trailer alongside it as well.
 
We went through this years ago when the whole family was riding. Two horses, two ponies.

The challenge is finding something that has the capacity to tow and is both safe/legal. Land cruiser for us was the only option. But we could only get to 3 in the trailer before it was overweight. The fuel consumption was insane as well for a V8 petrol. Purchase price of a new land cruiser was something I couldn’t come at either.

So, options were:
Truck - but it would only be used at weekends and would sit in the shed during the week. Rego was extortionate as was insurance and maintenance. Financially it was a dud deal.

Gooseneck - 4 horse but we would need an american import RAM or F250 to tow it. Couldn’t be used as a normal car during the week, so also sitting idle week days

Two tow vehicles + 2 x 2 horse trailers. One big tow vehicle (Ute) for the horses, one smaller tow vehicle for the pony trailer. Both vehicles used midweek as primary vehicles as well as tow vehicles at weekend. Downside, we needed two drivers even if there were only 3 of us going. This was the best financial option.
 
Tiddlypom said:
You's need to watch the payload. You'd certainly need a proper meaty 4x4 tow car, whether a Range Rover, Shogun, or similar, but even they only tow 3.5t max.

Say your trailer weighs in at 1450kg and that's the 4 horse Cheval Liberte, which IMHO are flimsily built. That only leaves 2050kg left for horses, which is only doable with 4 up if they are lightweight types.

For comparison, my Ifor 510 double trailer has a payload of 1700kg, so can comfortably take two big hunters.
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yes this is exactly what I was trying to figure out. If the trailer is about 1500 would one horse and three ponies be under 2000 (and ideally under 1500 so you’re not right up to the maximum towing capacity)?
 
The problem with trucks is unless you can afford a newish one they can start to cost a fair bit to maintain . We sold our old 7.5t last year and got a 3.5t . Which has been great , but has meant that only one of ours could go out at a time . So we bought a trailer , now we can safely take 3 out at a time , my daughter can drive the 3.5t and I drive the trailer . If you had small ponies you could fit 2 on the 3.5t and 2 in a standard trailer , so in theory you could take 4 .
 
White Horse2 said:
Or put a towbar on the back of e 3.5 and pull a trailer, as I witnessed yesterday,
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Yes, I know someone who does this and I have a feeling it’s probably the best option. But those 3.5 ton trucks are really expensive. I’ll probably end up doing two trips with an old landcruiser and horsebox for now and saving for the 3.5 ton
 
I think you probably need to look at an HGV lorry to travel 4 safely. The living might be handy with 3 children too!

I've no idea about the running costs but HGV appear to be cheaper to buy probably because of the legislation around them and tacos etc.
 
I think that the kerb weight of the Land Rover Discovery 4 is similar if not more than the Toyota Land Cruiser. When I looked at the Fautras 3 and 4 horse trailers the 3 horse only had a MAM of 3000kg so the 4 but partitioned for 3, if that’s what you need, gave more payload.
 
I have the 3 stalled minimax cheval Liberte which I tow with a VW Touareg. I only ever travel 2 in it though as needed herringbone but have big horses. It would only fit 3 who are 15.2hh and under. I really like it as a trailer. It’s better built than the ifor I also have. I don’t think I would tow 4 though unless I had a gooseneck.
 
Bonnie Allie said:
We went through this years ago when the whole family was riding. Two horses, two ponies.

The challenge is finding something that has the capacity to tow and is both safe/legal. Land cruiser for us was the only option. But we could only get to 3 in the trailer before it was overweight. The fuel consumption was insane as well for a V8 petrol. Purchase price of a new land cruiser was something I couldn’t come at either.

So, options were:
Truck - but it would only be used at weekends and would sit in the shed during the week. Rego was extortionate as was insurance and maintenance. Financially it was a dud deal.

Gooseneck - 4 horse but we would need an american import RAM or F250 to tow it. Couldn’t be used as a normal car during the week, so also sitting idle week days

Two tow vehicles + 2 x 2 horse trailers. One big tow vehicle (Ute) for the horses, one smaller tow vehicle for the pony trailer. Both vehicles used midweek as primary vehicles as well as tow vehicles at weekend. Downside, we needed two drivers even if there were only 3 of us going. This was the best financial option.
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I’d say you are 100% right and the answer is that it’s a pain in the neck no matter what way you do it!! And a 4horse trailer would just be too convenient to be true so there must be too many problems with it!!
 
I had one of the 3 horse CL's. I could get four ponies or two and a vehicle in it, and towed with an old Terrano.
It was WIDE. I mean like 'jesus, am I going to end up in the ditch when we go past that bus' wide.
I tow confidently, just about anything, but didn't like it. Much prefer an old Rice treble.
With the price of 7.5 tonne lorries so low, I would think one of those (ideally set up with very little living and more payload) is best for you... but plating is a PITA.
 
A friend of mine has a fautras which she tows with a lwb mitsubishi shogun . I think a landcruiser will be up to any towing job I think they have a 3500 towing capacity.
 
OP - how big are your ponies? I was just watching a YouTube video showing what the trailers are like inside, when I realised that the ponies are herringbone, with partitions that are basically just a flexible plastic sheet at shetland/11.2hh height...
 
Caol Ila said:
Dually pick-up and a gooseneck. Shame that's not a thing here.

I used an F-250 as my daily driving car for years. What a truck.
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Me too! I loved my F-250 and gooseneck trailer. That truck pulled the trailer with 4 horses and I hardly knew we were hitched. I wouldn't want that rig here in the UK though. Many of our lanes are too narrow and turns too tight. Though like you, I'm surprised the smaller gooseneck trailers haven't caught on here. Perhaps they will now pickups are becoming so prevalent?
 
Baroque said:
Me too! I loved my F-250 and gooseneck trailer. That truck pulled the trailer with 4 horses and I hardly knew we were hitched. I wouldn't want that rig here in the UK though. Many of our lanes are too narrow and turns too tight. Though like you, I'm surprised the smaller gooseneck trailers haven't caught on here. Perhaps they will now pickups are becoming so prevalent?
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Oh, yeah. Parking here would be really amusing. But I lived in NYC for a summer and somehow parked my truck (often with tears of frustration). Manhattan is far worse than Glasgow for parking.
 
maya2008 said:
OP - how big are your ponies? I was just watching a YouTube video showing what the trailers are like inside, when I realised that the ponies are herringbone, with partitions that are basically just a flexible plastic sheet at shetland/11.2hh height...
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Two 14.2 ponies, a big horse 16.2+ (haven’t got the horse for myself yet because I’ve spent all my money on ponies! ?) and a 13.2. I haven’t watched any videos of interiors yet. I’ll have to do that.
 
A friend has our old 3 horse Fautras - fabulous trailer, great build quality - she tows 2 chunky horses with a Shogun. Very long setup.

There's a local lady who does hunt hirelings with a massive American pickup and a gooseneck. Very tricky in narrow lanes - hard to get off the narrow road through a gateway! Great setup but not ideal for British roads.

I think gooseneck work well with pickups with no backs but given the British weather, you don't see so many ! I know I need the covered back for carrying all my kit ( and dogs!)
 
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