what is the smallest car that would pull a 16.1 irish sports horse?

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Honey Bee♥

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basically,my dad doesn't want an expensive car lol... and i want to know that my 16.1 irish mare will be SAFE. She is my life and if anything ever happened to her i would never forgive myself. my dad thinks a 2.5 ltr 2 wheel drive will be fine. and i keep tellign him that we will most likely need a 4x4 but im wrong.. he said- as long as it has a big engine its fine! he keeps saying a 2 wheel drive will be fine -.- he thinks im arguing with him but i just want to make sure shes safe :\ tho what my dad says goes, so im probably wasting my time. he is very stubbern :\ but everyone tells me diff things and i just dont know who to believe.. nicky said her 3.7 small 4x4 car wouldnt pull my horse.. and and someone else at the yard said that if it cant pull her it will pull the tow bar off :S thats the last thing i wona think about when were driving up red hill! PLEASE HELP!!!!
 
I don't think the 2wd vs 4wd bit is the main consideration nor is the engine size. For safety you basically need a fair weight infront of the trailer! This site is just brilliant http://www.cuddles.abelgratis.net/kerbweights.htm gives max tow weight which is the bit of info you are after. Bear in mind though that it gives the MAX tow weight, ideally for safety (as opposed to simply just being able to pull the weight) you wouldn't be towing up to the vehicles max weight. Fwiw, we use a 3.1 izuzu trooper as you can get them for reasnoble cost and they pull alot! That said, with two horses on, with some trailers (particularly the equitrek ones as they are v heavy) you would still be over, or too close to the max weight.
 
A lot of cars probably could pull a trailer with one horse, in but that doesn’t make it safe. A trailer + horse could weigh significantly more than an average car and if the horse loses balance for example and the trailer starts to sway around it could turn the car over. Catastrophic for the horse and potentially so for the occupants of the car.

The main things to consider are the combined weight of the horse + trailer + kit compared with the weight and towing capacity of the vehicle. Towing capacities and weight of vehicles can be found on the parkers website. For example my ifor Williams trailer weights just over a ton on its own, so with my horse and kit it puts the weight of the trailer at 1.7 tons. I believe it is recommended that you only tow up to 80%?? of the cars capacity, so even for towing one horse safely you should really be looking at a large 4x4. I drive a Kia Sorento which has a towing capacity of 2.7 tons. They aren’t expensive to buy and aren’t too bad on fuel compared with others. But 4x4s aren’t generally cheap but then neither are horses!!!

Also if you are going to showgrounds where you have to park on grass 4 wheel drive is invaluable. :)
 
i would never tow a trailer with horses in with a car even with the biggest of engines they just dont have the weight to tow heavy thingsm as one of my friends found out a couple of years ago she had got a lightweight trailer with a 16.1hh and a 13.2 in it she was towing it with a big volvo, driving along the motorway behind me i saw the trailer starting to snake, then the car followed it not having the power or stability beeded to pull out of it the snaking caused the trailer to flip taking the car with it that flipped at least 2 times snaped the tow bar sent the trailer flying accross 2 lanes of the motorway the car and trailer ended up about 20 metres apart luckily no-one was seroiously hurt including the horses who ended up one on top of the other all where extremly lucky, the police said the car just wasnt big enough for towing. you really do need to be in a large 4x4 to tow its just not worth the risk.
 
I have a lightweight trailer and a 5 series BMW Touring 4.4L. I tow my horse but won't take any others along as I like to stay well inside the limit for my car.
 
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