Who constructed the first ‘horse box’?

The first HORSE Box purpose-built

The first HORSE Box purpose-built, was constructed by Messrs Herring, coachbuilders of Long Acre, to the order of the racehorse-owner Lord George Bentinck, and used for the first time on 18 September 1836, when it set out from Goodwood Drawn by six post horses to carry the thoroughbred Elis to Doncaster for the St Leger.

Apart from one isolated instance 20 years earlier, when a specially sprung bullock caravan had been used to convey Mr.Territt’s horse Sovereign from Worcestershire to Newmarket for the Two Thousand Guineas, racehorses had always been walked to the courses where they were to compete. For big events, like the Derby, they were generally stabled in the neighbourhood for about a month before the race, to give them ample time to recover from the journey. This meant, of course, that if a horse was known to be entered at a particular meeting, it clearly could not be attending other meetings at any great distance immediately afterwards.

It was this simple principle that encouraged the sporting Lord George to design a van of a kind never seen before with padded interior and accommodation for two horses. Sunday, 18 September 1836 was three days before the date of the St Leger. The distance between Goodwood and country roads from Sussex to Yorkshire at the astonishing rate of some 75 miles a day, Lord George was secretly backing Elis heavily through his commission agents, and securing uncommonly favourable odds from book makers who thought that with the three-year-old safely ensconced at Goodwood, there was little chance that he would be a starter. Elis not only arrived at Doncaster in time for the race but, ridden by J. Day, won the St Leger by two clear lengths.

The first MOTOR HORSEBOX was a specially designed chain-driven van with a Napier petrol engine built by the Motor Power Co. in 1901.