# Question about carriage and horses in ye olde days



## ACinATX (Sep 12, 2018)

Once more, for this book that I will not admit I'm writing, I have a horse-related question. Back in the days when people routinely travelled by carriage, how would someone bring extra horses? In other words, let's say I'm wealthy enough to have my own carriage and a number of horses. I'm travelling a decent distance, perhaps to a beach resort. I will have two horses pulling the carriage, but I want to bring additional horses, maybe to take turns pulling or maybe to ride when we get to our destination. Would I just tie them to the carriage with lead ropes and assume they will keep up? Even if we'd be moving primarily at the trot? I can't imagine how else it would be done, but it seems potentially dangerous.

ETA: another question. On such a journey, would I be feeding them just oats and/or some other grain? Taking hay along in my carriage would be impractical, I'd think. Oats and then let them graze whenever we stop?


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## horselovinguy (Oct 1, 2013)

Long treks the carriages had stopping locations where horses rested or were changed out for a fresh team and passengers were given refreshment and meal as it is hours of travel needed to go just short distances in carriages.
You would recognize the name of stagecoach stops and stations...

Yes, horses if you took the same team and a extra set, would be tied to carriage back by a halter rope and trot along.
🐴...


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## Cordillera Cowboy (Jun 6, 2014)

I’m thinking that your idea is a bit over complicated. Presumably, your story is set in the US, or territory that would eventually become the US. Much also depends on the time period the story is set in.

If set in the late 19th or early 20th century, any trip requiring a change of carriage horses would most likely be taken by rail instead. Your characters would take the carriage to the nearest railway station. A hired worker would take the carriage and team back home. Or the rig and team kept in a livery for the duration.

In pre-railroad days, a trip requiring a change of horses would most likely be taken by coach on established routes.

if your characters insist on using their own carriage, the practical thing would be to travel from inn to inn, resting the team as needed, and paying for the feed and care of the horses there. I haven’t studied it, so I don’t know if the stage stops also provided services to private travelers.

If saddle horses are needed at the destination, any resort worthy of the name would have livery horses available for rent.

I’m not sure when beach resorts actually came about. I know they were a “thing” in New York by the 1890s. I can’t speak to the west and gulf coasts. In my readings about people west of the Mississippi, I usually see historical references to people going to resorts near hot springs or mineral springs to “take the waters “. 
Hope that helps some.


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## ACinATX (Sep 12, 2018)

Hmm, OK, the beach resort thing was sort of a guess. These people would be living in, say, 16th or 17th century conditions. So, rather than going to a beach resort, maybe it would be the case that they are making their annual trip from their country home to their city home for the winter.

Basically in this particular situation I'm just imagining them making a journey by carriage that will take several days. Once they get as far as they can by carriage, they will have to continue their journey on horseback in order to be less conspicuous. It's a really important trip and they didn't think they could count on finding decent riding horses at this place where they'd have to switch out.


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## Cordillera Cowboy (Jun 6, 2014)

Ooh! 16th - 17th century opens a whole different world! 
This could be Europe, the Mediterranean, or Spanish controlled American colonies. I’d be hard pressed to find a carriage in French or British North America until rather late in the 17th century.

With that time frame, moving from a town home to a country home seems most likely. Or, depending on the reasons for traveling inconspicuously, to a friend or ally.

Traveling conditions would be rugged for a carriage. And the need for self sufficiency more likely. Fodder for the horses would be whatever grain is common to the time and place. This would be to supplement whatever grass they could eat during rest and sleep breaks. The horses would either be picketed on grass overnight, or grass would be cut and carried to a campsite.

Food for people and cooking gear would also need to be packed. Something a carriage may not be particularly well suited for. An overloaded rig and overtaxed horses could be something you can have your characters deal with.

As mentioned earlier, extra horses would have little problem following along tethered to the back. If they are intended for riding, they can carry their own tack.


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## horselovinguy (Oct 1, 2013)

If you want to do some research that would give photos for examples look at the homes of the rich on Long Island.
They lived in NY City during the week, in the country on weekends....
Horse and carriage for travel.
The parkway system on LI is what was used in that time for getting to one location or another.
Caumsett State Park, Bayard Cutting Arboretuem, Connetquot River State Park...and a bunch more.
The wealthiest of wealthy lived here and played here...
Vanderbuilt, Whitney, Pratts, Jay Gatsby of the movie made "The Great Gatsby" was real, and Sands Point Preserve was his hangout, Oheka Castle is also from the same era of "roaring 20's", The Vanderbuilt Museum has a history of early motorcars and racing but still steeped in history, Old Westbury Gardens and the Phipp family, the Guggenheim Estate,
Nassau County is nicknamed the Gold Coast, some still in those rankings live on their estates their. A Guide to Long Island's Gold Coast Mansions
Suffolk County which is farther east from the city also had more than its share of wealthy families and that was long before "The Hamptons" and today's wealth who live in newer mansions that just don't have the flair of the mansions of the 1700, 1800 - early 1900 old-money wealth... Suffolk County Mansions & Arboretums | Discover Long Island
You can easily go back to the 1700 with documentation of places...
Where my parents are laid to rest on top of the old hill is the slaves cemetary lovingly cared for to this day and a memorial to what those people did.
Suffolk County did not have the same volume of estates as Nassau County, but they were as beautiful and majestic and many of them, to get from one to the other in their heyday you used horse and carriage or rode astride.
Foxhunts were a common occurrence as the land was perfect for galloping across fields and jumping fences for hours.

I've been in a few of the estates private areas {had family who worked for the state and were permitted with _don't touch _enforced}...
Some of those places though are also venues for horse shows today, conventions, weddings and just spectacular to go on personal tours with those who work the facility and can take you where the public is forbidden to preserve the facility and what it stood for.
Caumsett is spectacular and the horse barns were used for the filming of the movie "Arthur"...many parts of the estate not seen are just exquisite.
So many places you could dig for research for factual resources if writing a book as much has been documented already.
These are just a few of the more known places easier to dig information on....

I was blessed to grow up in a area that was so beautiful and full of history of the turn of the century that much was preserved...my family was not rich nor even well-to-do, just working class people.
Long Island was a farming community 120 miles long of it...so large estates and tracts of land was used to make more fortunes...today it is very overbuilt and congested is a understatement.
The population on Long Island is more than many states combined...we are just a small piece of New York State...
Then add upstate NY and the wealthy areas where horse _was_ the only way to get around gives you more research and reading material.
California and the west is much the same...railroads had a large part of joining but travel still happened just slower by stagecoach before the railroads made travel faster and economically possible for more.
I am so glad preservation of what was was done or we would lose a part of our history never to be seen again.
Such fun to research and write.... 
🐴...


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## Avna (Jul 11, 2015)

Carriages were limited to the wealthy, and they had well-set-up systems for travel. Coaching roads were marked by inns, which accommodated carriage horses, and typically had a farrier on site or nearby as well. Traveling by coach was slow, expensive, and cumbersome. Twenty to thirty miles a day would be a good time. The horses would be rested and fed at midday. If a horse was having problems, it would probably be exchanged at the inn for another. Riding was faster, and was generally reserved for men. Wealthy women might ride for pleasure around their estates. 

You could look it up, but fairly early on, but regular coaching routes, the equivalent of bus service, were established. These would be from inn to inn, where horses were changed out.


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