APPROVED HORSEBOXES YOU CAN TRUST
Your horse’s comfort and safety is top of your agenda – and top of ours too. We pride ourselves on our ability to provide safe horse transport, thanks to our qualified team and our fleet of horseboxes.
HORSEBOXES BUILT FOR PROFESSIONALS
We’ve spent years finding a reliable partner to supply us with the right vehicles to safely transport our precious cargo. And now, we believe our 3.5 tonne builds, supplied by our coachbuilders, are the best in the industry.
We only use premium, bespoke-built 3.5t horseboxes, designed specifically for professional and commercial horse transport. Each horsebox is built from scratch on platform cabs, with correct reinforcements added from the start.
There aren’t any van conversions in our fleet. And unlike most 3.5t horseboxes, all of our vehicles are subject to an IVA test on build completion, along with container licence inspections specifically for long distance horse transport.
REGULAR MAINTENANCE AND INSPECTIONS
Other than the standard, once-yearly MOT, there’s no regulation to ensure 3.5t horseboxes are regularly maintained to a particular standard – even for commercial use.
We don’t believe this is right. So at DHT, we carry out pre- and post-journey safety checks, along with six-weekly professional mechanical and structural inspections. This gives us – and you – the peace of mind that your horse is travelling a sound, safe vehicle.
We also carry mobile jet washes and DEFRA-approved disinfectants onboard, to wash both the horse area and external surfaces after each journey. You won’t find cleaner horseboxes on the road than ours!
OVER AND ABOVE THE LEGAL REQUIREMENTS
Our horseboxes are Animal Transport Association Type 2 Authorised.
All our horseboxes are inspected by an agent of the Freight Transport Association before we use them. This ensures we meet all DEFRA/APHA requirements for horse transport.
This isn’t a legal requirement for transporters that travel horses for less than eight hours at a time (Type 1 Authorised). Which means many companies may never have had their vehicles inspected and authorised.
At DHT, we care about the welfare of your horse in transit. So we go above and beyond to ensure we exceed standards.
A COMFORTABLE, FULLY MONITORED JOURNEY
Our horseboxes are fitted with multiple windows, air vents and cooling fans (all of which we can control from the cab) to make sure our equine passengers stay cool, even on the hottest of days. The roofs are insulated to prevent that greenhouse effect too.
We also have market-leading temperature monitoring and CCTV systems, which we can check from the cab at all times. This all helps to create a comfortable, safe, stress-free journey for your horse.
ALL THE SPACE YOUR HORSE NEEDS
Every horse is different, and apart from the minimum space legislations there is no hard and fast rule about how much space a horse needs to travel comfortably.
But unlike many horseboxes on the market that only have a few width adjustments, our versatile, full-height, stallion partition can be fixed at any point across the horse area. Which means we can give each horse the room they need to travel in comfort.
The versatility of our set-up also makes it easy – and very safe – to travel youngstock and mares with foal at foot.
SAFE, STRONG, AND STRUCTURALLY SOUND
All our horseboxes are rear-facing, with a long stall set-up and full-height stallion partitions.
There are no breast bars, tack lockers or shelves for a horse to get stuck on or under. And our over-cab storage area is only accessible from the cab, meaning there’s nothing for a horse to get stuck on, and no cargo can fall on our equine passengers during transit.
In addition to a fully reinforced bulkhead, our horseboxes are designed and built with additional reinforcements all over the horse area, including the side walls, for superior strength and safety.
