TVT horseboxes - 'TVT Sportcoach'
All horseboxes by TVT: TVT Sportcoach | Fautras Camion | TVT Sportvan |
Thames Valley Trailers have combined with a top quality Coachworks Company to produce a high specification 3.5 Tonne Horsebox.
The price shown is for a standard specification Sportcoach and includes two outside tack lockers, wired-in reversing camera, horse protective padding all round and many more features. However, we pride ourselves in producing bespoke internal areas taylored to your individual requirements.
Single colour paint spray is included. Graphics are extra to customers own design.
Unlike most other 3.5t horseboxes on the market, the TVT Sportcoach has built-in safety features to prevent a horse from climbing over the breast bar and injuring itself.
We can construct the coachworks on a chassis supplied by the customer or obtain a chassis on your behalf. One years full warranty on all coachworks and three months warranty on any chassis supplied by us.
For a Layout Diagram, Dimension Drawing and Photographic Slide Show please Scroll Down.
£ 12000.00
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+ Chassis + VAT. ~
More images of the TVT Sportcoach
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TVT Horseboxes
The effects of transporting horses either forwards or backwards were compared by transporting six thoroughbred horses in pairs in a lorry on one journey facing in the direction of travel, and on another journey facing away from the direction of travel, on a standard one hour route. Heart rate monitors were used to record their heart rate before, during and after the journey and the horses’ behaviour was recorded by scan sampling each horse every other minute. The average heart rate was significantly lower when the horses were transported facing backwards, and they also tended to rest on their rumps more. In the forward facing position, the horses moved around more and tended to hold their necks in a higher than normal position. They vocalised more often. The horses seemed to find being transported less physically stressful when they were facing backwards than when they were facing forwards.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that transporting horses while they are facing backwards. 180∞ away from the direction of travel, induces less stress. The method possibly has three main advantages over conventional forward facing travel: It’s broad fleshy hind-quarters are presented to the potential impact area during braking and deceleration, instead of it’s more fragile head and chest. The horse therefore doesn't feel the need to carry its head in an unnaturally high position and it can become more balanced because it can lean over its forequarters because it no longer fears injury on sudden braking. It has also been proposed that horses are more able to cope with the changes in acceleration and deceleration when travelling backwards because they can stand with their weight more correctly distributed. The forelegs are better adapted to swaying than the hindlegs, because this is part of natural grazing behaviour, and the shoulders therefore tend to provide better support in response to lateral forces than the haunches which tend to give way so that the horse has to side step with it’s hindlegs. It is therefore advantageous to have the forelegs placed where lateral accelerations are greatest, that is to the rear of the axle, as is the case when horses are transported when facing backwards.
Rear facing transport does seem to have its advantages, these include less physical effort by the horse, because the horse can maintain its balance more easily and adopt a more natural stance, and so less concentration and muscular work are required by the horse whilst being transported. As a result, the performance of the horse, when it arrives at its destination is less likely to be compromised by the stresses of the journey. Rear facing transport should also be safer in the event of a frontal impact with another vehicle, because the fleshy rump of the horse would dissipate the shock more effectively than the head and chest, which would be more likely to sustain serious injury.
Extracted from a paper titled, "Effects of transporting horses facing either forwards or backwards on their behaviour and heart rate." as supplied by Dr. Natalie K. Waran at the Institute of Ecology and Resource Management, University of Edinburgh.
Published in The Veterinary Record, July 6th, 1996.