Horsebox advice

[nicolenayar]

Looking for my first horsebox and I have no clue what I am doing.

I have a 16.1 ID x so would be looking for something to carry him plus tack and 2 passengers at the absolute minimum. Ideally, I'd like something that could take 2 x 16-17hh horses, tack and people.

What's the minimum weight I should look at to carry him alone? I am really trying to avoid looking at huge 7.5t lorries, but compact 3.5t are probably out of the question too.

Any advice would be much appreciated :)

I was in your situation 2 years ago - and went for the 3.5 t - I am now having to look to upgrade to a bigger payload, as with my dressage horse and sons dressage pony, I can't take them out together.
With 3.5t that are being made at the moment, there are a lot of conversions that are actually not that well built and I had real safety concerns about them.
However with 7.5t you need to pay close attention to payload. Many are weighed with everything taken out(division's and rubber matting) - so make sure you are buying something with a decent payload. For 2 good sized horses, tack, 2 people, hay, water, fuel, I would be eating close to 2t payload - which is surprisingly hard to find.
You may get away with a 5.5/6.5t - which will be more like a 3.5t to drive but have a decent payload - plus you can have two rear facing - with every equine physio and osteo says is the best way for them to travel.....

Thank you! From my research that was what I was thinking, and had seen lots of people list the benefits of rear facing which is a real plus too. Just need to find one now :)

Highbury horse boxes have a 6.5 they have built for sale.
I have no idea how much they want for it, but it will be a really high quality build . (They built my 3.5t)

I have a 3.5t with a 1.2k payload which might just do you for one horse depending on weight but wouldn’t manage two. It also wouldn’t cope with very long or horses with a very high head carriage despite the company stating up to 17hh. I don’t think many 3.5ts come with a payload much more despite being bigger so I would try and look for a 4 or 5t if you have the lisence for it.

Also make sure you have the budget to maintain it unless your using it ALOT. Mine stood for a while and everything siezed up and needed replacing. It’s cost about 3k so far to keep on the road.
Our 7.5t isn’t much better costing 1.2k to get through its MOT this year alone

We ended up with a trailer because the payloads on the smaller boxes were so low.

Trailer, a light 7.5 (unless you will definitely never be carrying much at all), or something bigger was our conclusion in a similar situation. We bought a trailer and in the next few years are planning to get something around 12 ton.

Trailer is by far the cheapest solution if you already have a suitable tow car. In our case it worked out cost effective running a second car and the trailer.

No idea what your budget is but a 6.5t usually has a payload of around 2,000kg which will be plenty. Look at the peper Harrow horseboxes for an idea...