Any advice to buy a decent horsebox without costing the earth!

[Schoolrefusa]

I did try on eBay and by asking a professional to check the MOT issues for a horsebox before the sale but the seller hasn't shown how bad/ dangerous the rust was so we lost money and didn't buy it.

we have one pony and just want to do mostly 10 minute trips for pony club stuff but can't find transport hire near us and don't have a car that tows so not sure which option best, new car and trailer or horsebox!

any advice on what minimum budget to expect or reputable places to buy would be so amazing , we are in the south west .
many thanks !

either way is expensive

safest bet is to trade up your car to one that tows and get a decent trailer.

Lorries can be a money pit with repairs and running costs.

For what you need a towing car and trailer make more sense. Lorries are great when you are away a lot but for local journeys a trailer is fine. If your pony is light you might not need a huge car to tow.
I'd ask the other PC parents what trailers they have and why and also where to buy/get serviced. In our PC we have a chat going and this is exactly what sort of thing is discussed!

I'd get a trailer and bigger car.

I started with a 7.5t, then got a 3.5t and now have a 4x4 and trailer. I got some towing lessons to make sure I knew what I was doing :)

If you think you can tow get a lightweight trailer like a Bateson, then you can tow with a car that doesn’t have to be a 4x4. I towed mine with various estates.

Lorries are always money pits unless you spend a lot and not worth it for local trips with a pony.

This is extremely helpful and exactly what I need , thanks so much . We have a Volvo estate V50 which I don't imagine could tow a trailer even if we added a tow bar . Google suggested it can tow 1500kg?

@Schoolrefusa it COULD tow a single trailer with one pony - although personally I probably wouldn't.

An ifor single trailer weighs about 650kg I believe, so plus a (for example) 400kg pony you'd be well within the capacity of the car.

Personally I won't tow with anything other than a massive 4x4 with the maximum capacity BUT that doesn't mean it isn't safe to do so, especially if only for local journeys and not a lot of off-road!

We started off with a single trailer (Ifor Williams 403) towed by a Mercedes estate car. At the time we were taking one horse to pony club rallies, local arena hires and competition venues that were a maximum of one and a half hours from the yard. I worked out the most cost effective transport for what we needed was a trailer - it didn’t feel right paying a fortune on one child’s hobby when we were already spending so much on the horse. The trailer was brilliant - I had a couple of towing lessons before I got it and although it was a bit nerve-wracking at first I got used to it the more I did. It cost around £10 a month to insure and about £100 to get it serviced every year but apart from that it was much less expensive than having to hire transport every time we went out and importantly gave us spontaneity. We sold it for a little more than we’d paid for it. When we needed to move two horses around we upgraded the car and the trailer and I’m just about to get a 7.5 tonne lorry as DD’s now eventing two and stepping up to internationals this year so it will be much less stressful having somewhat to keep everything, get changed in the dry, make a cup of tea etc. But for what you want to do a single trailer would be perfect.

I think the towing car plus trailer is by far the best. My daughter evented & competed a lot, mainly locally, & this works fine. When the weather was foul, we kept horse in trailer with a hay net & huddled in the car. I towed with a Jeep Cherokee Sport - towing capacity 2250kg. I now use a ŠKODA Yeti, capacity of 2000kg.
I suggest you aim for 2000kg towing capacity, but be careful. When I bought my latest, there were numerous models with differing capacities. For example, some Range Rovers aren’t designed to tow.
Trailers easy to store & maintain. Get an annual maintenance done, and be sure you have horse trailer breakdown cover. Good luck!

I would get a trailer for your needs. Keeping an additional vehicle on the road for short journeys is not cost-effective. We travel a couple of hours to most things now, with a bit of eventing chucked in too and still use a trailer (albeit a huge equitrek with living & a loo) as have passed too many broken down horseboxes through the years!

If you can legally drive over a 3.5 t, prices are lower as market less saturated, though running costs can be high as need plating etc.
Sometimes the really old ones are better as were made better.
I bought a very old 6 t as a stop gap while waiting for a box to be made and it was lovely and solid.