San Antonio horse-drawn carriage survey receives massive response (2024)

FAQs

San Antonio horse-drawn carriage survey receives massive response? ›

Survey has more than 47,000 responses as of Monday morning - nine times as much as recent budget priority survey. SAN ANTONIO – A day before it closes, the City of San Antonio's survey on horse-drawn

Enter the passing lane with a wide margin

When you are finally able to make a pass, establish a safe and reasonable distance of three or more feet between your vehicle and the horse carriage. This lessens the likelihood of the horse becoming spooked and ultimately swaying into the passing lane.

On most days, the carriages line up on the streets surrounding Alamo Plaza and wait for people to approach them to ride. The cost is $25 per person who is riding. Children generally ride for free. To ride a carriage, simply walk up to the one you would like to go on and speak to the driver.

A horse-drawn carriage can travel anywhere from 2 to 12 miles per hour and as far as 30 miles daily. Keep reading to learn more about this method of transportation, including factors that can influence speed and distance and the load capacity horses can handle.

Horse-drawn vehicles traveled at slow speeds—from 4 to 12 miles per hour. This allowed intense scrutiny, as evidenced by 19th-century sources ranging from etiquette books to newspaper articles.

In many cities, horse-drawn carriages are seen as tourist attractions, evoking nostalgic images of days gone by. Yet, underlying these quaint notions is the reality for the horses: daily exposure to noise and pollution, heavy traffic, hard pavement, long workdays, constant heavy loads, and lack of access to pasture.

The average large carriage weight is in the neighborhood of 1800 lbs. However, the wheels and design make the load on the horse lighter. Imagine trying to lift a bag of heavy mulch and walk with it.

Not everyone is enthralled with the mule/buggy idea! I just returned from a trip to NOLA the first week of June. If you go in a group carriage it is $12 per person. If you hire a private carriage it is $60 per person.

On average, horse and carriage rentals cost $500 - $800 for 1 hour.

Can horses memorize routes? ›

Well-trained and experienced horses could memorize their regular route, travelling from house to house automatically and waiting patiently as the driver carried loaves, crates, blocks, or bottles from the wagon to the front door.

A general rule of thumb is about 10 mph for a fit horse and rider (since they're going to be running) up to about 50-60 miles, if they're not carrying their own food/water and then they stop. So a day's riding, or 7–8 hours. Humans can keep going without stopping for food, horses can't.

At top speed with a rider on it's back a horse can carry a rider for roughly 3km. However, in a race setting the horse is then paced allowing it to reach a further distance of approximately 8km at a fast speed.

Because the terrain was so rough in western North Carolina, travel by stage required changes of teams every eight to ten miles and often six horses instead of the usual four. Despite their discomfort, stagecoach passengers generally did not complain and often developed a camaraderie with other riders.

Carriage terminology

The carriage driver is called a whip. A person whose business was to drive a carriage was a coachman.

Stagecoaches could travel at about ten miles per hour. Riding horseback was much faster, but one could not carry nearly as much cargo. Riding in a coach was much different than our experience riding in cars today. Coaches could not have glass windows, as the rocky and rough roads would have broken them.

Dandy waggon or dandy cart: an additional small rail car added to a gravity train to transport the horse downhill, after which the horse would pull the line of cars (often slate waggons) back up the hill.

Be sure to slow down and allow buggies and horse drawn equipment plenty of room when passing. Only pass when legal and safe. NEVER pass a buggy near the top of a hill. Oncoming traffic is traveling up to 50 mph, please don't get in their way when they can't see you!