Horse Buggy

Modes of travel have undergone a drastic change over the past few centuries. So much so that the modes of locomotion from one place to another that were so common about one or two centuries ago, now are antique pieces that people wish to keep in their museums. A horse buggy is one such means of transportation.

A horse buggy as the Americans called it, which was also commonly known as a ‘roadster', is nothing but what the English call a horse carriage. It was a very common mode of transport in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (more precisely, between 1865 and 1915) in the UK , the USA and Canada . The reason why these were so popular was because horse riding was a skill known to a few, so people needed someone to ride them from one place to another.

As the name itself suggests, these carriages were not drawn by any machine power, but by horses. The horses were, of course, driven with whips that had tassels on its ends, and were appropriately called a ‘snapper'

There were several variations of the horse buggy . It could have been an open carriage, but the ones most popular were those that had a foldable roof, to protect from the sun and rain. Apart from that there was also the ‘Concord Buggy', named so because they were first introduced in the Concord in New Hampshire . Its most striking feature was the low sides and a spring suspension on the sides. There was also the ‘Double Buggy', which was nothing but a two seater carriage. Those that were high seated and had their backs covered were known as the ‘Stanhope'

Thus, horse buggies remained extremely popular till automobiles came in. the foremost reason for more and more people, including women who were not too skilled in horse riding, took horse carriage driving as a profession. The primary reason for this could be attributed to the fact that these buggies cost really less, a mere 25 to 50 dollars. Later, as the years advanced, bigger companies started producing bigger and more complex buggies which became an attraction among the masses.

Over the years the idea of a landscape where horse buggies carried people from one place to another has fired the imagination of many people. These have found representation in several sketches, paintings, films, books, etc. on the other hand, with the advent of automobiles, these have been perceived by some as an out dated mode of conveyance, and these are the people who felt the need to do away with them.