Transporting your horse: are you within the law?
Good news: in most cases, your standard category B license is enough. But as soon as the trailer gets bigger, the license category changes. Let's take stock.
What determines your license
It is not the number of horses, it is the weight. Specifically the gross vehicle weight (GVW) of your combination: car + trailer, or truck.
Car + trailer: the thresholds
- Light trailer or a combination ≤ 3,500 kg → category B.
- Combination up to 4,250 kg → category B96 (a 7-hour course, no test).
- Heavy trailer, combination up to 7,000 kg → category BE.
Truck (horse van)
- GVW ≤ 3,500 kg → category B.
- From 3,500 to 7,500 kg → category C1.
- Above that → category C.
Where do you read the weight?On your vehicle registration document, box F.2 shows the vehicle's gross vehicle weight and box F.3 the total permissible weight of the combination. That is where it all comes down.
If in doubt
Thresholds vary from one country to another and they change over time. Always check your exact situation with the licensing or transport authority in your country: they alone are the reference. Remember the payload too: horses + empty trailer + gear must never exceed the gross vehicle weight.
Informative article: it does not replace the official regulations of your country, which alone are authoritative.
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