Dogcart

This article is about horse-drawn vehicles. For carts pulled by dogs, see Dogcart (dog-drawn).
"Dos-à-dos (carriage)" redirects here. For other uses, see Dos-à-dos.
Dogcarts
Dogcart with horses in tandem

A dogcart (also dog-cart or dog cart) is a two-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle pulled by a single horse in shafts, or driven tandem. With seating for four, it was designed for sporting shooters and their gun dogs, with a louvred box under the driver's seat to contain dogs. It was developed in the early 1800s to afford more seating than the gig, which seats only two. Seating is two back-to-back crosswise seats, an arrangement called dos-à-dos from French. There is a hinged tailboard which lowers slightly and, supported by chains, acts as a footrest for the rear-facing passengers. Some dogcarts had a mechanism to slide the entire body forward or rearward along the shafts to help balance the weight for the horse.[1][2]

Other names for specific or regional designs of dogcarts include Battlesden cart, Bent panel cart, Bounder, Country cart, Essex trap, Farmer's dogcart, Going-to-cover cart, High dogcart, Hurdle cart, Leamington cart, Malvern cart, Moray car, Newport Pagnell cart, Norfolk cart, Norfolk shooting cart, Nottingham cart, Oxford bounder, Oxford dogcart, Pony dogcart, Ralli dogcart, Sliding bodied dogcart, Surrey cart, Tandem cart, To-cart, Whitechapel cart, Worcester cart, and Worthing cart.[1]

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference smith was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference parry was invoked but never defined (see the help page).