Horse transport: from ancient days to the present

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:44

The whole history of mankind is inextricably linked with horses. In particular, horse-drawn transport has always been of great importance, in some regions it has retained its importance to this day.

This type of transport played the most important role throughout the development of our state, which is spread over vast expanses. However, what is meant by this term? In this case, transport is the transportation of goods using the muscular strength of animals harnessed to carts. Historically, these animals were understood as horses, but oxen, donkeys and mules were actively involved in transportation.

Horses were used not only for field work, but also for the delivery of goods from one end of the country to the other. The army was especially dependent on transport supplies, which, due to its vast expanses, was in dire need not only of the quick delivery of orders and instructions from the command, but also of high-quality and timely supplies. It should be noted that initially horse-drawn transport was always run by coachmen, but the state was so in dire need of the supply of products that soon the peasantry began to be actively involved in this process.

Special role in developmentThis transport in our country belongs to Siberians. It was Siberia, rich in resources, that for its development was in dire need of a full-fledged and well-organized transport system that could cover the gigantic needs of a large and rapidly developing country. However, the same circumstance gave a strong impetus to the development of animal husbandry, since a large number of mounts annually went to the needs of carriers.

Especially in demand was horse-drawn transport on the stretch between Tomsk and Irkutsk: several million pounds of cargo of various nature and purpose were transported here annually. Since the population of the region grew rapidly in those years, the demand for goods from the European part of the Empire grew just as rapidly. On the contrary, in the Central region, an increasing amount of tea was required, the transportation of which by the beginning of the 1900s was carried out so rapidly that by that time the weight of the tea leaf transported across the Chinese border had already exceeded one million pounds!

After the Revolution, the importance of horse-drawn carts only increased, as the constant horse-drawn campaigns of the armies required a large number of draft animals, which could be used not only under the saddle, but also in transporting a large amount of cargo. It was at that time that the technology of quick change of horses was developed, which made it possible to transport 25 centners of cargo in one wagon! Replaceable carts were taken after several kilometers, as a result of which, during daylight hours, the drivers managed totransport impressive volumes of payloads even by today's standards.

However, due to the lack of large stud farms at that time, only peasant horses were used. This gave all transportation a strictly pronounced seasonality, since life on the roads died down during the sowing season. Horse-drawn transport began to give up its positions in our country only after the Great Patriotic War, when the production of trucks in the required quantity was established in the USSR.