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23-423: A postilion or postillion is a person who rides a harnessed horse that is pulling a horse-drawn vehicle such as a coach , rather than driving from behind as a coachman does. This method is used for pulling wheeled vehicles that do not have a driver's seat, such as many ceremonial state coaches and artillery limbers and caissons . Postilion riders are generally arranged one rider for each pair of horses, riding

46-497: A coach is typically heavier than a saddle horse and exhibits good style and action. Breeds have included: Kocs During the reign of King Matthias Corvinus in the 1400s, the wheelwrights of Kocs began to build a cart with steel-spring suspension. This " cart of Kocs " as the Hungarians called it ( kocsi szekér ) soon became popular all over Europe. The spread of the kocsi szekér has been linked by some theories personally to

69-450: A coarser kind. The business of a coachman, like the pilot of an aircraft, was to expertly direct and take all responsibility for a coach or carriage and its horses, their stabling, feeding and maintenance and the associated staff. He was also called a jarvey or jarvie , especially in Ireland . If he drove dangerously fast or recklessly he was a jehu (from Jehu , king of Israel , who

92-532: A pair of horses. In 1619 George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham introduced the coach drawn by six horses. A coach with four horses is a coach-and-four . A coach together with the horses, harness and attendants is a turnout . The bodies of early coaches were hung on leather straps. In the eighteenth century steel springs were also used in suspension systems. An advertisement in the Edinburgh Courant for 1754 reads: The Edinburgh stage-coach, for

115-568: A result of the small number of horses in Dahomey. In the 19th century the name coach was used for U.S. railway carriages , and in the 20th century to motor coaches . See John Taylor (poet) for a very adverse opinion of the arrival of horse drawn coaches in England. There are a number of coach types, including but not limited to: Coach-building had reached a high degree of specialization in Britain by

138-797: A return hire was anticipated a postilion of a spent team frequently was also responsible for returning them to the originating post house. Posting was once common both in England and in continental Europe. In addition to a carriage's obvious advantages (a degree of safety and shelter for the inside passengers and accessibility to non-riders) on long trips it tended to be the most rapid form of passenger travel. Individually mounted riders are subject to their personal endurance limits, while posting could continue indefinitely with brief stops for fresh horses and crew. In England, posting declined once railways became an alternative method of transport, but it remained popular in France and other countries. The gun detachments of

161-413: A separate horse, is in charge of the team and there are six other horses teamed together. This configuration is used at Arlington National Cemetery . To adapt to the rigours of horses traveling long distances at a trot , postillion riders adapted a method of rising and falling with the rhythm of the horse's gait and given the name "posting" or "posting to the trot." Coach (carriage) A coach

184-406: Is a large, closed, four-wheeled, passenger-carrying vehicle or carriage usually drawn by two or more horses controlled by a coachman , a postilion , or both. A coach has doors in its sides and a front and a back seat inside. The driver has a raised seat in front of the carriage to allow better vision. It is often called a box , box seat, or coach box . There are many types of coaches depending on

207-511: The King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery are each driven by a team of three post riders. The King's Troop is a ceremonial unit equipped with World War I veteran 13-pounder field guns drawn by six horses in much the same configuration as the guns of the 19th and early 20th century would have been. Officers and senior non-commissioned officers ride separately. The United States Army's Old Guard Caisson Platoon also rides postilion. The section sergeant, on

230-733: The German Kutsche , the Slovak koč , Czech kočár , and Slovene kočija all probably derive from the Hungarian word "Kocsi", literally meaning "of Kocs". One source says that in, “1564, Boonen, a Dutchman, became the Queen’s coachman, and was the first that brought the use of coaches into England.” Another source says it was not until 1580, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I , that coaches were introduced to England from France by Henry FitzAlan, 19th Earl of Arundel . These were designed to be pulled by

253-423: The [right] leg to protect it from the battering of the carriage pole. This style of travel was known as "posting". The postilions and their horses (known as "post-horses") would be hired from a "postmaster" at a "post house" . The carriage would travel from one post house to the next (a journey known as a "stage"), where the postilions and/or spent (exhausted) horses could be replaced if necessary. In practice unless

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276-565: The barrel shaped roof was covered in brightly painted leather or cloth. The interior would include seats, beds, cushions, tapestries and even rugs. They would be pulled by four to five horses. Kocs was the Hungarian post town in the 15th century onwards, which gave its name to a fast light vehicle, which later spread across Europe. Therefore, the English word coach , the Spanish and Portuguese coche ,

299-448: The better accommodation of passengers, will be altered to a new genteel two-end glass coach-machine, hung on steel springs, exceedingly light and easy... Strap suspensions persisted, however; the 19th century American Concord coaches used leather straps exactly as the first Berline from 1660 did. A coach might have a built-in compartment called a boot , used originally as a seat for the coachman and later for storage. A luggage case for

322-451: The curved woodwork alone called for considerable skill. Making the iron axels, springs and other metal used was the work of the “coach-smith,” one of the most highly paid classes of workmen in London. Lining the interior of the coach with leather and painting, trimming, and decorating the exterior required the work of specialist tradesmen. Building carts and wagons involved similar skills, but of

345-464: The king of Hungary Ferdinand I , the younger brother of Charles V who became the king of Spain, Emperor of Germany, and lord of the Burgundian Netherlands, in the 16th century, and who promoted the comfortable, spring-suspended wagons among the wealthy European nobility. A 16th-century German depiction of a kocsi without springs puts this theory in doubt, however, and it is uncertain whether

368-439: The left horse. Originally the English name for a guide or forerunner for the post (mail) or a messenger, it became transferred to the actual mail carrier or messenger and also to a person who rides a (hired) post horse . The same persons made themselves available as a less expensive alternative to hiring a coachman, particularly for light, fast vehicles. Postilions ride the left or nearside mount because horses are mounted from

391-516: The left. With a double team there could be two postilions, one for each pair, or, especially in France, one postilion would ride on the left wheel (rear) horse in order to control all four horses. The postilion wears a full-dress livery with a short jacket reaching to the waist only and decorated with gold lace and gilt buttons. A white shirt and stock tie , white leather breeches, white gloves, decorated cap, boots with brown tops, and an iron leg-guard on

414-555: The middle of the 19th century. Separate branches of the trade dealt with the timber, iron, leather, brass and other materials used. And there were many minor specialists within each of these categories. The “body-makers” produced the body or vehicle itself, while the “carriage-makers” made the stronger timbers beneath and around the body. The timbers used included ash , beech , elm , oak , mahogany , pine , birch and larch . The tools and processes were similar to those used in cabinet-making , plus others specific to coach-making. Making

437-492: The springs or some other feature were responsible for the spread of the word throughout Europe. The Thurn-und-Taxis-Post , the imperial post service, employed the first horse-drawn mail coaches in Europe since Roman times in 1650 –, as they started in the town of Kocs the use of these mail coaches gave rise to the term "coach". In contemporary colloquial Hungarian the word "kocsi" is most often used to mean "car". The coat of arms of

460-487: The top of a coach was called an imperial ; the top, roof or second-story compartment of a coach was also known as an imperial. The front and rear axles were connected by a main shaft called the perch or reach . A crossbar known as a splinter bar supported the springs. In 1772, Robert Norris described the use of two coaches in Dahomey during a ceremonial procession. They were drawn by 12 men instead of horses probably as

483-412: The vehicle's purpose. In the early 14th century England, coaches would still have been extremely rare. It is unlikely there were more than a dozen, and even then they were very costly until the end of the century. These coaches would have had four six-spoke, six-foot high wheels that were linked by greased axles under the body of the coach and they had no suspension. The chassis was made from oak beams and

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506-456: Was called a shooter . Traveling by coach, or pleasure driving in a coach, as in a tally-ho , was called coaching. In driving a coach, the coachman used a coachwhip , usually provided with a long lash. Experienced coachmen never used the lash on their horses. They used the whip to flick the ear of the leader to give them the office to move on, or cracked it next to their heads to request increased speed. A coach horse or coacher bred for drawing

529-409: Was noted for his furious attacks in a chariot (2 Kings 9:20), or a Phaeton (from Greek Phaethon , son of Helios , who attempted to drive the chariot of the sun but managed to set the earth on fire). A postilion or postillion sometimes rode as a guide on the near horse of a pair or of one of the pairs attached to a coach, especially when there was no coachman. A guard on a horse-drawn coach

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