Interesting incident in the horsey world.. What often happens in the Moore household at weekends is that Catherine rides her trusty horse at  some horse show , and Brett exercises his trusty TD5 90  on some off road course. Catherine will then take The Puma 110 to tow her double horse box.

So a few weeks ago Catherine and Fitness Nut , her special steed , find themselves packing up after a good day’s dressage competition. Nearby her,  fellow competitors are ready to drive off with their equine friends in a double horse box, towed by a Toyota Hi Lux. The combo moves off slowly , when suddenly there is a loud bang and everything comes to a sudden stop . Why ? The tow bar has been ripped out of the Toyota chassis . Fortunately all at low speed , so the horses are not injured . But think about it : that combo could have been returning over Ou Kaapse Weg within a few minutes . Think of the possible carnage if a double horse box had ripped loose at the top of the pass.

So what is the lesson? Catherine spoke to the owners a week later. They were not happy campers. Turns out that after investigating the situation , they discovered that the Toyota is not rated to pull such a load. In fact most bakkies are not rated. Why not ? There are two ratings applicable . First is the manufacturers rating : Toyota (as with many others ) does not rate their vehicle high enough to pull a horse box. The legislated rating is more favorable to the Toyota , because it is based on the weight of the towing vehicle. So many bakkie owners get away with it because the cops are not concerned with the manufacturers rating . But had this accident had more serious consequences the owners could have been  in a tricky legal position by exceeding the manufacturer’s specs. Because the manufacturers rating could then become the legal rating.

And the Landy  ? Legal , well within manufacturers and legal limits to tow a double horse box.  And more stable and stronger . It is not for nothing that Toyota do not rate their bakkies as highly as Land Rover rates the Defender. The Landy chassis is simply a lot stronger. Note also that the Discovery is one of the few other cars rated to tow such a load.