Imperial Code for the Welfare of Working Carriage Equids

Article 1 — Application

This Code applies to every horse, pony, mule, donkey, hinny, zebra hybrid, or other equid used, prepared for use, presented for use, or kept for use in carriage, cart, wagon, sleigh, freight, taxi, public transport, ceremonial, agricultural, commercial, rental, tourist, government, emergency, or private vehicle work within the Empire.

This Code applies to:

• single-equid vehicles;
• pairs;
• tandems;
• teams;
• lead equids;
• wheel equids;
• spare and relay equids held for carriage work;
• equids in training for carriage work;
• equids waiting, resting, loading, unloading, or standing while assigned to carriage work;
• vehicles, harness, route conditions, lighting, markings, records, operators, drivers, attendants, owners, businesses, and public authorities connected to carriage work.

This Code does not regulate mounted police, mounted patrol, ridden couriers, or led equids except where they are attached to a vehicle or where another Imperial road law expressly applies this Code to them.

Article 2 — Purpose

The purpose of this Code is to ensure that no carriage, vehicle, route, business, service, ceremony, tradition, public demand, profit, registration, licence, route approval, or emergency purpose is placed above the welfare and safety of the equid.

Working carriage equids shall be managed as living animals with physical, social, sensory, emotional, and recovery needs. They shall not be treated as engines, decorative property, braking systems, crowd attractions, or replaceable transport parts.

Article 3 — Supremacy of welfare

No authorisation, registration, commercial value, historical status, ceremonial value, public popularity, transport necessity, public-service purpose, or operator licence shall override the welfare requirements of this Code.

Where an equid is unfit, unsafe, distressed, overworked, injured, frightened, overheated, chilled, lame, improperly harnessed, insufficiently trained, or otherwise unable to work safely, it shall be removed from work regardless of the vehicle’s approval, the route’s approval, the driver’s licence, the operator’s licence, the customer’s payment, or the public need for the service.

Article 4 — Relationship with other Imperial law

This Code shall be read together with:

• the Imperial Tack, Restraint, and Welfare Code;
• the General Imperial Equid Welfare Code;
• the Imperial Road and Driver Code;
• the Imperial Working Equid Passport Template;
• any Imperial Tack Measurement Schedule;
• any Imperial Public-Road Equid Status Marking Standard;
• any Imperial Carriage Lighting and Signalling Standard;
• any Imperial Equid Climatic Burden Standard.

The Schedules in this Code are final and binding for carriage equids. A separate Imperial standard may provide additional detail or stricter requirements, but shall not weaken, suspend, or replace this Code unless amended by Imperial law.

Article 5 — Definitions

For the purposes of this Code:

Facial Marker means an approved, non-restraining, marker-bearing facial tack component used to display an interchangeable road-status insert clearly from the front. Facial Markers are either marker-bearing frenteras or marker-bearing muserolas. A Facial Marker may be integrated into headgear or fitted as a separate non-control component.

Frentera means, for the purposes of Imperial law, a frontal tack component extending vertically along the centre of the equid’s face from the upper bridle, headstall, browband, crown area, or equivalent upper attachment toward the forehead or nasal bridge. It may be a narrow strap, an X-shaped or branched arrangement, or a broad ornamental panel, and may terminate above, attach to, overlap, or continue onto a noseband. A marker-bearing frentera may carry its official insert upon the forehead or upon the stable upper nasal bridge. A component confined to crossing or encircling the nose, without an upper vertical facial connection, is not a frentera.

Muserola means, for the purposes of Imperial law, a noseband or nosepiece crossing and ordinarily encircling the equid’s nose. A marker-bearing muserola may be broad, decorative, separately mounted, incorporated into lawful headgear, or integrated into a lawful control noseband. It need not attach to the browband, crownpiece, or any vertical frontal component. The term includes an approved broad marker-bearing noseband or nosepiece performing the same function, regardless of commercial or regional name.

A frentera or muserola qualifies as a Facial Marker only where it provides a dedicated, clearly visible insert field of sufficient size and contrast for road use. A small ornament, medallion, stud, badge, or decorative plate that cannot carry the required insert visibly does not qualify.

A Facial Marker shall not obstruct vision, ears, breathing, nostril expansion, facial nerves, forelock comfort, head movement, headgear function, rein or line action, or pressure release. Where it is integrated into a pressure-bearing noseband, its window, slot, pocket, insert, backing, edging, and fasteners shall not stiffen the noseband, create a hard edge or pressure point, concentrate force, impair fit or release, or alter rein or driving-line action.

Carriage-work certificate means the official certificate, recorded in the Working Equid Passport or central Imperial record, that states the equid’s lawful carriage-work status, route class, vehicle class, hitch role, workload limits, climate restrictions, reproductive restrictions, tack restrictions, and inspection expiry.

Lawful capacity means the maximum vehicle, load, passenger number, active-traction time, shift length, route class, gradient, surface, speed, weather burden, hitch role, and service type that the individual equid or team may lawfully perform without exceeding this Code, its Passport, veterinary restrictions, route approval, vehicle approval, or any stricter welfare order.

Pregnant equid means any equid known or reasonably suspected to be pregnant, recorded as pregnant, awaiting pregnancy confirmation, or treated by a veterinarian as pregnancy-protected. Sex labels, registration errors, ownership claims, absence of visible abdominal enlargement, or lack of immediate diagnostic confirmation do not create permission to work pending assessment.

Regular veterinary care means scheduled preventive and fitness care at intervals appropriate to the individual equid’s age, health, work, reproductive status, climate exposure, and veterinary science. For active carriage equids, regular veterinary care shall include a full veterinary fitness examination at least every six months unless a veterinarian or competent authority requires a shorter interval; additional examination after injury, illness, pregnancy change, collapse, heat stress, cold stress, lameness, respiratory distress, medication, or serious incident; hoof-care review at intervals appropriate to hoof growth and route wear, ordinarily every four to eight weeks; and dental assessment at least every twelve months, or more often where age, dental condition, bitless headgear fit, weight, chewing, or veterinary advice requires it.

Serious entanglement means any entanglement involving harness, traces, reins or lines, shafts, pole, breeching, crupper, marker equipment, lamps, vehicle parts, legs, tail, headgear, public objects, road furniture, another equid, a person, or cargo that causes injury, panic, fall, collapse, lameness, loss of control, emergency release, trapped limbs or head, vehicle instability, traffic hazard, inability to move freely, or any situation where continued restraint would create material welfare or public-safety risk.

Serious harness entanglement means serious entanglement in which harness, traces, lines, shafts, pole, breeching, crupper, breastcollar, collar, tugs, straps, marker mounts, lighting mounts, or vehicle-connected equipment are involved.

Active traction means any period during which an equid is harnessed to a vehicle and is pulling, holding, steering, stabilising, resisting roll-back, backing, turning, braking, standing under vehicle load, or otherwise bearing vehicle-related force.

Approved route means a route approved for the relevant vehicle, equid, team, load, weather, traffic condition, road surface, gradient, and service type.

Breast status panel means a non-restraining marker plate, badge, panel, or mount attached to a breastcollar, breastplate, harness front, or approved chest-position equipment for road-status, service-status, or visibility purposes. A breast status panel shall not function as a martingale, rein-action modifier, head restraint, tie-down, fixed posture device, or training aid.

Carriage means any equid-drawn vehicle, including a carriage, cart, wagon, cab, coach, omnibus, sleigh, freight vehicle, agricultural vehicle, ceremonial vehicle, medical vehicle, rescue vehicle, postal vehicle, government vehicle, or training vehicle.

Carriage equid means any equid used or intended for use in carriage work.

Carriage work means any ridden-excluded vehicle work in which an equid is attached to, pulls, holds back, stabilises, steers, or is trained to operate with a vehicle.

Driver means a person who controls or is responsible for controlling a carriage, vehicle, team, route movement, stopping, turning, passenger loading, or public-road interaction.

Emergency medical carriage means an authorised equid-drawn medical transport vehicle designed for urgent patient movement, medical response, or casualty evacuation.

Equid ground-guidance lamp means a steady, downward-facing lamp mounted on approved chest-position equipment and used to illuminate the road surface ahead of an equid for the equid’s footing, confidence, and obstacle recognition.

Green-status equid means an equid that is not yet fully ordinary-road certified but is lawfully permitted on a public road under a provisional, training, restricted, or supervised road certificate.

Operator means a person, business, stable, public authority, institution, service, or organisation that owns, manages, hires, rents, provides, dispatches, profits from, supervises, or controls carriage work.

Rest Court means an approved equid rest facility providing sufficient space, water, shelter, safe footing, monitoring, vehicle separation, and rest conditions for carriage equids during longer stops or work breaks.

Road-status insert means an interchangeable road-grade retroreflective and switchably self-illuminated coloured, bordered, or emblem-bearing insert displayed in an approved Facial Marker and used to show the equid’s road certification, restriction, hazard, or authorised service status.

Working Equid Passport means the official individual record required for a working carriage equid. The template shall be maintained separately as the Imperial Working Equid Passport Template.

Article 6 — Working Equid Passport requirement

No equid shall be used for carriage work unless it has an individual Working Equid Passport.

The Passport shall identify the equid and record, where applicable:

• identity and ownership;
• species and type;
• age and date of birth where known;
• height and body condition;
• distinguishing marks;
• microchip or official identification;
• road certification;
• carriage-work certification;
• veterinary fitness;
• hoof-care status;
• dental-care status;
• vaccination and disease-control status;
• harness fit records;
• permitted vehicle class;
• permitted route class;
• permitted workload class;
• weather restrictions;
• blinker or sensory-equipment status;
• ground-guidance lamp approval if individual approval is required;
• road-status marker status;
• rest, work, incident, injury, suspension, and removal-from-work records.

The Passport template shall remain a separate legal and administrative document. This Code requires its use but does not merge the Passport into this Code.

Article 7 — Operator licence

No person shall operate a carriage business, carriage taxi service, tourist carriage service, freight carriage service, ceremonial carriage service, public transport carriage service, emergency carriage service, rental carriage service, or public-road carriage service without an operator licence.

An operator licence shall require proof of:

• competent equid care;
• lawful stabling, turnout, and rest arrangements;
• approved routes;
• approved vehicles;
• approved harness;
• approved drivers and attendants;
• veterinary access;
• farrier access;
• recordkeeping capacity;
• weather monitoring;
• emergency response planning;
• insurance or public-liability compliance where required;
• welfare inspection compliance;
• staff training in this Code and the Tack Code.

An operator licence may be suspended immediately where continued operation presents material welfare risk.

Article 8 — Driver and attendant competence

No person shall drive a carriage on a public road, commercial route, passenger route, freight route, public-service route, ceremonial route, or emergency route unless licensed for the relevant vehicle, team, route, traffic condition, and service type.

A licensed driver shall be competent in:

• bitless driving control;
• harness inspection;
• vehicle inspection;
• brake use;
• route safety;
• passing and stopping signals;
• equid body-language recognition;
• lameness and distress recognition;
• heat, cold, wet, wind, and footing risk;
• passenger safety;
• emergency release;
• incident reporting;
• public interaction control.

Where the route, load, traffic, weather, team size, service type, or passenger number requires an attendant, the carriage shall not operate without a competent attendant.

Article 9 — Vehicle authorisation

No carriage shall be used unless the vehicle is authorised for the equid or team, work type, route, load, speed, braking demand, weather condition, and road surface.

Vehicle authorisation shall consider:

• weight;
• balance;
• centre of gravity;
• shaft or pole fit;
• trace angle;
• wheel or runner condition;
• brake design;
• emergency release;
• suspension;
• passenger stability;
• load restraint;
• road lamps;
• turn and brake signals;
• rear status board;
• side markers;
• service livery where applicable;
• compatibility with the harness and equid.

Vehicle authorisation shall not authorise use with a different equid, team, route, load, or service type unless the authorisation expressly covers that use.

Article 10 — Equid road and carriage certification

No equid shall be used for carriage work on a public road unless it holds the required road and carriage-work certification.

Certification shall assess:

• physical maturity;
• veterinary fitness;
• hoof soundness;
• respiratory fitness;
• cardiovascular fitness;
• musculoskeletal fitness;
• temperament;
• training;
• traffic tolerance;
• crowd tolerance;
• noise tolerance;
• ability to halt and stand;
• ability to start calmly;
• ability to turn, back, yield, and wait;
• ability to work in the proposed hitch;
• ability to tolerate approved road markers and lamps;
• suitability for the proposed route, load, vehicle, and weather class.

A certificate may be ordinary, provisional, restricted, training-only, service-specific, route-specific, vehicle-specific, seasonal, temporary, suspended, or revoked.

Every certificate shall state the equid’s lawful capacity. A certificate that does not state lawful capacity, expiry, inspection basis, and certifying authority is incomplete and shall not authorise public-road carriage work.

The required certificate template is maintained as a separate legal and administrative document: the Imperial Carriage Equid Road and Work Certificate Template. This Code requires its use but does not merge the certificate template into this Code.

Article 11 — Minimum age for carriage work

No Category L equid shall be used for public, commercial, passenger, freight, emergency, ceremonial, rental, or regular carriage work before forty-eight completed months of age. No Category H equid shall be used for such work before sixty completed months of age. Maturity classification and the stricter first-year progression required by the General Imperial Equid Welfare Code shall apply.

A Category L equid younger than forty-eight completed months and a Category H equid younger than sixty completed months shall not be placed in active traction on a public road. Every equid in its first twelve months of active traction shall comply with Article 60 and Schedule 5 of the General Imperial Equid Welfare Code.

Carefully supervised in-hand exposure, desensitisation, non-load harness familiarisation, and non-traction training may be lawful where permitted by the General Imperial Equid Welfare Code and where it does not cause pain, fatigue, fear, joint strain, or mental overload.

Article 12 — No authorisation by breed alone

No breed, type, bloodline, pedigree, registry status, colour, size, historical use, national symbolism, or commercial reputation shall make an equid suitable for carriage work.

Approval shall be based on the individual equid’s health, maturity, training, conformation, temperament, gait, recovery, route suitability, harness suitability, and welfare.

A breed or cross may be preferred for a work class only where the preference is based on functional welfare evidence and does not exempt the individual equid from certification.

Article 12A — Pregnancy, lactation, foals, and reproductive protection

No pregnant equid shall be used for carriage work, driving work, active traction, commercial vehicle work, passenger carriage work, freight work, rental work, taxi work, emergency vehicle work, ceremonial vehicle work, or public-road vehicle work.

Early pregnancy shall not be treated as a safe period for heavy work. A pregnant equid may be permitted only such light ridden, led, turnout, veterinary, therapeutic, or conditioning activity as is allowed by current veterinary science, the General Imperial Equid Welfare Code, and the equid’s individual veterinary restrictions. This Code shall not be used to authorise any pregnant equid to pull, hold back, stabilise, brake, or stand under vehicle assignment.

A visibly heavy, late-term, medically vulnerable, high-risk, recently bred, recently foaled, postpartum, or lactating equid shall not be assigned to carriage work, vehicle-connected work, riding work, driving work, training work, public display, commercial work, sport work, ceremonial work, rental work, tourist work, or other work. Only turnout, gentle handling, veterinary examination, veterinary treatment, welfare movement, or therapeutic movement expressly allowed or required by a veterinarian under current veterinary science is permitted.

A lactating or nursing equid shall not be used for public, commercial, taxi, freight, rental, emergency, ceremonial, tourist, or regular carriage work. A foal shall not be tied, led, driven beside, displayed with, or transported as part of carriage work for attraction, publicity, training convenience, or customer demand.

Where pregnancy is discovered or reasonably suspected during a carriage-work assignment, the equid shall be removed from active traction immediately, the vehicle shall be made safe by lawful means, and the equid shall receive appropriate veterinary assessment and amended Passport status.

An equid shall not be punished, sold, concealed, transferred, overworked, or misrecorded because pregnancy, suspected pregnancy, lactation, reproductive unsuitability, or foal welfare prevents carriage work.

Article 12B — Pregnancy-status road marker

A pregnant equid lawfully present on a public road for any permitted non-carriage purpose shall display an approved pregnancy-status road-status insert in a Facial Marker where required by the Imperial Public-Road Equid Status Marking Standard.

The pregnancy-status panel shall be a road-grade retroreflective and switchably illuminated white field with a violet border and an approved pregnant-equid, parent-and-foal, or pregnancy emblem. The panel shall instruct road users, drivers, riders, handlers, and service personnel to give additional space, avoid pressure, avoid crowding, and avoid unnecessary delay.

No carriage operator, driver, inspector, passenger, customer, event organiser, or public authority shall treat a pregnancy-status panel as permission for carriage work. Pregnancy-status marking is protective road information, not work authorisation.

Article 12C — Body condition, muscle fitness, and physical readiness

No equid shall be certified or used for carriage work where its body condition, muscle development, topline, recovery capacity, weight, or general physical readiness makes the assigned work unfair or unsafe.

An underweight, emaciated, rapidly losing weight, poorly muscled, exhausted, unconditioned, obese, metabolically vulnerable, or visibly unfit equid shall be removed from carriage work until veterinary clearance and conditioning requirements are met.

A large body size, heavy breed type, thick feathering, calm temperament, or historical draft reputation shall not be used to excuse poor fitness, poor recovery, or excessive load.

Article 12D — Medication, sedation, doping, and pain masking

No equid shall be used for carriage work under the influence of any medication, sedative, tranquilliser, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, stimulant, calming agent, masking agent, performance-altering substance, or treatment that masks pain, lameness, illness, fatigue, heat stress, cold stress, respiratory difficulty, fear, unsoundness, or unfitness; impairs coordination, judgement, balance, breathing, circulation, recovery, or safe behaviour; artificially enhances performance; suppresses warning signs; or otherwise makes work unsafe or conceals a condition requiring restriction or suspension.

Necessary maintenance or therapeutic medication does not automatically bar carriage work. Work is lawful only where the treating veterinarian confirms in writing that the medication does not mask relevant pain, lameness, illness, fatigue, fear, heat or cold stress, or other unfitness; impair safe function; artificially enhance performance; suppress warning signs; or conflict with the equid’s certificate, Passport, withdrawal requirements, service rules, or current condition. The medication, purpose, dose, timing, review date, and all work restrictions shall be recorded. Working an equid because treatment has hidden signs of unfitness remains unlawful.

No person shall administer, request, permit, conceal, or fail to disclose medication or treatment for the purpose of passing inspection, maintaining a schedule, completing a route, hiding lameness, calming fear, suppressing resistance, or increasing apparent work capacity.

Article 12E — Life outside work

A carriage equid shall not be certified where its ordinary housing, turnout, social contact, feeding, water access, sleep, recovery, veterinary care, hoof care, handling, or retirement provision fails the General Imperial Equid Welfare Code.

Good behaviour at work shall not cure unlawful living conditions outside work. A business may not maintain a lawful public carriage service by keeping equids in unlawful private conditions.

Article 13 — General fitness for work

A carriage equid shall not work unless fit for the work assigned that day.

An equid is unfit for work where it shows, or is reasonably suspected of showing:

• lameness;
• uneven gait;
• reluctance caused by pain, fear, exhaustion, or confusion;
• respiratory difficulty;
• coughing that may affect work safety;
• abnormal sweating;
• heat stress;
• cold stress;
• dehydration;
• colic signs;
• fever;
• swelling;
• wounds under harness areas;
• rubs, sores, bruising, or hair loss from harness;
• back pain;
• shoulder pain;
• neck pain;
• facial pain;
• hoof pain;
• mouth injury;
• neurological signs;
• panic, shutdown, freezing, bolting, rearing, repeated refusal, or defensive behaviour;
• any condition making work unsafe or unfair.

Article 14 — Veterinary, hoof, and dental care

Every carriage equid shall have regular veterinary, hoof, and dental care appropriate to its work. For active carriage equids, regular veterinary care means a full veterinary fitness examination at least every six months, or sooner where workload, age, pregnancy, lactation, illness, injury, climate burden, medication, route difficulty, or current veterinary science requires it. Hoof care shall occur at intervals appropriate to hoof growth, wear, route surface, trimming or shoeing method, and season, ordinarily every four to eight weeks. Dental assessment shall occur at least every twelve months, or more often where age, condition, chewing, weight, headgear fit, or veterinary advice requires it.

The competent authority may require:

• periodic veterinary fitness examination;
• pre-season examination;
• post-injury clearance;
• respiratory assessment;
• cardiac assessment;
• lameness evaluation;
• hoof-care records;
• shoeing or trimming records;
• dental records;
• harness-contact assessment;
• body-condition monitoring.

No equid shall be returned to carriage work after injury, illness, lameness, collapse, heat stress, cold stress, harness injury, respiratory distress, traffic trauma, or serious incident without clearance required by the competent authority.

Article 14A — Disease, contagious illness, and biosecurity

No equid showing fever, contagious disease signs, infectious discharge, unexplained cough, respiratory illness, diarrhoea, neurological signs, abnormal lethargy, or other disease risk shall be used for carriage work or brought into a public carriage stand, waiting bay, Rest Court, rental yard, taxi route, public transport route, event route, or service yard except for necessary isolation or veterinary movement.

Operators shall maintain disease-control procedures for shared stands, Rest Courts, water points, harness areas, vehicles, and relay stations.

The competent authority may suspend an equid, team, stable, route, stand, Rest Court, operator, district, or service class during suspected outbreak, confirmed outbreak, quarantine, or public-animal-health risk.

Article 14B — Hoof protection, road traction, and surface compatibility

A carriage equid shall have hoof protection, trimming, shoeing, or barefoot management suitable for the route, weather, surface, gradient, speed, load, braking demand, and individual hoof condition.

No equid shall work with loose, shifted, overgrown, painful, dangerously worn, unsuitable, or slipping hoof protection.

Barefoot work is lawful only where the individual hoof condition and route surface make it welfare-suitable. Shoes, boots, studs, pads, borium, caulks, or other traction devices are lawful only where they are fitted, maintained, route-suitable, and do not create new welfare risk.

A route shall be refused, restricted, or suspended where hoof traction cannot be made safe without causing hoof pain, limb strain, slipping, jarring, excessive concussion, or unsafe compensatory effort.

Article 15 — Temperament and road reliability

A carriage equid shall be trained and temperamentally suitable for the road environment in which it works.

A public-road carriage equid shall be able to:

• stand calmly under ordinary traffic conditions;
• move forward without panic;
• halt reliably;
• wait at crossings and signals;
• tolerate ordinary pedestrians, cycles, carriages, animals, and public movement;
• respond to lawful bitless driving cues;
• accept approved status markers;
• accept approved carriage lighting;
• accept approved equid ground-guidance lamps where used;
• recover from ordinary startle without uncontrolled flight;
• work safely with its assigned pair, tandem, or team where applicable.

An equid requiring fear, exhaustion, pain, excessive restraint, prohibited tack, harsh correction, extreme blinders, or constant suppression to remain manageable shall not be road-certified.

Article 15A — Mental welfare, shutdown, and false calmness

Quietness, obedience, immobility, tolerance, lack of resistance, or apparent dullness shall not be treated as proof of welfare or suitability where the equid shows shutdown, learned helplessness, depression, chronic fear, exhaustion, suppression, dissociation, repeated freezing, or loss of normal interest.

A carriage equid shall be assessed for confidence, curiosity, recovery after startle, willingness to engage, ability to relax, and absence of chronic fear indicators.

An equid that appears manageable only because it has stopped resisting shall be removed from carriage work and assessed as a welfare concern.

Article 16 — Team compatibility

No equid shall be placed in a pair, tandem, team, or multiple hitch unless the combination is suitable.

Team suitability shall consider:

• size;
• stride;
• speed;
• strength;
• temperament;
• training level;
• road confidence;
• pulling style;
• braking and holdback role;
• leader or wheeler assignment;
• experience with the other equids;
• compatibility under traffic, crowd, weather, and emergency conditions.

A calm equid shall not be used to mask, drag, contain, or compensate for an unfit, panicking, aggressive, exhausted, lame, or insufficiently trained equid.

Article 17 — Removal from work

A carriage equid shall be removed from work immediately where continued work would create material welfare risk.

Removal from work may be ordered by:

• the driver;
• an attendant;
• the operator;
• a veterinarian;
• a welfare inspector;
• the Road and Equid Guard;
• the competent authority;
• any emergency officer authorised by law.

No person shall punish, demote, sell, conceal, overwork, or otherwise retaliate against an equid because it was removed from work.

Article 18 — Pre-work inspection

Before each work period, the driver or assigned competent person shall inspect the equid, harness, vehicle, route conditions, weather conditions, road-status markers, and lighting.

The equid inspection shall include:

• general attitude;
• gait at walk and trot, with trot required for lameness screening unless trotting would be unsafe or veterinary restriction provides otherwise;
• breathing;
• hydration signs;
• sweating or coat condition;
• wounds, rubs, swelling, or heat;
• harness-contact areas;
• hoof condition;
• shoe or hoof-protection security where applicable;
• body condition and fatigue signs;
• weather suitability;
• road-status insert accuracy;
• ground-guidance lamp fit where used.

The vehicle inspection shall include:

• brakes;
• wheels or runners;
• shafts or pole;
• traces;
• breeching connection;
• emergency release;
• suspension;
• passenger steps and doors;
• load restraint;
• road lamps;
• turn and brake signals;
• rear status board;
• side markers.

No work shall begin until defects creating welfare or safety risk are corrected.

Article 18A — Emergency release drills, tools, and team procedures

Every carriage operator shall maintain and practise emergency release procedures for each vehicle class, hitch type, route class, and service type used.

Drivers and attendants shall be trained and periodically drilled in safe stopping, passenger unloading, unhitching, trace release, shaft or pole release, breeching release, entanglement response, team separation, injured-equid protection, traffic protection, and emergency communication.

Carriage equids shall also be trained and periodically drilled, without fear, flooding, pain, punishment, or excessive restraint, to tolerate lawful emergency-release procedures, safe stopping, standing during passenger unloading, being unhitched in unusual places, handler approach during stress, trace or shaft release, team separation, emergency tools near harness, and calm movement to a safe position.

Every carriage shall carry or have immediately available approved emergency release tools suitable for the harness and vehicle.

A pair, tandem, four-in-hand, team, or relay service shall have a written emergency release plan addressing the different risks of leaders, wheelers, traces, pole, shafts, reins or lines, and vehicle movement.

A service shall not operate where its driver, attendant, vehicle, harness, or route design makes timely emergency release impracticable.

Article 19 — Post-work inspection

After each work period, the equid shall be inspected for:

• lameness;
• abnormal fatigue;
• breathing abnormality;
• excessive sweating;
• chilling;
• dehydration;
• harness rubs;
• swelling;
• heat;
• bruising;
• back soreness;
• shoulder soreness;
• girth or surcingle soreness;
• tail-area irritation;
• behavioral deterioration;
• fear, shutdown, or refusal caused by the work.

Findings shall be recorded where required by the Passport, operator licence, service rules, or competent authority.

Article 19A — Harness rub escalation

Broken skin, bleeding, swelling, heat, open sores, pressure wounds, infected rubs, or painful harness-contact injury shall make the equid unfit for work until veterinary or competent-authority clearance is obtained.

Repeated hair loss, recurring rubs, white hairs from pressure injury, persistent tenderness, repeated swelling, or repeated behavioural signs at harnessing shall require harness refitting, vehicle reassessment, and work restriction.

A chronic harness-rub pattern may justify suspension of the harness, vehicle, driver, operator, route, or carriage-work certification.

Article 20 — Work and rest records

Commercial, public, private, emergency, rental, tourist, freight, ceremonial, training, agricultural, and government carriage work shall keep daily work records.

Records shall include:

• equid identity;
• vehicle identity;
• driver identity;
• attendant identity where applicable;
• route;
• load or passenger count;
• start time;
• end time;
• active traction time;
• waiting time;
• rest periods;
• harness-off periods;
• weather burden level;
• incidents;
• welfare observations;
• equipment defects;
• marker and lighting defects;
• removal from work;
• veterinary or authority orders.

Records shall be available for inspection.

Work, load, passenger, route, climate, force-test, bodyweight, veterinary, medication, incident, inspection, vehicle, harness, licence, certificate, suspension, and recovery records shall be retained for at least ten years. Records relating to serious injury, collapse, collision, runaway, entanglement, prosecution, suspension, death, or disputed certification shall be preserved until every investigation, proceeding, appeal, and limitation period is complete, even where longer.

Records shall remain linked to the individual equid after sale, transfer, operator change, retirement, export, licence expiry, or business closure. No record may be erased. A correction shall preserve the original entry and identify the author, date, reason, and verification.

Article 20A — Central workload record and anti-tampering rule

Work records shall be tied to the individual Working Equid Passport and to any central Imperial record system required by the competent authority.

An operator shall not destroy, alter, split, hide, delay, duplicate, substitute, falsify, or privately retain records in a manner that prevents inspectors from determining the equid’s actual workload, rest, route, vehicle, driver, medication status, injury history, or incident history.

Inspectors may compare Passport records, operator logs, route logs, Rest Court logs, vehicle logs, weather records, dispatch records, passenger records, veterinary records, farrier records, and inspection records to detect overwork or fraud.

Article 21 — Incident reporting

The following shall be reported as required by the competent authority:

• fall;
• collision;
• runaway;
• loss of control;
• heat stress;
• cold stress;
• collapse;
• severe fright;
• road refusal creating hazard;
• lameness during work;
• harness failure;
• vehicle failure;
• brake failure;
• lighting failure during required lighting hours;
• marker failure;
• passenger injury;
• public injury;
• equid injury;
• overwork suspicion;
• prohibited tack discovery;
• any event requiring emergency release.

Incident reporting shall not by itself establish guilt. Failure to report may constitute an offence.

Article 21A — Automatic highest-grade welfare and abuse investigation

Any death, collapse, euthanasia, severe injury, heat-stress event, cold-stress event, severe respiratory distress, runaway, serious collision, serious harness entanglement, serious vehicle failure, or emergency release during carriage work shall trigger an immediate highest-grade welfare and abuse investigation.

The investigation shall assess the equid, driver, operator, vehicle, harness, route, weather, workload, records, medication status, hoof condition, rest history, previous incidents, and any evidence of neglect, falsification, overwork, concealment, or unlawful pressure.

A highest-grade investigation shall not presume guilt, but no person shall treat the event as ordinary, minor, private, reputational, or merely accidental until welfare and abuse factors have been examined.

The equid, team, vehicle, route, driver, and operator may be suspended pending investigation where continued operation could compromise welfare, evidence, or public safety.

Article 22 — Lawful driving headgear and compliance with the Tack Code

All harness, headgear, restraint equipment, driving equipment, decorative equipment, lighting attachments, marker mounts, and vehicle-connected equipment shall comply with the Imperial Tack, Restraint, and Welfare Code.

Only a direct-action sidepull, as defined by the Imperial Tack, Restraint, and Welfare Code, is lawful as headgear for carriage work.

A lawful carriage-driving sidepull shall:

• provide direct independent lateral rein action;
• attach each driving line directly to the corresponding lateral side of the noseband;
• transmit line tension without leverage, shanks, a central under-jaw pivot, crossing straps, sliding straps, tightening action, wraparound action, rotation, pulley action, or force multiplication;
• release pressure immediately and completely when line tension is released;
• remain mechanically stable under long-line use and not rotate, twist, migrate, invert, collapse, or ride upward or downward on the face during steering, stopping, backing, turning, waiting, or emergency handling;
• use a broad, smooth, flexible, pressure-distributing noseband correctly placed over the stable nasal bone;
• contain no chain, wire, cable, metal pressure bar, hard knot, serration, sharp edge, narrow pressure-bearing cord, or other pressure-concentrating component;
• comply with the public-road headgear, Facial Marker, fitting, inspection, and certification requirements of this Code.

The following shall not be used for carriage work:

• bosals and bosal-type devices, including traditional rawhide bosals and modern broad, padded, or non-rawhide bosals;
• mechanical hackamores and any shanked, leverage, rotating, wheel, flower, multi-ring, or force-amplifying hackamore;
• cross-under, cross-jaw, tightening, sliding, wraparound, and delayed-release bitless bridles;
• combined sidepull-hackamore bridles;
• double-rein bitless arrangements containing a bosal, hackamore, leverage system, tightening system, or second pressure system;
• rope-halter bridles, rope sidepulls, and rope nose-pressure devices;
• bits, functional bits, mouthpieces, overchecks, bearing reins, sidechecks, check reins, running martingales, fixed martingales, draw-rein systems, chain restraint, mouth restraint, twitches, pain-based restraint equipment, and delayed-release prohibited equipment;
• any headgear that does not satisfy the legal definition of a direct-action sidepull.

Bosals are prohibited for carriage work because their reins or lines act from a common central attachment below the nose or jaw rather than from independent lateral attachments. They do not provide the direct independent left-and-right line action required for precise long-line steering.

Mechanical hackamores are prohibited for carriage work because asymmetric long-line tension acts through leverage and rotation rather than direct lateral noseband action. The device may rotate or ride upward on the face, alter its pressure location, reduce steering precision, and place avoidable pressure on sensitive facial, jaw, chin, or poll structures.

Cross-under and related tightening designs are prohibited because they distribute and retain pressure around the head, may delay complete release, and do not provide the required direct independent lateral action.

A commercial name, padding, claimed softness, traditional status, service status, emergency status, or inclusion of an additional sidepull rein shall not make prohibited carriage headgear lawful. Mechanical action and actual construction determine classification.

Article 23 — Harness fit

Harness shall be fitted to the individual equid and the assigned vehicle.

Harness shall not:

• restrict breathing;
• press on the windpipe;
• restrict shoulder movement;
• restrict neck movement;
• restrict back movement;
• restrict tail movement;
• create nerve pressure;
• rub, pinch, bruise, swell, scrape, heat, wound, or remove hair;
• require the equid to hold vehicle weight by painful body strain;
• compensate for poor vehicle balance, poor brakes, poor shaft fit, excessive load, unsuitable route, or unstable design.

Padding shall not legalise a bad fit.

Article 24 — Collars, breastcollars, breeching, cruppers, and attachments

Collars, breastcollars, breeching, holdback equipment, traces, shafts, poles, harness saddles, girths, surcingles, cruppers, and related attachments shall distribute traction, stabilising, turning, and holdback forces safely.

Breeching or holdback equipment shall be required where the route, slope, vehicle, or stopping demand would otherwise allow the vehicle to run onto the equid.

No equid shall be made to serve as the vehicle’s braking system.

A crupper or tail-area stabilising device may be used only where necessary and correctly fitted. It shall not lift, fix, display, irritate, or restrain the tail for appearance.

Article 25 — Public-road headgear and Facial Markers

Every carriage equid entering a public road shall wear approved public-road bitless headgear fitted with an approved Facial Marker displaying the equid’s current road-status insert.

A Facial Marker may be integrated into or formed by:

• a marker-bearing frentera, including narrow, X-shaped, branched, broad, ornamental, or panel-like forms;
• a marker-bearing muserola, including a broad noseband or nosepiece performing that function, whether or not it attaches to the browband or crownpiece.

The fact that a Facial Marker is positioned principally upon the stable nasal bridge rather than the forehead shall not disqualify it.

The marker shall provide a dedicated, visually distinct display field for an interchangeable road-grade retroreflective and switchably illuminated road-status insert. The insert may be a large circle, square, diamond, rectangle, shield, emblem shape, or another approved simple visible shape.

The insert shall be large enough to be recognised from the front by ordinary road users at the applicable road-observation distance. It shall not be hidden, divided, imitated, or visually overwhelmed by the mane, forelock, straps, chains, studs, medallions, embossing, filigree, tassels, or other decoration.

Where the Facial Marker is forehead-mounted, the forelock may be parted, braided aside, or otherwise humanely managed where necessary for visibility, but shall not be painfully pulled, clipped, glued, tied into discomfort, or restrained in a way that irritates the equid.

Where the Facial Marker is mounted upon or integrated into a muserola, noseband, or nosepiece, it shall lie only over the stable nasal bone, shall remain clear of the lower nasal cartilage and nostrils, and shall not impair nostril expansion or breathing.

Where a Facial Marker is integrated into a pressure-bearing control noseband, the window, slot, pocket, insert, backing, edging, and fasteners shall remain smooth, flexible, padded where necessary, and pressure-distributing. They shall not stiffen the noseband, create a hard edge or pressure point, concentrate force, impair fit or release, or alter rein or driving-line action.

The insert shall be removable and replaceable without altering the tack and without applying paint, dye, glue, clipping, branding, or any permanent or semi-permanent mark to the equid’s body, coat, mane, tail, skin, or feathers.

A Facial Marker shall not interfere with:

• vision;
• blinking;
• ears;
• forelock comfort;
• breathing or nostril expansion;
• facial nerves;
• head movement;
• headgear fit;
• rein or line function;
• pressure release;
• welfare inspection.

A full or extensive frentera shall not be approved merely because it is decorative or capable of carrying an insert. It shall have a dedicated marker field and shall also satisfy all vision, breathing, weight, flexibility, heat, stability, and welfare requirements of this Code.

Article 26 — Side status panels and breast status panels

Where side visibility is required, carriage equids shall display side status markers on approved harness, breastcollar, breastplate, saddlecloth, or harness-side equipment.

A side status panel or breast status panel shall be a visibility or identification device only.

It shall not function as:

• martingale;
• running martingale;
• standing martingale;
• tie-down;
• head restraint;
• rein-action modifier;
• posture device;
• punishment device;
• pressure device;
• training aid.

No marker shall justify the use of prohibited tack.

Article 27 — Decorative harness, ceremonial equipment, and service livery

Decorative harness, ceremonial harness, bells, plumes, cloths, banners, covers, lamps, status plates, service badges, insignia, and livery are lawful only where they do not interfere with welfare or safety.

They are prohibited where they:

• rub, strike, frighten, entangle, overheat, or distract the equid;
• restrict vision, hearing, breathing, movement, gait, or tail function;
• conceal injury, sweat, swelling, poor harness fit, or distress;
• interfere with reins, lines, traces, shafts, poles, breeching, brakes, emergency release, lamps, markers, or driver visibility;
• create noise, swinging, glare, heat, vibration, or movement likely to cause fear or confusion.

Ceremonial appearance shall not justify discomfort.

Article 28 — Vehicle suitability

A carriage shall be suitable for the equid or team, route, load, speed, weather, and service type.

The competent authority may prohibit a vehicle where its design, weight, balance, braking demand, shaft fit, pole fit, suspension, turning radius, wheel design, runner design, load position, or maintenance creates material welfare risk.

Article 29 — Brakes and holdback safety

Every carriage shall have brakes appropriate to its weight, route, gradient, speed, load, and service type.

Brakes shall not replace proper training or harness fit, and breeching shall not replace functioning brakes.

A carriage shall not operate where the equid must stop, hold, or slow the vehicle primarily through bodily strain that could reasonably be reduced by proper braking, route selection, vehicle design, or load reduction.

Article 30 — Load and draft-force limits

No carriage shall carry a load that exceeds the lawful capacity of the equid, team, vehicle, route, footing, gradient, weather, or service type.

The ordinary sustained draft-force limit shall be ten percent of the combined bodyweight of the equids in active traction.

A short peak draft force up to fifteen percent may be permitted only where:

• it is unavoidable for a lawful manoeuvre;
• it lasts no longer than one minute;
• footing is safe;
• the equid is fit for that effort;
• the driver immediately reduces demand afterward;
• the event is not repeated as ordinary work.

The competent authority may impose lower limits for heat, cold, wetness, poor footing, hills, young or older equids, rehabilitation, small equids, poor road surfaces, dense traffic, ceremonial work, rental work, or veterinary restriction.

Sustained and peak draft force shall be measured by a calibrated in-line load cell or approved equivalent placed in the actual line of traction between the vehicle and the pulling system. Testing shall use the actual equid or team, harness, vehicle, load, tyre or runner condition, route surface, direction, gradient, weather, and operating speed.

Bodyweight used for percentage limits shall be measured on a calibrated equid scale not more than ninety days before certification and after any material change in condition. Estimated weight may be used only temporarily until a scale is available and shall be rounded upward for load calculation and downward for lawful force capacity.

Sustained force means the rolling average over any continuous sixty-second interval. Short peak force means the highest force maintained for not more than three consecutive seconds. Repeated peaks more than three times in ten minutes, or a peak caused by starting, braking, rutting, impact, slipping, or gradient that recurs on the route, shall be treated as sustained route burden and shall not use the short-peak allowance.

For a team, combined bodyweight and the force borne by each equid shall both be assessed. A lawful team average shall not excuse overloading one equid.

Official instruments shall be calibrated at least annually and after damage. Raw readings, calibration records, bodyweight, route, surface, gradient, load, weather, team formation, and test video shall be preserved with certification.

Article 31 — Passenger and freight limits

Passenger count, passenger placement, luggage, freight, water tanks, decorations, service equipment, medical equipment, and operator equipment shall be included in load assessment.

A person shall not evade load limits by counting only passengers and excluding luggage, driver, attendant, carriage equipment, service equipment, decorations, water, medical equipment, or freight.

Passenger boarding and freight loading shall occur only when the equid is safely positioned, the vehicle is stable, and the driver or attendant can prevent sudden movement.

Article 32 — Suspension and ride quality

A carriage used for public transport, taxi work, passenger work, medical transport, emergency service, long routes, or vulnerable passengers shall have suspension and ride-quality standards appropriate to the service.

Suspension shall reduce avoidable jostling, vibration, shock, and vehicle instability.

A vehicle shall be unlawful where poor suspension, wheel condition, runner condition, body design, load placement, road surface, or speed causes avoidable pain, fatigue, fear, impact, instability, or excessive draft demand for the equid.

Medical and emergency carriages shall meet a higher ride-quality standard because patient stability and equid welfare both require controlled movement.

Article 33 — Wheels, runners, sleigh systems, and road contact

Wheels, runners, glide elements, shafts, poles, skids, bearings, axles, springs, and braking surfaces shall be maintained in safe condition.

A sleigh, runner vehicle, or emergency glide vehicle may be used only where the approved route surface supports that use without creating hoof danger, slipping, excessive draft force, jarring, or uncontrolled vehicle movement.

A road surface designed to support runners or glide systems shall also provide hoof-safe traction for the equids.

No emergency design shall prioritise vehicle speed over hoof safety.

Article 34 — Vehicle maintenance

An authorised carriage shall be inspected at intervals required by law and before each workday.

The carriage shall not operate with:

• defective brakes;
• cracked shafts;
• unsafe pole;
• unstable wheel;
• unsafe runner;
• damaged trace attachment;
• broken emergency release;
• defective suspension;
• unstable passenger step;
• sharp edge;
• unsafe lamp;
• unreadable marker;
• insecure load point;
• noise or vibration likely to frighten the equid;
• any defect creating welfare or public-safety risk.

Article 35 — Maximum daily active traction

A carriage equid shall not exceed six hours of active traction in one day.

A stricter limit shall apply where required by:

• heat;
• humidity;
• cold;
• wetness;
• wind;
• poor footing;
• hills;
• dense traffic;
• crowds;
• ceremonial waiting;
• heavy load;
• age;
• health;
• veterinary order;
• route classification;
• work history;
• inadequate recovery.

An emergency extension up to eight hours of active traction may be authorised only for a specific genuine emergency incident by emergency control, the Road Guard, the competent welfare authority, or a veterinarian acting within lawful authority; only where no safer transport or replacement team can meet the need; and only where welfare monitoring, rest, water, inspection, and replacement-team provisions are in place. A standing certificate, Passport entry, operator policy, commercial demand, convenience, staff shortage, tourist demand, ceremony, or ordinary scheduling shall never authorise an extension.

Each incident authorisation shall record the incident and public necessity, authorising person and authority, time issued, route, vehicle, team, ordinary limits exceeded, alternatives considered, why a safer replacement or transport was unavailable, monitoring plan, water and rest plan, relay or replacement-team arrangements, start and end times, and post-service inspection and recovery orders.

Article 35A — Rolling workload limits and full rest days

No carriage equid shall exceed thirty hours of active traction in any rolling seven-day period or one hundred hours of active traction in any rolling thirty-day period.

No carriage equid shall be assigned to carriage work on more than six days in any rolling seven-day period.

Every carriage equid shall receive at least one full rest day in each rolling seven-day period. A full rest day means at least twenty-four continuous hours free from carriage work, active traction, riding, lunging, formal training, sport, public display, mounted service, transport assignment, sale presentation, commercial handling, driving, vehicle attachment, service duty, and other labour. Ordinary care, compatible social turnout, veterinary treatment, necessary welfare handling, and voluntary low-demand movement are permitted.

A rest day shall not be counted where the equid is transported, displayed, used for training demand, used for public contact, held at a stressful event, or otherwise deprived of genuine recovery. A Rest Court stay, short shift, harness-free interval, vehicle change, or day spent travelling does not count as a full rest day.

Active-traction time, assigned-shift time, waiting time, harness time, work-block time, daily limits, seven-day limits, and thirty-day limits shall be aggregated across all owners, operators, vehicles, routes, stands, services, handlers, premises, and licence holders using the equid during the relevant period.

Brief movement, changing a carriage or stand, passenger loading or unloading, unhitching and rehitching, changing harness, changing driver, changing route or service labels, transferring the equid between operators, crossing a property boundary, or recording a new shift shall not reset any clock. Time restarts only after the legally required qualifying recovery or full rest period has actually occurred.

No operator shall evade workload limits by transferring, leasing, hiring, subcontracting, loaning, rotating records, changing vehicle class, changing driver, changing route, or assigning the equid through another licence holder. Workload follows the equid.

Article 35B — Mandatory recovery after emergency work

An equid used beyond ordinary work limits for genuine emergency service shall receive immediate post-service inspection, recorded recovery assessment, and mandatory recovery leave before return to ordinary work.

The competent authority may require forty-eight hours or more of recovery leave after emergency extension, severe weather work, high-speed emergency work, difficult-route emergency work, or any incident suggesting elevated strain.

No emergency-service equid shall return to taxi, tourist, freight, rental, ceremonial, or ordinary commercial work merely because the emergency has ended.

Article 36 — Shift length

A carriage equid’s total assigned shift, including harnessed waiting, passenger loading, route work, queueing, and standing under vehicle assignment, shall not exceed eight hours unless a stricter standard applies.

A shift shall be shorter where weather, workload, route, health, age, stress, footing, traffic, or service conditions require it.

Article 37 — Mandatory rest periods

A carriage equid shall receive regular off-traction rest.

Every completed work block shall be followed by at least twenty minutes of off-traction rest. A shorter block does not remove the duty where the equid shows any need for recovery, and rest shall continue longer until breathing, pulse, temperature, sweating, posture, attention, gait, and muscle effort have returned toward the individual’s normal values.

Rest shall be long enough to allow breathing, pulse, temperature, sweating, posture, attention, and muscle effort to return toward normal.

Rest shall not count where the equid remains under vehicle strain, crowd pressure, passenger-loading pressure, traffic stress, harsh weather exposure, or harness discomfort.

Article 38 — Waiting bays and Rest Courts

Ordinary waiting bays shall be used only for short public-road waits.

An ordinary waiting bay shall not be used for more than thirty minutes at a time by the same equid or team.

Longer waiting, scheduled rest, meal rest, weather recovery, end-of-shift recovery, medical observation, and harness-off recovery shall occur at an approved Rest Court.

A Rest Court may allow longer rest periods, including up to two hours or more where approved, provided welfare conditions are met.

Article 39 — Harness removal during longer waits

Harness shall be loosened, adjusted, or removed where required by welfare, heat, wetness, rubbing, rest duration, veterinary order, or the competent authority.

Where waiting or rest exceeds forty-five minutes, harness shall be removed unless removal would create immediate greater danger or the competent authority has authorised a specific safe exception for that route, vehicle, weather condition, and equid.

Removal of harness shall not be delayed for passenger convenience, appearance, traffic flow, business efficiency, or ceremony.

Article 40 — Rest Court conditions

A Rest Court shall provide:

• safe footing;
• water;
• shade or shelter as weather requires;
• space away from moving vehicles;
• safe standing positions;
• emergency release access;
• inspection access;
• manure management;
• crowd separation;
• noise control where necessary;
• forage where appropriate;
• harness storage or adjustment space;
• route re-entry safety;
• welfare-monitoring capacity.

A Rest Court shall not be merely a parking area where equids remain trapped between vehicles, crowds, heat, traffic, noise, or unstable footing.

Article 41 — Water, forage, and recovery

Water shall be available at intervals appropriate to the weather, work, route, and individual equid.

Forage or feeding opportunities shall be provided where required by shift length, rest duration, metabolic need, veterinary instruction, or welfare schedule.

A carriage equid shall not be denied water or rest to preserve appearance, prevent urination or manure, maintain timetable, avoid harness removal, or keep passengers moving.

Article 42 — Imperial Equid Climatic Burden assessment

Every carriage operator and driver shall assess weather and environmental burden before and during work.

The assessment shall consider:

• air temperature;
• humidity;
• solar radiation;
• wind;
• rain;
• snow;
• freezing rain;
• wet coat;
• sweat that cannot dry;
• coat length;
• clipping;
• rugging;
• body condition;
• acclimation;
• health;
• age;
• workload;
• load;
• route gradient;
• footing;
• shade;
• shelter;
• road reflectivity;
• visibility;
• braking demand;
• traction;
• traffic density.

Heat-only or cold-only air temperature shall not be treated as sufficient. Humidity, wind, wetness, and drying ability matter in both heat and cold.

Every carriage operator shall record the assigned Imperial Equid Climatic Burden band before work, at every material change in conditions, and at the end of work. The entry shall include available instrument readings, location, time, surface, precipitation, wind, visibility, individual vulnerability, mitigation, water, rest, and the person making the assessment. This is a direct duty and does not depend upon a later technical regulation.

Article 43 — Heat, humidity, and sun

Carriage work shall be reduced, delayed, rerouted, or suspended where heat, humidity, solar radiation, poor airflow, road heat, workload, or load creates material risk of heat stress.

The competent authority may require:

• shorter work blocks;
• longer rest periods;
• reduced loads;
• shade routes;
• night or morning scheduling;
• water stops;
• cooling equipment;
• mandatory temperature checks;
• suspension of commercial work;
• removal of individual equids from work.

No equid shall continue working where it shows heat stress, abnormal sweating, failure to sweat, weakness, staggering, rapid breathing that does not recover, dullness, collapse, or distress.

Article 44 — Cold, wetness, wind, and drying failure

Cold-weather work shall consider wind chill, humidity, rain, snow, freezing rain, wet coat, sweat drying, coat type, clipping, body condition, and post-work management.

An equid shall not be worked where cold, wetness, wind, or inability to dry creates material risk of chilling, muscle stiffness, respiratory stress, hoof hazard, slipping, exhaustion, or distress.

Work shall be reduced, delayed, rerouted, rugged, sheltered, dried, or suspended as required by welfare.

A sweaty equid shall not be left standing in cold, wind, rain, or freezing conditions without appropriate cooling, drying, shelter, and monitoring.

Article 45 — Storms, poor visibility, and footing

Carriage work shall be suspended or restricted during conditions that materially impair equid welfare or public safety, including:

• thunderstorms;
• lightning;
• severe wind;
• hail;
• freezing rain;
• deep snow;
• ice;
• unsafe mud;
• flooding;
• smoke;
• dangerous air quality;
• dense fog;
• low visibility;
• slippery stone or metal surfaces;
• roadworks creating unsafe footing;
• crowding that prevents escape routes.

The operator shall not rely on the equid’s obedience to compensate for unsafe footing or visibility.

Article 46 — Weather suspension orders

The competent authority may issue route-specific, district-specific, service-specific, or Empire-wide weather suspension orders.

A weather suspension order may prohibit:

• all carriage work;
• commercial carriage work;
• passenger carriage work;
• freight carriage work;
• ceremonial work;
• heavy loads;
• inexperienced equids;
• green-status equids;
• certain routes;
• certain hours.

No operator shall evade a suspension order by changing the service description, route category, vehicle class, or claimed purpose.

Article 47 — Approved routes

Carriage work on public roads shall occur only on approved routes unless a lawful emergency exception applies.

Route approval shall consider:

• road width;
• surface;
• gradient;
• turns;
• stopping areas;
• shade;
• shelter;
• water access;
• rest courts;
• emergency pull-offs;
• traffic type;
• speed of surrounding traffic;
• crowd density;
• noise;
• bridges;
• intersections;
• tramlines or rail grooves;
• drainage;
• winter surface;
• night lighting;
• visibility;
• hoof traction;
• vehicle braking demand;
• passenger loading points.

A route approved for one vehicle, team, service, or season shall not automatically be approved for another.

Article 48 — Pull-over areas and emergency release spaces

Approved carriage routes shall include safe pull-over areas at intervals appropriate to traffic, route length, weather, and service type.

A pull-over area shall allow the vehicle and equids to stop without trapping the equids in traffic or forcing them to stand in a dangerous position.

Emergency release spaces shall be provided where routes create risk of entanglement, collision, crowding, or vehicle failure.

Article 49 — Bridges, gradients, and difficult surfaces

A carriage shall not be assigned to a bridge, hill, descent, narrow turn, cobbled surface, icy surface, metal surface, unstable shoulder, or difficult road unless the equid, team, vehicle, brakes, harness, and driver are certified for that condition.

Downhill routes require particular assessment of braking, breeching, holdback, traction, and vehicle weight.

No equid shall be required to hold back a vehicle on a descent that should be managed by vehicle brakes, route design, reduced load, or a different vehicle.

Article 50 — Crowds, markets, ceremonies, and events

Carriage work in crowds, markets, ceremonies, festivals, processions, or public events shall require event-specific approval.

Approval shall consider:

• crowd barriers;
• noise;
• flags;
• lights;
• unauthorised explosive, pyrotechnic, or sudden startle displays;
• music;
• street performers;
• animals;
• emergency exits;
• rest access;
• water access;
• public-contact control;
• heat from crowds or pavement;
• route width;
• turning room;
• removal route.

No equid shall be forced to tolerate an event environment through harsh restraint, extreme sensory restriction, exhaustion, or punishment.

Article 51 — Public contact

The public shall not touch, feed, crowd, tease, photograph with flash at close range, strike, shout at, pull tack, interfere with lamps, interfere with markers, or distract carriage equids without permission.

Operators shall provide reasonable public-contact control.

Where public contact cannot be controlled, the route, stop, event, or service shall be altered or suspended.

A carriage stop, stand, queue, market point, event point, or passenger-loading area with repeated public interference shall require barriers, signage, attendants, route alteration, service alteration, or loss of approval.

No operator shall preserve a popular stop where the public repeatedly feeds, touches, crowds, flashes lights at, shouts at, obstructs, or interferes with equids.

Article 52 — Manure, urine, and sanitation

Operators shall comply with manure and sanitation rules without compromising equid welfare.

Sanitation policy shall not justify:

• withholding water;
• withholding forage;
• excessive muzzling;
• extended work to avoid stopping;
• punishing natural elimination;
• forcing an unfit route;
• denying rest.

Article 53 — Purpose of road-status marking

Road-status marking exists to instruct humans how to behave around the equid.

It shall communicate road safety, passing rules, restriction status, training status, hazard status, or authorised service status.

It shall not be used to shame the equid, advertise the business, replace driver judgement, replace road rules, or disclose unnecessary private medical information.

Article 54 — Mandatory Facial Marker insert

Every carriage equid on a public road shall display its current road-status insert in an approved Facial Marker. The insert shall remain plainly visible from the front during ordinary movement and shall not be obstructed by mane, forelock, straps, or decoration.

The legal meaning shall be carried by the insert’s colour, border, emblem, symbol, or pattern. The Facial Marker and insert shape assist visibility and placement but do not themselves carry the legal meaning unless Imperial law expressly provides otherwise.

The insert shall be:

• road-grade retroreflective and capable of steady, switchable self-illumination in its assigned colour;
• weather-resistant;
• securely held;
• interchangeable;
• visible from the front;
• clean enough to read;
• approved for day and night use;
• appropriate to the equid’s current status.

Article 55 — Side and rear status markers

Every carriage equid working in a public road environment shall display side status markers when side visibility is materially useful or when vehicle type, route, team formation, darkness, low visibility, crowding, service status, green-status, caution status, restricted status, hazard status, or pregnancy-status condition requires additional recognition.

A carriage operating on a public road shall display rear status markers corresponding to each equid in the hitch.

Rear markers shall be arranged to match the hitch formation so that a road user approaching from behind can identify the status of each equid in the team.

For teams, the rear board shall not falsely imply that the entire team has ordinary status where one or more equids has green, caution, restricted, hazard, or service status.

Article 56 — Ordinary and restricted road-status inserts

The final carriage-equid road-status inserts are:

• white reflective field: ordinary road-certified equid;
• green reflective field: green-status equid, provisional road certificate, training status, or supervised road work;
• yellow warning field: caution status, sensitivity, extra-space requirement, or heightened startle risk;
• white field with red border: restricted passing; pass only by driver or handler signal;
• Solid red field with a white X: do not pass, stop, wait, active hazard, incident, or immediate control condition.

The competent authority may approve additional symbols, patterns, borders, or tactile structures for visibility, colourblind accessibility, night recognition, and distance recognition.

Ordinary, green-status, caution, restricted-passing, hazard, and pregnancy-status inserts may be manufactured, stocked, sold, purchased, possessed, and replaced through ordinary pet, tack, road-safety, veterinary, and general retail channels. Possession alone is not an offence; unlawful display, false status, concealment, or misrepresentation is.

Where more than one non-service status applies, the highest immediate road instruction governs the front insert in this order: active hazard or stop; restricted passing; caution; provisional or training; ordinary. An authorised service emblem does not erase a welfare or control restriction. Secondary status shall be shown on an approved side marker, rear marker, border, or combined pattern. Service status shall not conceal green, caution, restricted, hazard, pregnancy, or suspension status.

Article 56A — Pregnancy-status insert

The pregnancy-status insert is a final protective road marker for a pregnant equid lawfully present on a public road for a permitted non-carriage purpose.

The pregnancy-status insert shall be a retroreflective white field with a violet border and an approved pregnant-equid, parent-and-foal, or pregnancy emblem.

A pregnancy-status insert shall be displayed in an approved Facial Marker. A marker-bearing frentera or marker-bearing muserola may be used according to visibility, fit, and welfare.

An equid displaying a pregnancy-status insert shall not be assigned to carriage work, active traction, driving work, commercial vehicle work, passenger carriage work, freight work, rental vehicle work, taxi work, emergency vehicle work, ceremonial vehicle work, or vehicle-connected public service.

Pregnancy-status marking shall not disclose unnecessary veterinary detail beyond the protective road status.

Article 57 — Service inserts and official emblems

Service-status inserts may be displayed only where authorised by Imperial law. Police, Road Guard, medical emergency, fire, rescue, veterinary emergency, military, sovereign, government, and other official-service inserts and emblems shall be issued, manufactured for supply, or sold only through authorised channels to verified services or authorised persons. Their official specifications, meanings, and public-recognition guides shall remain publicly accessible.

The final service-status inserts for carriage work are:

• blue field with Road Guard emblem: Imperial Road Guard, traffic patrol, or DPS-equivalent service;
• blue field with police shield or police star: police service where a service carriage is authorised;
• white field with red cross: ambulance, medical emergency, or authorised medical carriage;
• red field with white flame: fire or rescue service;
• green field with white paw-and-hoof emblem: veterinary emergency service;
• blue field with winged letter, Hermes-wing emblem, postal horn, or authorised courier emblem: post, messenger, or courier service;
• black field: sovereign or Empress passage where legally authorised;
• black field with crown: authorised Imperial government official, deputy, ministerial, or state authority passage;
• very dark green field with military sigil: military service.

Black, black-with-crown, and very-dark-green service inserts shall use a broad high-contrast retroreflective border and a retroreflective emblem or pattern sufficient for night recognition. In powered mode, a black field shall remain visually black while its white or silver border and emblem illuminate; a very-dark-green field may emit only its approved low-luminance hue while its border and emblem remain the principal recognition elements.

Service writing shall be placed on government or service carriage bodies, not on ordinary equid markers.

Equid-mounted or harness-mounted status inserts shall rely on symbol, colour, border, or emblem rather than ordinary writing.

Article 58 — Writing and insignia

Ordinary road-status markers shall not rely on writing because writing is difficult to read at speed, in low light, in weather, or from distance.

Writing may be used on authorised government, emergency, postal, military, or service carriages where the carriage body, livery, side panel, rear panel, driver uniform, or official harness cloth is approved for that purpose.

Unauthorised use of service writing, service colours, emblems, or official carriage livery is prohibited.

Article 59 — Marker accuracy and misuse

The road-status insert shall match the equid’s current legal status. Required marker illumination shall be activated from sunset to sunrise, in tunnels, and whenever reduced visibility materially impairs recognition. It shall remain steady identification lighting and shall not imitate an emergency warning system.

A person shall not:

• display ordinary white status for a green, restricted, caution, hazard, or suspended equid;
• display service status without authorisation;
• conceal a restriction;
• use a marker to gain traffic advantage unlawfully;
• use a marker as advertisement;
• use a marker that is dirty, faded, broken, false, loose, hidden, or unreadable;
• operate without required side or rear markers;
• alter a marker during work to avoid inspection.

A false marker is a welfare and road-safety offence.

If a required marker becomes detached, obscured, muddy, damaged, loose, false, or unreadable during travel, the driver or attendant shall stop at the first safe place and clean, refit, correct, or replace it. A standard temporary emergency insert may be used only for direct movement to safety or the nearest lawful replacement point and shall not create or imitate official service status.

Article 60 — Lighting requirement

A carriage operating in darkness, low visibility, rain, fog, snow, tunnel conditions, shaded route conditions, official lighting hours, or any condition where visibility is materially reduced shall display approved carriage lighting.

Lighting shall allow humans to identify:

• the front of the vehicle;
• the rear of the vehicle;
• vehicle width;
• turning intention;
• slowing or stopping;
• hazard or breakdown condition;
• authorised service status where applicable.

Article 61 — Human road-visibility lamps

Carriage road-visibility lamps shall be mounted on the vehicle unless this Code expressly permits equid-mounted ground-guidance lamps.

The ordinary human road-visibility system shall include, where required:

• white forward lamps;
• red rear lamps;
• red brake lamps where brakes are fitted with signalling;
• amber side-width lamps;
• amber turn indicators;
• hazard lamps;
• approved service or emergency lamps for authorised service vehicles.

White forward carriage lamps may illuminate farther ahead for driver visibility and human road-user recognition, but shall be aimed and shielded so they do not shine into the eyes of the equids.

Article 62 — Equid ground-guidance lamps

Equid ground-guidance lamps may be fitted to carriage equids working in darkness or low visibility where the lamps improve footing recognition, confidence, and obstacle assessment.

Ground-guidance lamps shall be mounted on:

• breastcollar;
• breastplate;
• harness front;
• approved chest-position equipment;
• another approved stable non-restraining mount.

Ground-guidance lamps shall cast a soft blue or blue-green steady beam downward and forward onto the road surface ahead of the equid.

They shall not:

• flash;
• strobe;
• flicker;
• swing freely;
• rattle;
• heat the skin;
• shine into the equid’s eyes;
• shine outward as a service signal;
• cast sharp moving shadows;
• interfere with harness fit;
• replace the Facial Marker road-status insert;
• replace carriage road lamps;
• replace brake signals, turn signals, hazard signals, or service lamps.

Blue or blue-green ground-guidance lamps shall not be treated as police, Road Guard, or service lights because they are downward-facing welfare lamps and not outward-facing priority signals.

Article 63 — Emergency and service lamps

Emergency and service lamps may be used only by authorised service vehicles.

Authorised service lighting may include:

• blue Road Guard or police service lamps;
• white and red medical emergency lamps;
• red and white fire or rescue lamps;
• green and white veterinary emergency lamps;
• authorised postal or courier lamps where permitted.

Emergency and official-service lamps on a carriage shall be mounted on the top or another approved high point of the vehicle. They shall be positioned, aimed, and shielded to warn humans without shining directly into the eyes of the public, drivers, passengers, other road users, or equids, and without being confused with steady downward-facing ground-guidance lamps.

Emergency lamps shall use an authorised flashing or rotating pattern and may be accompanied by an authorised audible warning. Ground-guidance lamps shall remain steady and shall never flash, rotate, pulse, sound, or function as service identification.

An audible emergency warning shall be clearly audible to humans while using the least equid-audible intensity and frequency profile compatible with public safety. It shall not be represented as inaudible to equids unless independently tested and certified. Lamps and warning systems shall be tested for glare, startle, heat, vibration, rattling, equipment interference, and equid habituation.

Flashing or rotating service lamps shall not be placed near the equid’s eyes and shall not be used where they create unreasonable equid distress unless immediate public safety requires emergency operation.

Article 64 — Lighting welfare restrictions

No lamp, reflector, lantern, decoration, signal, service light, or ground-guidance device shall be used where it:

• shines into the equid’s eyes;
• restricts vision;
• causes glare;
• flickers;
• strobes without lawful emergency purpose;
• rattles;
• heats;
• swings;
• slaps the equid;
• interferes with harness;
• interferes with reins or lines;
• hides lawful road-status markers;
• imitates service signals without authorisation;
• frightens or distracts the equid.

Decorative lighting shall not reduce the clarity of required road lighting.

Article 65 — Carriage taxi and public transport work

Carriage taxi and public transport work shall require higher standards of route approval, driver competence, passenger loading, timetable design, rest access, weather monitoring, and recordkeeping.

A taxi route shall not be approved where the business model depends on:

• excessive waiting;
• inadequate Rest Courts;
• insufficient water;
• unsafe passenger loading;
• overuse of the same equids;
• constant traffic stress;
• poor shade;
• unsafe footing;
• failure to remove harness during long waits;
• public crowding that cannot be managed.

Article 66 — Rental carriage work

A carriage shall not be rented to an unqualified person where the person will control the equid or vehicle.

Rental operators shall ensure that the driver is licensed, the route is approved, the equid is suitable, the vehicle is authorised, and the service does not create avoidable welfare risk.

No operator shall place a green-status, sensitive, restricted, or emergency-service equid under the control of an inexperienced rental driver.

Article 67 — Tourist and ceremonial carriage work

Tourist and ceremonial work shall comply with the same welfare standards as ordinary work.

Public entertainment, tradition, costume, photography, seasonal demand, wedding use, heritage route, royal ceremony, or festival status shall not justify overwork, heat stress, cold stress, crowd panic, unsafe footing, excessive decoration, or delayed rest.

Article 68 — Freight and agricultural vehicle work

Freight and agricultural carriage work shall comply with this Code.

Freight load shall be weighed, estimated, or controlled by an approved method.

A freight operator shall not hide overload by distributing weight, using additional decoration, claiming short distance, using stronger-looking equids, or relying on downhill momentum or equid holdback strength.

Article 69 — Scope of emergency carriage rules

This Chapter regulates the welfare, vehicle, equid, harness, lighting, and patient-stability requirements of emergency, medical, rescue, fire, veterinary, postal, courier, and government service carriages.

Traffic priority, right-of-way, emergency lane access, public command powers, police powers, and Road Guard powers shall be governed by the Imperial Road and Driver Code.

Article 70 — Emergency medical carriage design

An emergency medical carriage shall be designed, engineered, tested, authorised, and maintained to provide the fastest safe medical transport and the lowest practicable patient jostle consistent with equid welfare, hoof safety, braking safety, route suitability, and patient protection.

It shall provide:

• approved vehicle weight;
• safe balance;
• high-quality suspension;
• shock reduction;
• low centre of gravity;
• secure stretcher locking;
• patient restraint;
• medical-equipment restraint;
• ventilation;
• hygienic interior;
• safe loading access;
• communication equipment where required;
• approved lighting and service markers;
• brakes not dependent on equid body strain;
• emergency release;
• route-compatible wheels, runners, or glide elements.

Speed shall not override equid welfare, patient stability, braking safety, hoof safety, or route suitability; however, no emergency medical carriage shall be approved where a feasible safer or equally safe design would provide faster lawful medical transport with lower patient jostle and no greater equid welfare burden.

Article 71 — Emergency carriage equids and teams

Emergency carriage equids shall be individually certified for the service.

Certification shall assess:

• sustainable speed;
• smooth gait;
• rapid recovery;
• cardiovascular fitness;
• respiratory fitness;
• hoof durability;
• traffic courage;
• noise tolerance;
• calmness around panic;
• ability to stand during emergency loading;
• ability to work in relay systems;
• compatibility as leader or wheeler;
• ability to work under emergency lighting and siren-equivalent signals where authorised;
• ability to remain safe without harsh restraint.

No breed shall be automatically approved for emergency carriage work. Functional breeding, training, temperament, health, and individual performance shall determine approval.

Where a four-equid emergency team is used, leaders and wheelers shall be selected for their different roles. Leaders may be selected for speed, line confidence, and route focus. Wheelers may be selected for strength, braking stability, turn stability, and calmness near the vehicle. All shall meet the required welfare and speed standards.

Article 72 — Emergency ride quality and patient jostling

Every emergency medical carriage shall be subject to the fastest-safe-speed and lowest-practicable-jostle duty. The vehicle, team, harness, suspension, wheels, runners, route interface, braking system, patient cabin, stretcher lock, and loading system shall be selected and tested to achieve the greatest safe emergency speed and the least practicable patient movement without transferring unreasonable strain, fear, footing risk, or recovery burden to the equids.

A vehicle shall not be approved as a medical carriage where patient stability depends on excessive vehicle weight, excessive draft demand, harsh braking, unsafe speed, or overburdened equids.

The competent authority shall require route testing, loaded testing, suspension testing, braking testing, patient-jostle testing, and equid recovery testing before authorisation for emergency medical use.

Article 73 — Emergency lanes, glideways, sleigh routes, and runner systems

An emergency medical carriage may use an approved emergency lane, glideway, winter runner route, or sleigh-compatible surface only where both the vehicle and equids are certified for it.

An emergency glideway or sleigh-supporting route shall provide:

• hoof-safe traction;
• runner or wheel guidance where used;
• non-slip surfaces;
• safe braking;
• safe crossing design;
• emergency pull-offs;
• relay access where necessary;
• protection from ordinary traffic conflict.

A route shall not be approved merely because it allows greater vehicle speed.

Article 74 — Relay teams and recovery

Emergency services shall provide relay teams, rest teams, or replacement equids where route length, speed, weather, or emergency demand would otherwise create overwork.

Emergency status shall not authorise repeated overuse of the same equid.

Where an emergency response exceeds ordinary work limits, the incident shall be recorded and the equid shall receive appropriate recovery, inspection, and work restriction where required.

Article 75 — Fire, rescue, veterinary, postal, courier, and government carriages

Fire, rescue, veterinary, postal, courier, government, military, and sovereign service carriages shall comply with this Code unless another Imperial law imposes a higher standard.

Service urgency shall not authorise:

• prohibited tack;
• excessive load;
• unsafe route;
• overwork;
• heat stress;
• cold stress;
• poor hoof traction;
• harsh restraint;
• false status markers;
• avoidable equid injury.

Article 76 — Service writing and carriage identification

Government and service carriages may display authorised writing, insignia, service colour, and livery on the carriage body.

Writing shall not be required on the equid’s Facial Marker insert.

Where writing is used, it shall not obscure required lamps, reflectors, status markers, brake signals, turn indicators, hazard lamps, or welfare inspection access.

Article 77 — Inspection authority

The competent authority may inspect:

• equids;
• Passports;
• work records;
• rest records;
• weather records;
• veterinary records;
• hoof-care records;
• harness;
• headgear;
• status markers;
• lamps;
• ground-guidance lamps;
• vehicles;
• brakes;
• suspension;
• loads;
• Rest Courts;
• waiting bays;
• routes;
• operator premises;
• driver licences;
• training records;
• incident reports.

Inspection may occur before, during, or after work.

No person shall refuse or obstruct lawful access; hide, move, or substitute an equid, vehicle, harness, marker, or record to defeat inspection; destroy, alter, backdate, substitute, or conceal a record; tamper with equipment, measurements, or an incident scene before required examination; intimidate or retaliate against staff or witnesses; disable a measuring device; wash away relevant marks before documentation; or refuse a lawful bodyweight, force, fit, veterinary, document, or equipment assessment.

Article 78 — Immediate stop and removal powers

Where there is immediate welfare or public-safety risk, the competent authority may order:

• immediate stop;
• unloading of passengers or freight;
• removal of the equid from work;
• harness removal;
• veterinary examination;
• vehicle withdrawal;
• route withdrawal;
• driver suspension;
• operator suspension;
• seizure of unlawful equipment;
• movement to a Rest Court;
• emergency transport of the equid.

Opening an investigation or ordering a stop shall not by itself establish guilt.

Article 79 — Monitoring, evidence, and accountability

Carriage work is a public animal-welfare activity and may be subject to inspection, monitoring, and evidence collection as permitted by Imperial law.

Monitoring shall be used to protect equids and enforce law, not to extort, harass, conceal corruption, or punish lawful operators.

Inspectors and Road and Equid Guard officers shall keep appropriate records of stops, orders, photographs, video, seizures, veterinary referrals, suspensions, and enforcement decisions.

A person subject to enforcement shall have access to the appeal or review procedure provided by Imperial law, except where immediate secrecy is necessary for an active welfare investigation.

Article 80 — Correction orders

For a minor first breach not involving injury, deliberate concealment, overwork, prohibited tack, false service markers, heat stress, cold stress, unsafe vehicle, unsafe route, or immediate danger, the competent authority may issue a correction order.

A correction order may require:

• marker correction;
• lamp repair;
• harness adjustment;
• vehicle repair;
• record correction;
• route change;
• load reduction;
• rest schedule change;
• driver retraining;
• operator retraining;
• veterinary check;
• reinspection.

Failure to comply escalates the offence.

Article 81 — Welfare offences

A welfare offence includes:

• operating without required Passport;
• using a pregnant, suspected-pregnant, lactating, recently foaled, underweight, obese, unfit, diseased, medicated, sedated, or pain-masked equid unlawfully;
• operating without required certification;
• operating without operator licence;
• driving without required driver licence;
• using an unauthorised vehicle;
• using an unauthorised route;
• exceeding workload limits;
• failing to provide required rest;
• failing to remove harness during required longer rest;
• denying water;
• overloading;
• exceeding rolling seven-day or thirty-day workload limits;
• denying a required full rest day;
• failing to provide required post-emergency recovery leave;
• using false or unreadable road-status markers;
• failing to display required side or rear markers;
• using defective lamps during required lighting conditions;
• using ground-guidance lamps in an unsafe manner;
• continuing work after signs of pain, distress, fatigue, heat stress, cold stress, lameness, or injury;
• failing to keep required records;
• tampering with, splitting, hiding, destroying, delaying, or falsifying workload or Passport-linked records;
• failing to report required incidents;
• using service colours or emblems without authorisation;
• breaching weather suspension;
• breaching route restrictions;
• using a Rest Court that does not meet welfare requirements;
• obstructing inspection, concealing or substituting evidence, intimidating a witness, tampering with an incident scene or measuring device, or refusing a lawful assessment.

Article 82 — Serious offences

A serious offence includes:

• deliberate overwork;
• use of a pregnant, suspected-pregnant, lactating, recently foaled, sedated, pain-masked, diseased, or physically unfit equid in carriage work;
• repeated overwork;
• use of prohibited tack or restraint;
• work causing death, collapse, euthanasia, serious injury, heat stress, cold stress, respiratory distress, or severe panic;
• operation after licence suspension;
• falsification of Passport, medication, pregnancy, disease, workload, rest, emergency, or work records;
• concealment of injury;
• concealment of lameness;
• deliberate false road-status marking;
• unauthorised emergency or service status;
• operating an unsafe emergency medical carriage;
• failing to trigger, cooperate with, or preserve evidence for a highest-grade welfare and abuse investigation after death, collapse, severe injury, heat-stress event, cold-stress event, runaway, serious collision, or emergency release;
• forcing an equid to pull an excessive load;
• requiring an equid to serve as the vehicle’s braking system;
• continuing work after a stop order;
• retaliation against a reporter, inspector, driver, attendant, veterinarian, or employee who raises welfare concern;
• organised operation of unlawful carriage services.

Article 83 — Penalties

Penalties may include:

• warning;
• correction order;
• fine;
• mandatory education;
• driver retraining;
• operator retraining;
• harness refitting order;
• vehicle repair order;
• load restriction;
• route restriction;
• weather restriction;
• work-hour restriction;
• Rest Court requirement;
• Passport notation;
• licence suspension;
• licence revocation;
• vehicle authorisation suspension;
• service authorisation suspension;
• removal of the equid from work;
• veterinary order;
• equipment seizure;
• welfare monitoring;
• Imperial Animal Welfare Registry entry;
• animal-ownership restriction;
• criminal animal-abuse investigation where required by law.

Article 84 — Appeals and review

A person may appeal or seek review of enforcement decisions as provided by Imperial law.

An appeal shall not automatically stay an order removing an equid from work, suspending unsafe vehicle use, prohibiting an unsafe route, requiring veterinary examination, or preventing immediate welfare harm.

Article 85 — Functional equivalence and anti-loophole rule

A person shall not avoid this Code by changing names, decorations, business categories, service categories, harness labels, vehicle labels, route labels, or marker labels.

A device, route, vehicle, schedule, lighting system, marker system, business practice, or service practice is unlawful where its actual effect violates this Code, regardless of its name.

A carriage may be authorised, registered, attractive, profitable, traditional, ceremonial, historically significant, publicly beloved, or heavily used and still be removed from service where the welfare requirements of this Code are not met.

Section 1 — Legal meaning

Road-status inserts instruct humans how to behave around the equid.

Shape assists visibility. Colour, border, emblem, pattern, and authorised symbol carry the legal meaning.

Section 2 — Ordinary and restriction inserts

White reflective field means ordinary road-certified carriage equid.

Green reflective field means green-status equid, provisional certificate, road-training status, or supervised work status.

Yellow warning field means caution, sensitivity, or extra-space requirement.

White field with red border means restricted passing; pass only by driver or handler signal.

Solid red field with a white X means do not pass, stop, wait, incident, hazard, or active control condition.

Section 3 — Service inserts

Blue with Road Guard emblem means Imperial Road Guard, traffic patrol, or DPS-equivalent road-control service.

Blue with police shield or police star means police service carriage where authorised.

White with red cross means ambulance or authorised medical emergency carriage.

Red with white flame means fire or rescue service.

Green with white paw-and-hoof means veterinary emergency service.

Blue with winged letter, Hermes-wing emblem, postal horn, or authorised courier emblem means post, messenger, or courier service.

Black means sovereign or Empress passage where legally authorised.

Black with crown means authorised Imperial government official, deputy, ministerial, or state authority passage.

Very dark green with military sigil means military service.

Section 4 — Visibility and accessibility

Status inserts shall be retroreflective and shall remain readable in rain, ordinary dirt, night lighting, and low visibility as far as reasonably practicable.

The competent authority may require borders, symbols, patterns, or raised features to assist colourblind recognition and long-distance recognition.

Ordinary and protective inserts may be sold and possessed through ordinary retail channels. Official service inserts and emblems may be supplied only through authorised channels, although their specifications and meanings shall be public.

Where statuses overlap, the most restrictive immediate road instruction governs the front marker; any authorised service status and secondary welfare status shall remain visible through approved side, rear, border, or combined-marker treatment.

A damaged or unreadable required marker shall be corrected at the first safe place. A temporary substitute may authorise only direct movement to safety or lawful replacement and shall not imitate service status.

Dark sovereign, government, and military inserts shall use high-contrast retroreflective borders and emblems for night recognition.

Section 1 — Human road lighting

Carriages shall use white forward lamps, red rear lamps, red brake lamps where applicable, amber side markers, amber turn indicators, and hazard lamps where required.

Section 2 — Equid ground-guidance lighting

Equid ground-guidance lamps shall be soft blue or blue-green, steady, downward-facing, forward-casting, and mounted on approved chest-position equipment.

They exist for the equid’s road-surface recognition and confidence. They are not service lights, do not flash or sound, and remain legally distinct from elevated outward-facing emergency lamps.

Section 3 — Welfare restrictions

No lamp or audible warning system shall blind, glare, frighten, heat, rattle, strike, distract, or interfere with an equid. Carriage emergency lamps shall be mounted at an approved high point and may flash or rotate; authorised audible warnings shall remain human-audible while minimising avoidable equid disturbance.

A Rest Court shall provide safe footing, water, shelter or shade, vehicle separation, crowd control, inspection access, manure management, emergency release access, and space for harness adjustment or removal.

A Rest Court shall not be approved where equids remain trapped in heat, traffic, crowding, noise, poor footing, or vehicle strain.

Emergency medical carriages shall meet heightened standards for speed, brakes, suspension, patient stability, equid welfare, lighting, markers, route approval, and relay planning.

Emergency speed shall be lawful only where the vehicle, route, driver, team, weather, and service authorisation make that speed safe for the equids and the patient.

Emergency traffic priority shall be governed by the Imperial Road and Driver Code.

The numerical workload limits in this Schedule are final carriage-law limits. A stricter Passport, veterinary order, route order, weather order, service rule, or individual welfare restriction prevails over this Schedule.

Section 1 — Daily and rolling limits

A carriage equid shall not exceed six hours of active traction in one day.

A carriage equid shall not exceed eight hours of total assigned shift in one day, including harnessed waiting, passenger loading, freight loading, queueing, standing under vehicle assignment, and route work.

A carriage equid shall not exceed thirty hours of active traction in any rolling seven-day period.

A carriage equid shall not exceed one hundred hours of active traction in any rolling thirty-day period.

A carriage equid shall receive at least one full rest day in each rolling seven-day period.

Section 2 — Work blocks and rest

No ordinary work block shall exceed ninety minutes of active traction.

Each ordinary work block shall be followed by not less than twenty minutes of off-traction rest.

Where heat, humidity, cold, wetness, wind, hills, poor footing, dense traffic, heavy load, crowding, green-status certification, older age, rehabilitation status, or veterinary restriction increases burden, the maximum work block is sixty minutes or less.

Where severe burden exists, the maximum work block is thirty minutes or less and carriage work shall be suspended unless an essential public-service exception applies.

Section 3 — Waiting, harness, and Rest Courts

An ordinary waiting bay shall not be used by the same equid or team for more than thirty continuous minutes.

Where waiting, rest, queueing, ceremony, loading delay, or public-service delay exceeds forty-five continuous minutes, harness shall be removed unless removal would create immediate greater danger.

A Rest Court stay shall not be treated as a full rest day. A Rest Court is workday recovery, not stable-level rest.

A Rest Court stay exceeding two continuous hours shall require a recorded welfare check before any return to work. Where return to work would be unfair, the shift shall end.

Section 4 — Emergency extension and recovery

Emergency extension beyond ordinary limits is lawful only for a specific genuine emergency incident, only where no safer replacement team or transport method is available, and only where incident-specific authorisation, alternatives considered, monitoring, water, rest, relay arrangements, times, and recovery orders are recorded. It is never a standing certificate or Passport permission.

No emergency extension shall exceed eight hours of active traction in one day.

An equid used beyond ordinary limits for emergency service shall receive immediate post-service inspection and not less than forty-eight hours of recovery leave unless a veterinarian or competent authority orders longer recovery.

This Schedule does not create a separate carriage-only climate scale. Carriage work shall use the Imperial Equid Climatic Burden Standard and its Band I–V system. This Schedule states the carriage-specific consequences of those bands.

Where the Imperial Equid Climatic Burden Standard, this Code, a Passport restriction, a veterinary order, a route order, a weather order, a service rule, or an individual welfare restriction differs, the stricter welfare-protective rule prevails.

Section 1 — Mandatory carriage assessment

Before and during carriage work, the operator and driver shall assess the equid, vehicle, load, route, surface, visibility, weather, climate burden, recovery capacity, and lawful capacity.

Air temperature alone is never sufficient. Heat, humidity, sun, wind, rain, snow, freezing rain, wet coat, sweat drying, coat type, clipping, rugging, acclimation, body condition, health, workload, load, footing, braking demand, traction, visibility, traffic, shelter, shade, water access, and Rest Court access shall be assessed together.

A carriage shall not start, continue, load passengers, load freight, enter a route, wait in harness, or remain in public service where the assigned climatic band or the individual equid’s condition makes that activity unsafe or unfair.

Section 2 — Band I: ordinary carriage burden

Band I permits ordinary carriage work within this Code, the certificate, the Passport, the approved route, the approved vehicle, and daily inspection requirements.

Band I shall not be used where an individual equid shows poor recovery, distress, lameness, sweating abnormality, shivering, respiratory difficulty, dehydration, panic, shutdown, fatigue, hoof pain, harness injury, or any condition requiring a stricter band.

Section 3 — Band II: caution carriage burden

In Band II, carriage work may continue only with mitigation.

The operator and driver shall reduce load, reduce pace, shorten work blocks, increase off-traction rest, increase water access, use shade or shelter, avoid difficult surfaces, avoid unnecessary hills, limit harnessed waiting, and remove vulnerable equids from unnecessary work.

In Band II, active traction for ordinary carriage work shall not exceed four hours per day.

In Band II, ordinary work blocks shall not exceed sixty minutes, and each work block shall be followed by not less than twenty minutes of off-traction rest.

Green-status equids, older equids, recovering equids, underconditioned equids, non-acclimated equids, climate-sensitive equids, and equids under individual veterinary restriction shall not be used in Band II unless the use is necessary, supervised, and stricter than ordinary work.

Section 4 — Band III: restricted carriage work

In Band III, ordinary commercial passenger carriage work, tourist carriage work, rental carriage work, ceremonial carriage work, non-essential freight, non-essential training, public display, and green-status carriage work are suspended.

Only essential public-service work, welfare relocation, veterinary movement, emergency service, or other necessary reduced work may continue.

In Band III, active traction shall not exceed two hours per day except for a genuine emergency where no safer alternative exists.

In Band III, work blocks shall not exceed thirty minutes, and each work block shall be followed by not less than thirty minutes of recovery.

The reason for continuing work in Band III shall be recorded, and a post-work welfare check is mandatory.

Section 5 — Band IV: emergency-only carriage work

In Band IV, carriage work is prohibited except direct movement to safety, direct veterinary movement, rescue from immediate danger, emergency medical service, emergency welfare service, or another emergency service where no safer transport exists.

Band IV movement shall use the shortest safe route, the lowest practicable load, the lowest safe speed, continuous monitoring, and immediate post-service welfare review.

Commercial, tourist, rental, ceremonial, sport, training, public-display, non-essential freight, and ordinary passenger carriage work are prohibited in Band IV.

Section 6 — Band V: suspended carriage work

In Band V, all carriage work is suspended except emergency rescue, emergency veterinary intervention, evacuation where staying is more dangerous, or immediate movement from danger to shelter.

A Band V exception shall be recorded and reviewed by the competent authority or veterinarian where required.

No operator shall use public demand, commercial loss, ceremony, staffing shortage, route habit, passenger need, service reputation, or administrative convenience to continue carriage work in Band V.

Section 7 — Immediate stop triggers

Regardless of band, carriage work shall stop immediately where an equid shows lameness, stumbling, collapse, weakness, abnormal sweating, failure to sweat, shivering, chill, heat stress, cold stress, rapid breathing that does not recover, coughing that affects work, panic, shutdown, refusal, dehydration, poor coordination, harness injury, hoof pain, inability to cool, inability to warm, inability to dry, or any sign that continued work is unfair.

The vehicle shall be made safe by lawful means, passengers or freight shall be managed safely, and the equid shall receive water, shade, shelter, cooling, warming, drying, rest, veterinary care, or removal from service as the condition requires.

Section 8 — Climate records and anti-loophole rule

Where Band II or above applies, the operator shall record the assigned band, reason for the band, mitigation used, workload reduction, rest, water, route change, load reduction, stop order, incident, and recovery check where required.

No operator shall evade this Schedule by renaming carriage work as display, training, private use, short movement, tradition, ceremony, emergency-adjacent service, passenger necessity, or public convenience. The real climatic burden on the equid controls.

This Schedule is the final carriage-law standard for emergency medical carriages. A separate technical document may add engineering detail, but shall not weaken this Schedule.

Section 1 — Fastest safe speed and lowest practicable jostle

An emergency medical carriage shall be authorised only where its vehicle, team, harness, route, suspension, braking, wheel or runner system, patient cabin, stretcher lock, loading system, lighting, and service procedure together provide the fastest safe medical transport and the lowest practicable patient jostle.

A slower or more jostling design shall not be authorised where a feasible faster and lower-jostle design exists without greater equid welfare burden.

Section 2 — Mandatory testing

Before emergency medical authorisation, the competent authority shall require route testing, loaded testing, braking testing, turning testing, suspension testing, patient-jostle testing, emergency-release testing, lighting testing, hoof-traction testing, and equid recovery testing.

Section 3 — Team and relay requirements

Emergency medical carriage teams shall be selected for speed, smoothness, recovery, traffic courage, calmness around panic, hoof durability, braking stability, and ability to work without harsh restraint.

Where route length, speed, weather, or patient urgency would overburden one team, relay teams or replacement equids are mandatory.

Section 4 — No emergency loophole

Emergency status shall not legalise prohibited tack, unsafe footing, excessive load, false service markers, avoidable glare, preventable jostle, poor brakes, poor suspension, hoof danger, or repeated overuse of the same equid.

The provisions and schedules of this Code are final carriage law.

A future regulation, technical standard, service manual, route order, or administrative document may clarify, measure, illustrate, or add stricter requirements to this Code.

No future standard, operator policy, service custom, route approval, vehicle authorisation, public demand, emergency practice, ceremonial practice, or administrative convenience shall weaken this Code unless the Code itself is lawfully amended.