The Bennett Buggy: When Horses Replaced Horsepower

By Joan Janzen

Have you ever heard of the Bennett Buggy?

When times were tough during the Dirty Thirties, many farmers removed the engines from their automobiles and replaced them with the most reliable source of power they had: a horse.

A Bennett Buggy, created by replacing an automobile's engine with horse power during the Great Depression. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE PROVINCIAL ARCHIVES OF SASKATCHEWAN.

During the prosperous 1920s, many farm families had been able to purchase automobiles. But when the Great Depression hit, money became scarce. Gasoline was expensive, repairs were unaffordable, and replacement parts were often out of reach. Rather than let their vehicles sit idle, resourceful owners removed the engines and, in many cases, the windows to make the vehicles lighter. The result was a practical horse-drawn buggy built from an automobile.

These creative vehicles became known as Bennett Buggies, named after R.B. Bennett, Canada's prime minister from 1930 to 1935. Many Canadians blamed Bennett for the country's economic hardships and what they believed was an inadequate government response to the Depression. The nickname became a symbol of those difficult times.