troika

troika, (Russian: “three”), any vehicle drawn by three horses abreast, usually a sleigh with runners but also a wheeled carriage. The three-horse team is also known as a unicorn team. In Hungary and in Russia the troika, drawn by three horses and driven by an elegantly clad coachman, was once the ultimate status symbol. All three horses were lightly harnessed, with the leader, or middle one, between the shafts of the vehicle at a trot,...