Forum: Story Discussion and Feedback

There are numerous tales here on SOL that involve characters riding horses.

I've looked for a long time but cannot find any definitive answers to the simple question of how far a horse can go?

Oh yes, there are dozens of web sites that talk about gaits & speeds. But no where I have found does any speak to sustained travel.

So the questions are:

1) Day after day, what is a reasonable distance that a horse can carry a rider that does not break down the horse... said a different way... how far for how long?

2) What care does a horse need to be able to travel quickly for days on end? Extra energy foods in the form of grains... certainly, but how much rest and how much grazing?

Any knowledgeable horse folks in the audience?

Thanks

What care does a horse need to be able to travel quickly for days on end? Extra energy foods in the form of grains... certainly, but how much rest and how much grazing?

Any knowledgeable horse folks in the audience?

Not that knowledgeable, but I've done a little research on this in the past.

The answer is going to depend on a lot of different factors.

What you define as quickly.

How much load is the horse carrying/pulling?

Climate

Terrain

Type/size of horse.

Fitness of the horse. Is it used to regular long distance travel.

The US pony express could cross all of the US, around 2800 miles in around a week, but they moved 24/7 and a rider would change horses several times a day and riders would be swapped out every day or so. Individual horses had days if not weeks between runs.

My understanding is pushing a single horse at that rate for more than a few hours could be fatal to the horse.

Known travel rates for historical military cavalry units were around 30 miles/day. They could push the horses to up to 60 miles a day, but only for a limited time before the horses would have to be given several days of rest.

Now an entire military cavalry unit is going to take a while make and break camp.

for some numbers on speed:

All horses move naturally with four basic gaits: the four-beat walk, which averages 6.4 kilometres per hour (4.0 mph); the two-beat trot or jog, which averages 13 to 19 kilometres per hour (8.1 to 12 mph) (faster for harness racing horses); and the leaping gaits known as the canter or lope (a three-beat gait that is 19 to 24 kilometres per hour (12 to 15 mph), and the gallop. The gallop averages 40 to 48 kilometres per hour (25 to 30 mph).

http://www.speedofanimals.com/animals/horse

At an all out run, a horse (and that's probably without a rider) can do 30mph. But think about what it would do you your body if you tried to sprint for 4 - 8 hours straight. Human marathon runners will basically jog for 20-30 miles, but they aren't doing that day after day carrying a load of gear.

You are going to get the best long distance endurance out of a horse at it's slowest gait, a trot, which is around 4mph. So that 30 miles/day is 7.5 hours of straight travel.

Horses please... not humans.

I tried... to be polite... but it seems that some individuals cannot comprehend... so I'll say it plain... I do not give a rats ass about what human beings can do or have done.


HORSES!

I said in my original post:

I've looked for a long time but cannot find any definitive answers to the simple question of how far a horse can go?

Oh yes, there are dozens of web sites that talk about gaits & speeds. But no where I have found does any speak to sustained travel.

So the questions are:

1) Day after day, what is a reasonable distance that a horse can carry a rider that does not break down the horse... said a different way... how far for how long?

2) What care does a horse need to be able to travel quickly for days on end? Extra energy foods in the form of grains... certainly, but how much rest and how much grazing?

Again, sustained, day on day travel by a horse in good condition, no HUGE rider, no excessive loads, no extraordinary need to kill the horse to get the human to some location.

Walking the horse - 4mph - can a well conditioned horse maintain this pace for 10 hours with 14 hours to rest and feed, thus a 40 mile day?

Half walking and half trotting the horse - 4mph & 10mph - for 10 hours with 14 hours to rest and feed, thus a 70 mile day?

Are these scenarios possible without adversely affecting the horse's long-term health? If so, how many days in a row can we go before taking a full rest day? 1 rest day out of 4? 1 in 5? 1 in 7?

Finally, again, I do not care what humans can or have done. It's about what a horse can do.

There was a book written about cavalry in the US west. It was called 50 miles a day on beans and hay.

For long-term military operations, Genghis Khan's forces set the record for long-term military excursions. The record was finally surpassed in the second world war. It has to be recorded somewhere on the Internet.

I believe that all of us have some form of a built in bullshit detector. Call it intuition or gut feeling or whatever designation fits best for you.

My opinion... the best tales are ones that do not trigger the BS detector. When the BS detector is triggered, the rest of the story loses some luster and if/when the BS detector goes off scale into the red I tend to stop reading the story.

In the tale Washed Up by Lazlong, (https://storiesonline.net/universe/142/wagons-ho)he has his protagonist and two companions riding two horses each with attending pack mules for food & gear at the rate of about 30-35 miles per day. From the responses in this thread I'd venture a guess that is a lowball number.

They're traveling from Dayton OH to Boston MA and then from Boston back to Independence MO.

Dayton to Boston = 850mi /30 = 28 days. Boston to Independence = 1400mi /30 = 46 days

The BS detector triggered simply because the daily miles traveled is too low to complete the trip in the (approximately) 9 weeks allotted in the story.

Here's my thinking – and I am NOT a horse person – with two horses and swapping at the midday stop, the riders should be able to average about 6-8 miles per hour over a 8 hour riding day – 4 in the morning and 4 in the afternoon, with a break of an hour or so at midday. 9 hours total travel time per day.

That leaves the horses and humans about 15 hours for food & other necessities.

Averaging 6mph, that's near 50 miles per day. Averaging 8mph, that's better than 60 miles per day.

D>B @ 50 = 17 days. B>I @ 50 = 28 days. Total of 45 days or 6½ weeks.

How to do this? Awake near 6am. Morning ablutions and breakfast most mornings in an inn, packed and animals ready to go by 7:30.

Start slow, get the animals and the butts used to moving, then alternate trotting and walking the horses for 90 minutes. Short break for humans to pee and stretch and water the horses. Going again after a 15-30 minute break. Again alternating trotting and walking the animals. Maybe go a little longer to take a break near noon. Noon break might be 60 minutes to give the horses and mules a breather and a chance to crop some grass or have some oats in a feedbag and water of course.

Same thing in the afternoon with a fresh horse. Ride for 90 minutes, a short break and then another 2-ish hours of riding, stopping when there is another inn available or with enough daylight left to set up a camp and tend the horses.

My calculations suggest that 50 miles per day is not unreasonable with decent roads and not encountering any problems.

At the end of the day, taking care of the horses and mules will take time, but there are three in the traveling party so if they're not staying at an inn, getting a tent up, fire going, food cooking and tending to other human needs takes one person 60-90 minutes. During that same time the other two are taking care of the animals, getting them unsaddled and unpacked, hobbled or tied out, fed some grain, and the gear stowed out of the weather as best as possible.

Humans are exhausted and probably asleep by 8-ish, with some awakening to check on animals and the security of the camp a couple times per night.

In the story, the travelers stay in inns a majority of the time, so taking care of the animals is the only major chore at the end of the day. The inn provides the cooked food and a room so the time and effort to set up an overnight camp is negated.

I'd speculate that my ass could not tolerate staying in a saddle for more than a few days straight, so either a full day off or at least a half-day off every 5 to 8 days. In other words, rest & recuperation for both humans and the animals about once per week.

Even taking off a full day once a week, that's between 300 & 350 miles a week, depending on conditions encountered. In the story, they're only going about 200-220 miles a week, about 40% less than what it appears that the animals are capable of.

But that's why I asked the initial questions... I'd speculate that the 2250 mile trip could reasonably be done in 48-54 days without injuring the animals or humans, including breaks and depending on encountered conditions of course. Obviously that does not take into account the plot points in the story that cause delays. But not near the 65 days in the story.

We will not even speculate on how many iron shoes the horses and mules will need that were not accounted for at any time in the story, before or after this trip.

Summation... my BS detector tripped and I could not find any definitive answers to what a horse and rider are capable of given the general conditions detailed in the story – or any other story that has people depending on horses for a means of transportation.

Thanks all for your thoughts.