I live in a small town with ranches all nearby and never see anyone use a horse to get into town. What would you do with it to go into a store? The one horse ties I ever see are as decoration in front of all the old 1900's mansions.
Even the pony express stations were between 10-15 miles apart.We changed horses every ten miles, all day long, and fairly flew over the hard, level road. We jumped out and stretched our legs every time the coach stopped, and so the night found us still vivacious and unfatigued."
Butterfield overland stage coveredand frequent relay stations (one about every 10 to 15 miles, depending on terrain),
That equates to an average milage of 14.8 miles between stations.He divided the 2,975 mile route into 200 way stations and relay posts.
However there is no reason a team in good condition (that is used frequently with muscles built up and lungs conditioned) could not pull a light wagon 30-40 miles in a day easily.
2. Musculature of the horse affects endurance of the horse. A heavily muscled horse has a more difficult time traveling the longer distances then a leaner muscled horse. Heavy muscles in a horse affect how well they can dissipate heat. Long lean muscled horses do better in endurance and dissipate their heat better.Using steam pumps to create varying levels of heat and humidity, Ohio State researchers found that at 90 degrees and 85 percent humidity (a common July morning in atlanta) a horse would become fatigued in half the time as in the 45 degrees common to the event's origin in Northern Europe.
Ok I see where you are coming from.I have worked at race tracks across the country,
Since I live in the deep south and have for over 20 yrs now I will say again if you had to travel. I am not taking about just to save a few bucks on gas but had to travel 30-40 miles a little common sense could be applied and you would travel at night while it is cool. Rest in the heat of the day. Which is why in my first post I stated you needed to learn about horses and their care before you tried this type of transportation.1. Weather- Either Extreme ( cold or heat) will decrease the distance that is travelable per day. You walk a horse 30-40 miles a day in the middle of the heat and humidity of the deep south and you are likely to kill the horse.
All the old "wagon" type breeds were fairly heavily muscled. Only a few of them survive today. But I have used a Halflinger (heavy muscles) to a one horse wagon pulling two people and he did fine. I would not use them in extreme heat but then that is were knowing what you are doing before you do it helps.2. Musculature of the horse affects endurance of the horse. A heavily muscled horse has a more difficult time traveling the longer distances then a leaner muscled horse. Heavy muscles in a horse affect how well they can dissipate heat. Long lean muscled horses do better in endurance and dissipate their heat better.
No body is suggesting 30-40 miles per day indefinitely. It is one day. One time to pick up supplies. How many times do you go to town to pick up supplies? Again I did state horses are not machines...you have to learn how to care for them.3. You cannot travel 30-40 miles per day indefinately with the horse unless you plan on breaking the horse down.
Ok it will take 10.5 hours with a slow horse. Are you happy? I think you didn't read my first post well. I said horses in good condition. I didn't say pull the old nag that has been out in the pasture for the last 15 yrs and hitch her up for a 30-40 mile trip every day for the rest of her life!4. Your 9 hour time is not including the "rest time" because 4x9=36 so you'd only get 36 miles and that isn't counting any of your rest time. yes a well conditioned endurance horse can do 30-40 miles in even less time, but not every horse is a well conditioned endurance horse. and that horse is traveling at least 6-8 mph on average the entire time.
I was using the 32 mile day of the Butterfield ride as a gage. It was always done in 10 hours with 2-30 min breaks one in the moring and afternoon and an hour lunch break.5. You are also miscommunicating the travel time. Yes the travel time might be 9-10 hours, but with resting time and 'relief breaks" for humans etc you are looking at a 12-14 hour total day of travel. Some times this is just not feasable, It may be perfectly fine for The upper plains states in the middle of the summer, but it certainly is not feasable for the south, and the south west in the summer and definately not feasable for most places in the middle of the winter.
Is it illegal to ride horses on the sidewalk in most cities?
If you walked a horse to its maximum distance for the day and you had a dog companion with you, would the dog be able to keep up all day or would you have to carry the dog?
This is not the place for a young inexperienced horse. Those you ride...![]()
I am not familiar with using horses as a means of transportation. Would you have some sort if large basket attched somehow or would you pull a trailer type thing after the horse? Horses can go constantly for a really long time without getting too tired right? Because I am sure that most stores would be quite a few miles away from your hideout.
Which can be backed up by science.2. Musculature of the horse affects endurance of the horse. A heavily muscled horse has a more difficult time traveling the longer distances then a leaner muscled horse. Heavy muscles in a horse affect how well they can dissipate heat. Long lean muscled horses do better in endurance and dissipate their heat better.
Just because a heavier mucled horse CAN and HAS traveled the distances doesn't mean that they are 'well suited" for that type of travel. That is the reason we have different breeds and types these days, because some horses are BETTER suited for one thing over another.Thus the results show that fiber type proportions and fiber size in equine skeletal muscle are directly related to the athletic ability of the horse for endurance events.
All the old "wagon" type breeds were fairly heavily muscled. Only a few of them survive today. But I have used a Halflinger (heavy muscles) to a one horse wagon pulling two people and he did fine. I would not use them in extreme heat but then that is were knowing what you are doing before you do it helps.
I know folks here that raise Clydesdales. They seem to agree that 30 miles would be doable for their teams as long as it wasn't done in a race. I have seen Belgians and Percherons on rides before. So I know they will do the 32 miles.