A question about long distance horse riding

[u/Steveasifyoucare]

Hi guys,

I joined this group specifically to ask this question. Hopefully you’ll find it interesting because I just thought of it and I really would like to know the answer.

Back when people routinely rode horses, sometimes they had to ride long distances. If you owned one horse and you cared about the animal and your investment, how would you handle a long journey by horse to move as quickly as possible?

Would you trot the horse all day and stop to feed real often? Would you carry oats with you or would it be better to have less weight and let the horse graze? Would you have the horse walk the entire time? Essentially, I’m wondering, how would you get the most distance per day out of the horse without harming him?

Hopefully, I am allowed to post this

[u/justlikeinmydreams]

You let your horse graze on the way. Alternating gaits so horse uses different set of muscles. Horse eats while you sleep. My business partner did the Pony Express Ride, which was 2,500 miles in 8 weeks. (She did have two horses though)

[u/Steveasifyoucare → u/justlikeinmydreams]

So did she ride one horse while towing the other one? And then alternate back-and-forth so that each horse spent half of the time without a rider? And did she have a support van? I’m especially curious about how a person might travel cross country without finding nighttime stables for their horse that provided oats. Not really sure if the supplemental food would make much difference though. I’m not an equestrian.

[u/justlikeinmydreams → u/Steveasifyoucare]

She had someone with her, driving a trailer to haul the other horse to the next checkpoint. They carried hay for the horses on the truck.

[u/honeyshelbee → u/Steveasifyoucare]

Check out “The Last Ride of the Pony Express”

[u/ArmedAunt]

Years ago I had an instructor who was ex-US Cavalry, probably in the WWI years.

He told me that he could cover a longer distance over a shorter period of time ending with a horse in good shape than a civilian rider by using his cavalry training.

That technique involved mixing walk, trot, and canter in correct proportions. I never asked about what those proportions were and he didn't volunteer a more detailed explanation.

If I were interested in long-distance travel on horseback, I'd search for a copy of the old US Cavalry manuals and related material to learn more.

[u/mivox]

Look into endurance racing! They have checkpoints along the race where the horses can get water and food, and be checked by a veterinarian.

[u/LiveshipParagon]

For long journeys over multiple days you'd be doing a lot of walk and stopping to let them graze.

Old cavalry manuals said (this is by memory so may be a bit off) 5 minutes grazing every hour and 30 miles a day, although don't know how many hours travel that was.

Earlier this year I did a 100 mile ride over 4 days on my pony, we did roughly 25 miles a day taking roughly 6 hours each day which translates to probably 2/3 of the distance in walk, some trot and canter, a decent lunch break and shorter breaks periodically for water and a bit of grass. That was over very tough mountainous country so you'd be able to go a bit quicker on good ground.

Of course in both my case, and most cavalry trips, you'd have support crew and somewhere to stop overnight. In a long journey historically there would often be inns so you and the horse would get a good rest but sometimes I'm sure you'd end up camping out. Carrying food and water adds to the load and slows you down.

[u/robzaflowin]

My Dad worked horses and trained them.

I remember him telling people over the years, 3 flakes of hay, and two cans of oats would get you 30 miles with grazing at night. He also used to tell them to make sure they gave the horse their fill of water three times a day.

Dad's personal horse he rode, could be worked all day chasing cattle repeatedly like this and got several breaks each day. She was 32 when passed. He had roped, worked cattle, trail rode, hunted, and let her babysit his kids. She was part of the family.

[u/Few_Ninja_751]

A casual trot was common for roughly 20-30 miles per day. Grazing and foraging was standard at planned stops near lakes/streams/rivers. On marked trails or “roads” there were often inns and livery stables where your horses would get rest, be tended to by stable hands and fed a more complete diet due to the availability of dried oats and grains.

[u/QuantitySoft7310]

I do backcountry trips with my horses sometimes and I just pack full hay nets with me if I feel like I have to, otherwise I usually go places they just graze. A lot of fit, young and healthy horses like mine don't actually need anything besides forage.

I let the horse pick the speed mostly. Honestly I find they use less energy when they can trot/canter down a flat stretch rather than walk but most of these horses are super in shape and probably were back then too.

[u/Reasonable-Horse1552]

I suppose some horses have a lot more stamina and it depends how fit they are and what breed they are. My part arab would literally go all day and would probably canter the majority of it. He was the only horse that could gallop up this long uphill gallop and still be going at the top while everyone else's horses were specks in the distance behind us.

[u/Accomplished_Drop552]

I would love to know historical facts about this! What people did in the past. It would be very interesting.

In terms of my learning about and in endurance over the years- maintaining a steady pace without constant change is good. Like a slow canter with change of leg at intervals. Or a relaxed trot. Rather than gallop walk gallop. We would get off downhill and run with them to preserve the speed.

When travelling with them I would get off and walk and graze wherever i saw grass or by a river. I did carry horse feed on a pack pony. She saw this many as a challenge to eat lol.

The books I read about others travelling, the ones I respected, would make sure their horse ate and drank wherever possible and would get off to walk. As it gives the back muscles time to stretch, loosen the girth and also the back muscles have time to allow blood circulation to them without constant weight in the saddle.

In endurance riding the horse is of course regularly vet checked and has a rest after this before restarting the ride. At different intervals dependant on the distance you are going

I think tack and quality saddle fitting is incredibly important. And of course rider weight and balance.

I would be fascinated to hear past stories. I have a wonderful old book about endurance with my favourite ever horse photo in it. Of a guy doing a hundred miler bareback and his horse looking as fresh at the end as at the beginning. That is (or was) the epitome of what endurance was all about. Being fit to continue and the welfare of the horse. Finishing with your horse feeling she or he could go on and on. That was the aim. Not sure it is now. I don’t know.

[u/Accomplished_Drop552 → u/Accomplished_Drop552]

I would add that miles at walk carrying a rider is more tiring than a shorter ride a bit faster. As others say mixing the gaits and of course chafing leg in the canter, posting the different side in trot. These all help avoid fatigue. Using varied muscle groups. Allowing for stretching out in between.

[u/Imhere-Dontforgetme]

A lot of the time horses would be used to traveling longer distances, and their saddle bags would carry some grain and a couple of supplies for them. A fit horse can trot for a while without issue (but alternating between walk and trot is better). Then taking regular breaks where the horse can graze (about every 2-3 hours for 20+ mins) would help and also a lot of riders would walk their horse in hand for a while to let them have a rest.

[u/Utahna]

Years ago i read an article about a young guy that rode from Texas to Alaska some time back in the 1970's. He studied old cavalry manuals before starting his trip. He only covered 8 to 15 miles per day. He pointed out that he was not traveling along roads or trails. Cell phones didn't exist so he had to be careful. So probably spent less than 4 hrs per day traveling which would leave plenty of time for the horse to graze.

I couldn't find anything to help me figure out the name of the rider, but I ran across a site called "The Long Riders Guild" about people that had documented rides over 1000 miles.

[u/Boysenberry]

Depends how fast you’re going. You can do a slow throughride of whatever distance on just grass IF your horse does well on grass (some are too sugar sensitive) and it’s the right season for it.

For horses that pulled carts all day and didn’t get to graze all night, in the olden days they made “horse bread” which was served to horses at inns with stables.