HELP ME>>>>horses

[Lostgaeriel]

Hi there, the real findorfin!

Hope I can help. I’ve always been interested in horses, so maybe I can give you some quick info. The horses of Middle Earth are quite amazing.

Here are some tidbits.

Speed:
In 1973 the thoroughbred racehorse Secretariat ran (extended gallop) the Kentucky Derby 1¼ miles in 1:59 2/5. He ran the Belmont Stakes 1½ miles in 2:24 flat (and won by 31 lengths – it was amazing). Those times are still the race records. His average speed for each race was 37.5 mph. Turcotte never even touched him with the crop. (He was a super horse – at autopsy they found that his heart was 2.5 times larger than that of the average horse.)

Quarter horses (yer cowpoke’s best friend) are built for short bursts of speed. They can do a ¼ mile in ~20 seconds. That’s ~45 mph. They cannot sustain anything near this speed over a distance.

As for the minimum/maximum speeds of other gaits: walking, trotting, cantering and a regular gallop, I’m not sure.

Endurance:
Have you ever seen the John Wayne movie “True Grit”? There is an incredible scene of a quarter horse being ridden to death. Rent the video and check out the mountainous terrain, the rider’s treatment of the horse, the speed and the distance covered.

I found the American Endurance Racing Conference web site by searching for “endurance riding” and “endurance racing” and “horse endurance”. One-day competitions range in length from 50 – 100 miles. Multi-day events average about 50 miles per day. Veterinarians at checkpoints on the route monitor the horses and there are mandatory rest breaks for the horses. AERC can probably give you lots of information on food, water, rest requirements, heart rates, etc.

[ November 28, 2002: Message edited by: Lostgaeriel ]