Horse travel

[DC]

I've read in several places how horses extended mans travel. I'm not a horse person so I must be missing something. I have walked along side a horse and we went about the same speed so how could having a horse extend mans travel by the four or five times that I've read about? I can see that he could carry more stuff but how does that work into farther?

[tipi stuff]

I'm not much of a statistics guy, so anyone feel free to correct my numbers. A human, on average, walks slightly faster than a horse. Humans at about 3 miles per hour, horses at about 2.8 miles per hour. Your observation is correct though, in that a horse can carry much more weight and travel for a much longer distance without resting. At a run, a horse can certainly move faster. The importance then, is in being able to carry a load at a greater distance in less time. Or to travel more quickly by trotting, galloping, or running. Curtis

[DC]

Yeah, but if you were moving camp you wouldn't trot or gallop your horse all day.. And even just considering a hunting party. Can a horse trot all day carrying a man? And would it be able to gallop after a herd of bison after trotting all day. Don't get me wrong, I'm not doubting that the horse was a great advantage, I'm just thinking about the logistics. 

[Marc St Louis]

You can ride the horse till he drops then get off and keep walking so essentially extending one's ability to go farther 

[tipi stuff]

     Out of curiosity, I looked up horse travel. The info I read on horse sites said 4 mph for horses, and 2.8 to 3 mph for humans. Another said 3 for horses, 2.8 for humans. The biggest difference, according to a cavalry page, a horse can go 20 to 30 miles a day, carrying 200 to 225 pounds.
    Clearly, you would gallop, or run a horse at that distance. You could alternate a walk and a trot though.   CC

[willie]

The extension of travel realized by  NA was more likely not so much related to speed, as it was to the benefit of being able to move camp further and easier,  enabling the permanent possession of more tools and better dwellings. In effect, not only saving labor on the trail, but making it easier to re establish a seasonal camp. 

[tipi stuff]

Nail on the head Willie! Speed became important in hunting and warfare, but not day to day activities. CC

[DC]

I guess Willie's right. I can walk just as fast as a horse but I could only carry 150 pounds about twenty feet. A horse would definitely extend their daily range.

[loon]

I read something about how running Greek messengers could get to far away destinations faster than a horse, because they could go continuously while a horse would have to stop and graze...

[DC]

That's because a messenger has a fear of death if the message doesn't get there in time.

[Zuma]

Ask Genghis Khan and the Mongols about horse travel .
Zuma

[Traxx]

All you ,that say you can walk as fast as a horse,aint never walked alongside mine.And if you could,you wouldnt be able to keep that pace,as long as they can.If you do short lopes,here n there,it actually extends their wind.

Many a Buckaroo who has had to walk back to camp,Never made the same time, as he would have Horseback.

[bubby]

All you ,that say you can walk as fast as a horse,aint never walked alongside mine.And if you could,you wouldnt be able to keep that pace,as long as they can.If you do short lopes,here n there,it actually extends their wind.

Many a Buckaroo who has had to walk back to camp,Never made the same time, as he would have Horseback.

Thats right, and he never beat the horse ro camp wither....trust me i know😐

[Urufu_Shinjiro]

One also needs to keep in mind the great differences between horse breeds. Most folks with limited experience with horses had that limited experience on a trail horse of some sort, think slow but easy to ride, recreational not business. I remember the first time I saw a real medieval type war horse breed, changed everything about what I thought I knew about mounted knights.

[TrevorM]

Terrain too. Even if people can walk as fast as a horse that's on flat smooth ground with no obstacles, which back in those days probably wasn't the case most of the time.