Do horses ever get tired

In the movies, you see these long chase scenes. The horses are running full-tilt forever. Don't they ever get winded?

You have to walk them to cool them down, otherwise they may pass out and die of heat stroke or some other similar ailment.

the terrain. A good flat run on even terrain means the horse could run for several miles, and then you walk it for a while, etc. This is part of the reason why couriers in the old days had "stations" with groups of "fresh" horses along runs. A rider with a message would travel to the next station, a guy waiting there would walk that horse, while you take another one and run off to another station, etc. This was standard for mail delivery and carrying messages for militaries for over 2 thousand years.

:evilgrin:

I don't think we're talking about the same thing. ;-)

after a good work out they love nothing better than to enter a freshly clean stall and have been ntoiced to immediately lay down and roll in the hay...


but, you know me I can't pass up a cheap double entendre








sorry

But that technique is only used for running horses, as you say.

Oh, you said horses?

Never mind...

RL

And I'm innocently watching a Western.

I'm willing to be corrupted though....

coincidentally, I like corrupting cute girls from vancouver...

:D

RL

Do you have a favourite plaid?

RL

LOL:).......

http://gorp.away.com/gorp/publishers/fulcrum/pony-exp.htm


{snip}

In the short span of two months before the inaugural run Russell,
Majors, and Waddell had already accomplished a minor miracle
as the company put together a chain of more than 150 relay stations
10 to 15 miles apart, with four hundred horses, some eighty young riders,
plus station keepers, stock tenders, route superintendents, and shuttling supply wagons.

{/snip}

Hope this helps.

:shrug:

where they could pick up fresh horse; i know i'd hate to run all the way to NYC, that would suck x(

:shrug:

off half way there, but i hear you, "come on horse. throw them shoes off, put up those 'dogs', take a load off..." :-)

1. They always have to insert sound effects of horses whinnying when they show them racing around - in reality, horses almost never make sounds when being ridden. They save that for when they're relaxed and hanging out with each other.

2. They always show stage coach horses galloping (the Wells Fargo commercials are famous for this). In real life, this is absurd. First of all, a gallop is a relatively unbalanced gait and would be difficult for a team of horses to coordinate for very long. In addition, a horse's best gait for endurance is a trot - stage horses were driven at a trot because they could go forever that way, it was balanced and they could stay in sync which made pulling easier on them. Galloping is flashy, though. :eyes:

3. Cowboys in movies always leap onto a horse's back from roofs or a springboard behind the horse - stupid and lousy for the horse's back and kidneys. Only an idiot would do this.

But film editing gives the false impression of nearly unlimited stamina. This is totally false. If you have ever seen "Man From Snowy River", you have seen, IMHO, one of the best sequences of a chase on horseback.
Thoroughbreds can run fast for a short distance, but they can't run a race every day. Horse racing is hard on those horses because they are young animals, usually only a few years old. Their bones haven't reached full strength.
Wild Mustangs, because of the habitat they live in, have become a tough breed and their endurance is quite good but it is not unlimited. They do get winded. Not only that you have to keep the horses in shape with regular exercise just like a person. If they don't get exercised they can become fat and unhealthy. One of my two sisters had to euthanize her horse about a year or two ago. She had married, had a child, and carried on with her career. This left little time for her to exercise her horse. As a result the horse gained weight and fell into poor health. What really began to cause problems was the fact that the horse had contracted diabetes and it was near impossible to keep its blood sugar in check.

One previous poster mentioned that the trot is the most efficient means for a horse to cover distance. This is correct. A gallop may give them speed but a gallop is less energy efficient.

I use to go to horse camp every summer. We'd ride all over creation, taking the horses into the mountains and spend nights with them. We would go approximately 2-7 miles (depending on horse age and the terrain) and let them rest and feed for about an hour.