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Question for horse riders
Sam06
Member Posts: 21,244 ✭✭✭✭
I like western movies but I am not a horse rider. Here are a few questions to people here who ride a horse especially ride long distance and for several days;
- After riding a horse for a long time, say 10 hours would you just tie it to a tree or hitching post and go get a beer. It seems to me when a cowboy in a movie rides a long way to town and just ties his horse to a hitching post the poor horse would be thirsty and tired, especially with a saddle on it.
- Could you travel on a single horse for say 5 days and carry all you need to eat and take care of your animal on that horse?
- How far can you travel on one day on a horse over moderate terrain? What would you need to do to take care of the animal after such a ride.
Thanks in advance.
RLTW
Comments
It depends on if the Indians are after you or not.
To a lather and then use it as a arrow stopper .
1) no, take care of your horse first or you'll be a foot
2) Depends on the horse and the cover. Some horses keep easier than others and what vegetation there is to feed on matters. Usually, yes.
3) Depends on the horse, weight of the rider/ gear, temperature, available water and of course terrain. If you want to cover ground 30-60 miles in moderate terrain . How many days are you riding and total distance that needs covered matter. Day after day you can only travel as far as you can keep the horse in good shape. My best horse was an Arab cross 15 1/2 hands and after three days of hard trails I would be riding up the hills while my buddies would be walking and leading their mounts.
Walk your mount out in the morning and walk him in in the evening. Don't exhaust him in between, keep him watered. There's a lot of factors that effect how far you can travel.
My first post here.
After any length of ride the horse always comes first, even before you p.
We always have destination points that have water and hay or pasture waiting. I’ve never really had to pack supplies.
28 to 30 miles a day is enough for horse and rider.
I guess back in the old days horses were stock and not pets. But if you notice on westerns the heroes took care of their horses even if they had someone else do it.
Like WH said there is a limit to what you want a day in the saddle. If you spend an ten hour day traveling and eight of that is riding with your mount walking 4 mph that's 32 miles. You kind of go up and down from there.
Riding for just a few hours at a time over rough terrain can be brutal. The horse HAS to be tended to quickly after stopping or you may as well just kiss it good bye. 30 miles tops.
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
I had several 1/2 Arab and 1/2 Appaloosa horses that I could never ride down when I was a boy
they were tough
I loved trying when I was young
always had grain and hay for them in the morning and evening
Always take care of the horse first. Any good horseman would go easy the last mile to let his horse cool down if he'd been pushing hard. That way the horse could drink right away when reaching water.
Back when I was using horses full time for cattle care, I would often ride to any pasture within 3-4 miles rather than spend gas that I had to buy to get there with pickup and trailer. One of my horses was a better "road horse" than cattle horse so he was the cattle checking horse--don't need much "cow sense" for that task. Lots of days that horse put on 7-8 miles by mid-morning at a long trot moving between pastures and walking around while I counted and checked cattle. Most days he didn't even break a sweat.
Have nearly killed one in a 20 mile day in Arizona when our destination that was supposed to have water didn’t . Walked her most of the way out of that canyon with me on foot . I gave her all the water I had with me that day for me but it wasn’t enough .
she was big and stout and in shape but almost lost her in a canyon south of Sedona in april.
ive rode some way too hard working cattle in Arizona but they all lived , the main thing is most of them won’t take it day after day . It sure helps if they are conditioned .
Anyone who would drink a beer without watering his horse would have to be a movie person !
Myhorses wont usually drink at a rest stop. At lunch at least loosen the girth if not taking off the saddle. An old guy told me work horses, you water them in the morning and at night when you turn them out. Generally that’s the way it works. Some horses will drink from streams and lakes, others would rather take you for a roll in the water.
Welcome to the forum Walkin Horse.
Trail rode for years . Sometimes might do 8 to 10 miles , spread out over 8 to 10 hours. . Frequently taking rest breaks ,for both of us . Always take care of. Your horse first , There are specialty groups that compete in endurance race / rides up to 50 and even a 100 miles . Lots of training to condition horse and rider to handle the distance .
Did a little bit of riding many years ago at one of those rental places. It was late 70's and the cost back then was 10 bucks an hour and the stable was called Balled Mountain. They had several miles of trails and it was a fun kind of date with my wife and some friends. My wife was a horse person having owned a nice gelding appaloosa she earned working on farm as a teenager. Her horse was trained to work a fence line in South Dakota.
My riding experiences always made me aware of my back problems!! Usually took several days to a week or so to recover. Rental horses always know where the barn is! Never let go of the reins when dismounting! Some rentals enjoy trying to scrape you off on passing trees and branches! Always make sure your saddle is made for your size and is adjusted properly to fit you! One time my stirrups were so high I looked like a bobbing bubble Englishman, and did I mention that back trouble!
I've always enjoyed watching the many westerns on TV and the big screen and always take note on the horses used. Flint McCullough (Robert Horton) from Wagon Train most often rode his own personal horses. The one seen most on that show was one of the most beautiful specimens I've seen on screen! Many of our western actors were true horseman and that has a lot to do with why I like westerns so much.
There are many questions just like what Sam mentioned starting this post about what we see those guys doing with their horses. So many scenes where an animal has to be shot because of a broken leg! That scene in the new True Grit movie where Jeff Bridges rides that poor black to near death taking the snakebit girl to get help and ending up shooting! So SAD! When arriving at the town saloon cowboys tie up their mounts to the hitching post with just a simple wrap around. Any horse I've ever known sure would not just stay there!
We all know good ole Hoss Cartwright! IMHO, Dan Blocker made the show Bonanza most memorable! He was a big man and his horses must have been very special to be sure! Anyway, thank you Sam for starting this great thread! Very enjoyable!
How did they train the horse to fall down when the rider was shot? The horse would get up and take off.
"How did they train the horse to fall down when the rider was shot? The horse would get up and take off."
TRIP WIRES or simply yanking the head around causing the horse to lose balance.
Are you sure you really wanted to know?
This is one of the truly tragic and unacceptable facets of the movie industry.
Last night I watched Joe Kidd, one of my favorite Eastwood westerns. I am sure most here have seen the movie but they treated those horses like a car. They were riding for days in the mountains looking for John Saxon and they come to a village where he was near by. After riding all that time they took the horses to a corral and left them with their saddles on overnight in really cold weather. I would think that would ruin a animal.
I would expect if you were back in the late 1800's riding from say Laramie WY to Denver CO a distance of about 130 miles over some moderate to rough terrain it would take 4-5 days or so in good weather. Now it is late 1800 no freezed dried food you are eating canned food or stuff you cook over a fire in an Iron skillet. Your horse will need some grain and water. There are a few towns along the way and FT Collins is about 80 miles toward Denver so you could stop but if you do its going to cost money and you don't have a lot of money. Could one man on one horse carry enough supplies to do that trip? I would think you would need a spare horse to carry supplies and maybe switch mounts at mid point. I don't know though.
This has been in my mind for years. Being in the army and living in the woods walking from one place to the next, I know what it takes to sustain a guy walking from one place to another through the woods not on a trail. Depending on terrain a man with a Rucksack, rifle, ammo, chow and water can move about 15-20 miles a day, in Moderate terrain and that is smoking yourself. You can sustain that for maybe 5-8 days. I figure with a horse you can double that milage, but then you have to have more stuff to sustain the animal too.
Then I see a movie and these guys are going 50 miles a day in the desert for days. I call BS. I figure back then if you were going on a long journey on horseback you would need at least another animal to carry stuff because back then everything was heavy, food, cooking gear, even the guns and ammo were more heavy. I would think the best course of action would be to have a small wagon to go from one place to another kind of like in the movie Will Penny.
Thanks for the replys so far.
Is it true that you should not ride a horse until it is two years old?
Biscuits, sardines, crackers, jerky, and maybe some canned peaches. They didn't always stop to cook and if they were going from here to there they made a lot of cold camps or just enough fire to brew some coffee. Horses can eat browse and the ride from Laramie to Denver would have plenty of graze for your horse. Yes horses do better with a little high content feed like grain, (some horses need it more than others), but a few days without grain generally isn't going to matter much. 130 miles isn't that far a trip on a horse if there are established trails and a town with supplies at the end of it. How long you are going to rest him before leaving again matters in the time you may use to make the trip. The harder you push your mount the more recovery time it needs.
You can kill a horse quick by pushing it to hard or like Jesnsln"s situation with hot dry terrain and lack of water. On the other hand you can ride one across the country if you keep him within his limits. I do not live in desert country so water generally wasn't an issue.
Somewhere I have a book about horses and in it is an account of a dispatch ride during the War of Independence. The horse was an Arabian breed, The first rider rode such a distance that it exhausted the rider and he ended up dying that night from the effort. The horse however was used the next morning by another rider to carry the answer back. I'll have to see if I can find that for the details, distance etc.
You're right about a spare horse. If you were going for an extended trip without a chance to resupply for awhile you need a pack horse that could also be rode if needed. Folks use pack horses today, especially mountain outfitters. Myself, I never made a trip long enough to need a pack horse, wish I had. Around here if you plan right a three day ride is about as long a ride as you can make without covering the same ground over and over. I've rode with people that trailed pack horses along but more for the fun and experience than necessity. Handy to have along if someone else is taking care of it.
There are folks here that have ridden the country you're talking about and they will know a lot more than me. I know a bit about horses, their limits and my limits (when I was younger) but do not have experience in the country you are talking about. I've been there but haven't rode there. Like WH said back then horses were usable stock while now we treat them more as pets.
ROY222 it depends upon the breed, but in general yes, although training should start before that...
@SCOUT5
Thanks for the info. I do Adventure Bike rides on a Honda CRF 250 and we ride through VA/WVA in the mountains. We go on a 3-4 day ride and go about 400 miles max. The riding in on and off road the trails are fairly easy but there is some stream crossing and a bit of mud. The biggest problem is carrying food and shelter. Water is along the way so I don't carry all that much.
My bike doesn't need anything but gas and I can get that along the way. When I get to where we want to camp I just turn it off unload my gear and walk away. In the morning pack up and hit the starter. I don't use a tent just a light weight tarp. I have a small gas stove and eat Mountain house dehydrated chow most of the time. So my whole rig is maybe 25 pounds. Yep I tote a gun(G32 with 3 mags and an extra 50 rds) but no rifle.
Done a little packing in real mountains in my life and anything over a couple days is rough logistically if you are in country where there isn’t much horse feed.
The horses suck down real fast when you work them in mountains and they don’t get enough calories .
There is a story about a scout for one of the presidents when California was opening up . Someone famous just can’t recall right now . Anyway he made the California to Washington trip like 5 times and he had to use mules because they can survive more abuse on lesser quality feed than a horse . My dad was relaying the story to me because he rode competition endurance for years as an older man when he quit roping . My dad won best conditioned animal several times on an Arab horse who was carrying over 25% of his body weight with my dad and saddle . Doing 50 mile races .
The really good
storiws come from a lady who competed in the Tevis cup . I used to shoe for her . She had completed a few times . Which just completing that race is a feat. 100
miles has to be done in under 24 hours to count .
Been around them most of my life and put shoes on just about every breed . For pure toughness Appaloosa and mustang and Arab are the breeds that win endurance races .
@jesnlsn
100 miles in under 24hrs is quite a feat.
When I was in the army as a Ranger we had a road march we did where we did 24 miles in under 8 hours then we had to do some task like qualify with a rifle do a squad live fire assault course or maybe a PT test. My Squad won one year. We did it in under 7 hrs. This is a full 9 man squad with 3 man MG team and 3 man 90mm AT team attached. We didn't eat and we only stopped 2 times for a very short time like 3 min to adjust boots. We would walk a 15 min mile pace for 50 min then for 10 min we would walk slowly. We passed the heavy stuff like the M60 MG and the 90 mm around every hour. The last mile we jogged.
The BN Commander went with us and this guy was old. He was a VN vet(Americal Div) and this was probably around 1986. I will say this he helped hump that fricking 90mm and carried the spare barrel for the M60 a long time. He was a bad *. He asked me how I was doing and I told him I was going on "hate and Copenhagen" he thought that was funny as hell.
I have done a 50 mile march one time and it was a mother. We did it in about 17 hours and we were all done in at the end. It was in Honduras and we started at night. We did that one by Platoons on a dirt road.
I can say in my 25 years as a Infantryman I have been used hard and put up wet a few times so I can relate to a horse being used hard.
It seems a mule would be better for the long haul...
I think a mule would be better too. Why were they not ridden as much in the old west?
Just ask this guy Sam! 😉
I can not imagine doing 25 or 50
miles carrying heavy gear . You guys must have been some serious animals !
We were some of the most bad * soldiers on the earth at that time. Never quit, always ready. I look back and I see I was brainwashed killer back then but what the heck I was a volunteer and I was getting paid. I would not trade that time in my life for anything.