A friend of mine sent me this question:
Yesterday I went on a trail ride with my train and a couple of my friends and we always race in fields and up hills.My mare is 24 years old and she beat 4 other horses, all younger than her.The one horse is a 6 year old Thoroughbred, another is a 10 year old Percheron/Friesian cross,another 19 year old Quarter Horse,and a 7 year old Appendix.We were all running flat out.In total we ran over a mile with breaks in between runs the longest run was a little over a quarter of a mile.
How fast can a Quarter Horse run flat out?
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This is a website, the OFFICIAL AQHA website, that gives the current world record times for racing Quarter Horses at various distances. http://www.aqha.com/en/Racing/Content-Pa...
The current world record for a Quarter Horse going 220 yards, which is 1/8 of a mile, is :11.493 seconds. That works out to a mile in 1:31.94, which works out to a speed of 39.164 miles/hour.
The current world record for a Quarter Horse going 440 yards, which is a 1/4 of a mile, is :20.274 seconds. That works out to a mile in 1:21.096 seconds, which works out to a speed of 44.44 miles per hour.
Quarter horses can go 50 mph, the clocking times from the AQHA world records are started at a standstill, and that slows the overall speed (hence the reason a quarter mile time is faster than a eighth of a mile time). To accurately judge the top speed off of a race you would need to start timing while the horse was at top speed. to do this you can either take out the first 1/8th time, giving you a second 1/8th in 8.78equating to a mile in 1:10.24, making that horse running at 51.25 mph. Thoroughbreds times clocked at a running start for 1/8th of a mile are 9.60, equating to a mile in 1:16.80 and 46.87 mph. Obviously they can't hold this speed for the whole distance but these are legitimate top speeds. And you could probably coax another 1 mph out of them by promising carrots at the end of the run.
And you have to bear in mind that these are racehorses, which are conditioned and trained and shod for maximum speed, and they carry weights that are usually less than 130 pounds. Their jockeys ride in a crouched position that maximizes the horse's ability to go fast. Also, they are running over a track that is as flat and level as science can make it, with a surface that's groomed and conditioned to make it as safe and easy as possible for horses to run fast over it.
A normal riding horse with a normal rider isn't going to even come close to this rate of speed. They might be able to come close to 20-25 MPH, but that's going to be over a very short distance.
I have to add that Thoroughbreds at 2-year-olds in training sales have been clocked at times under 10 seconds for 1/8 of a mile at the pre-sale "under tack" shows. But this isn't a fair comparison with Quarter Horses in a race, because the Quarter Horses are breaking from a gate, starting from a standstill. The Thoroughbreds in the workout have a running start to the point where the clocker starts the timer.
What's actually more impressive, at least to me, are the speeds that harness race horses can go. This page gives the current world records for trotters and pacers: http://www.ustrotting.com/trackside/worl...
The world record for a pacer is a mile in 1:49.3. That works out to 32.9 miles per hour at the pace.
The world record for a trotter is a mile in 1:50.1. That works out to 32.7 miles per hour at the trot.
Trotting and pacing are a horse's "second gear," and top harness race horses can go over 32 MPH in "second gear"!
I have a friend who trained harness race horses for 20 years, and she let me get in a jog cart behind some of the horses she trained. You don't go as fast in a jog cart as you do in a racing sulky, so I wasn't going as fast as the horse could go. But man oh man, was the wind whipping past my face as we went flying along!
This same friend put me up on a pacer just off the track that she was trying to find a home for. This was just the second time that horse had ever had someone on his back. We were on a training track out in Three Forks, MT, and he took off at a pace down the track. My friend was riding a lead pony at a good hand gallop, shouting and urging this pacer along. I know we weren't going anywhere near racing speed, but my god was it an experience! We were flying along at the pace, and I was laughing so hard I don't know how I managed to stay on.
A fast horse sure can feel a lot faster than when you're inside a car going the same speed, or faster. For sure.
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