Judging one's Speed?

[Skib]

I'm usually in the Mature Riders' section but this seems a general question.

How do people assess their speed when riding?

A horseman I much respect from the First World War period advised his troops not to trot at more than 8 miles an hour.
How fast is 8 mph? And is there any well known way to tell how fast one is travelling on horseback?

 

[Mehitabel]

generally you do it with a stopwatch, i think - eventers and endurance riders do. You'd go somewhere where you knew the length and time it, and then work out your average speed from that. I expect it takes a fair bit of practice to get your eye in though.
they walk at about 4mph, normally.

 

[Jessey]

You go and buy a GPS (watch) that tells you or you can time a set distance and work it out. I think a working trot is normally about 8mph but it will vary.

J x

 

[ajhainey]

Yep - I use my gps. If you are on road I think there is something you can do with lampposts (vaguelty remebered from cycling, they are at a set distance apparently??) but I try and avoid riding anywhere with lamposts, implies faaarrr too much traffic! aj xx

 

[Jessey]

The distance between lamp posts varies depending on the speed limit, all I can remember is 200ft in a 30mph zone.

 

[Ross]

Go out in the car and measure a stretch of road where you can trot, or measure a length of track - then trot it and see how long it's taken, and work out your speed from that.

Ross

 

[virtuallyhorses]

What's the context of the question Skib? Are you thinking about - horse's fitness\coping with work? or something else?

Generally I don't judge speed - I judge breathing\ heart rate and work with that. If you are into endurance then you tend to work with set distances i.e. 10km and so you know based on how long it takes to complete a distance how fast you are going. After you've done it a couple of times you get a feel for how fast a trot and how much canter you 'need' to do x mins ride. Endurance websites are good at giving you this sort of information and will have much more scientific physiological data than a first world war anything.

You can also buy horse 'pedometers' - they aren't very accurate but they are better than nothing.

 

[Skib]

Thank you for all the answers. And particularly the people who mentioned GPS - revealing yet another technological wonder of the 21st century to us oaps. I looked on the internet and wow I would love that.
But no, virtually horses, my interest was just curiosity and historical.

 

[laura jeanne]

ooooooooohhhhhhhhhh, I have always wanted a GPS watch for no reason at all. I always wonder how the jockeys can do, say, a quarter of a mile in X number of seconds while training. I guess it just takes experience.