Average Speed for a Horse at Walk

[lynn]

How long would you expect it to take on horseback, to cover eight miles, a mixture of roadwork and bridleways on the flat and hillwork.

I took my mare out for an eight mile ride on saturday morning, and she isn't particularly fit so apart from one short canter the rest was at a walk and it took us an hour and half, just wondering what time you would expect it to take for a fit horse

[☼ WIZARD ☼]

the average speed at walk is 6 miles per hour. although suppose it depends on length of stride etc.

[arabheaven]

zac's lazy walk clocks at 5-6 kph but his excited walk can reach 7/8kph

8 miles is between 12-13 km so i'd say an hour to an hour and a half is pretty average

[Karon]

I'd say two hours going slowly (ie walking on an average horse, Ash will walk at 6mph when she gets going!) , about one and a half if you're doing the odd trot etc which makes it just over 5mph.

[bicky]

Kinzzy will walk about 1 mile per hr going on a hack and about 100 mile pr hr on the return journey. I think she is half homing pigeon!! LOL ;D

[rj]

A consistent 6mph is a good trotting rate tbh. When training for 100 mile ride I was told to get fit enough to sustain 6mph for a couple of hours.

I walk at around 3/4mph which is quite a brisk pace, & my 16hh TBxCB doesn't walk much faster, usually. I take her & pony down the farm drive which is exactly 1m long & it takes about 40mins to get there & back, just at walk - so that's 3mph.

[Karon]

Ash can easily walk at 6mph when she feels like it but I used to train for endurance at around 6mph (about two thirds walk, the restf steady trot usually), which was fast enough for training, sometimes with a faster ride of 7 - 8 mph. Her mother, who never felt like she was going fast, would train at 8mph without batting an eyelid - wish I'd done endurance with her

[lynn]

Thanks for you replies............my friends that i ride out with have actually nicknamed my horse "the train" as it doesn't matter where she is going she has a very busy pace, especially for a 15hh cob.