Seems like I read somewhere that a man would win. Of course it would depend on the man and the horse I suppose. Anyone got an info on this?
I read that, too, (but not in a paper).
Basically, it said that a horse doesn’t know it’s in a race, and hestiates until it’s prodded to run. By then, the guy is too far ahead for the horse to catch up.
I think this was said of Jesse Owens, but I don’t know for a fact that it was ever done.
That’s not quite true, but close.
It takes a few seconds for the horse to a) sort all its legs out in the initial launch, and b) to get up to speed. At least in comparison to a man. But it’s a closely run dash anyways.
However, if it was, say, 400 yards, and you took a middle section of 100 yards as the measurement, the horse would most definitely win.
Jesse Owens used to race horses at 100 yards and win. It was a bit of a cheat – the sound of the starting gun startled the horse, giving Owens a head start. The horse also takes a bit longer to get up to speed because it has a greater mass. Owens won, but the horse was always gaining rapidly at the finish.
Rc how would that work with a racehorse… one trained to come out of the gate quickly? I would like to see that race.
Having chased many horses around fields I can state definitely that even the ponies win. 
Man only wins if he cheats.
The horse may be startled by a starting gun or whatever. Any horse halfway trained to do so, can go from a full stop to top speed in about one stride (Horses have four wheel positraction.) Full speed is somewhere around 35 MPH. Indeed quarter horses were specifically bread for this purpose. I raise quarterhorses for fun and have beaten a motorcycle over a 100 yard distance with one.
The Jesse Owens thing is a trick with the race designed so Jesse gets a significant drop on the horse at the outset.
Remember too, that Jesse Owens wasn’t asked to carry somebody else during the race. The horses were.
True but then the horse is a heck of a lot bigger with more muscle than the man.
On a related note, I’ve heard that in an endurance race between a horse and man, the man would win. Supporting statements were: 1) humans are genetically evolved for endurance running; look at the proportion of mass in the (hind) legs, and 2) some particular Native Americans used to run down wild horses as part of their rite of passage into manhood. Can anyone confirm/deny?
Sure. Let’s do it this way. Say a good sized quarter horse weighs 1200 pounds. An average man, saddle, and such weighs 200. That means the horse is carrying 1/6 again his weight.
Let’s say Jesse weighs 175 pounds. 1/6 of 175 is about 30 pounds. Did Jesse have a 30 pound weight strapped to his back?
All this aside, in a fair race, Jesse is toast, even against a plug.
The only reference that I found with a specific date and event stated that “On Dec 26, 1936, Jesse Owens beat a race horse in Havana, Cuba, after being given a 40-yard handicap.”
Probably not well. Owens was careful to run against horses that weren’t trained to race, usually at county fairs and the like.
Zut:
Man has the advantages over long distances mainly because of size. Running produces a lot of heat. The horse must sweat prodigious amounts in order to cool its great mass. At a good trot a horse cannot keep itself hydrated over a very long distance. It just physically can
't drink enough to keep up with the rate of water loss. Also, because of the inefficient nature of the horses digestive system, it needs to spend a large percentage of each day eating.
In excellent condition, a horse can cover 30 - 40 miles or so a day, without deteriorating healthwise. I don’t know many people that can do that, but I suppose that it is a beatable number from a human standpoint.
I guess you could run down a horse by constantly harassing it so that it never had time to eat and drink. If you startled it and forced it to flee at full speed it would use its energy that much quicker. Finally it would just give up in fear and exhaustion.
This would prove that a man can outwit a horse. Not exactly a great accomplishment.
It’s funny to that when you see most of those western movie scenes the cowboy and horse are always 50 miles into the high serria no where near water. (Unless of course you count the water on the truck behind the cameras.) And every posse scene the riders are at full gallup for miles and miles.
There’s another advantage for man. It has to do with how our livers work. Livers in animals have two main functions: maintaining blood sugar levels and producing vitamin C. In humans, the livers lost the vitamin C function a few million years ago, and as a result have increased blood sugar maintainence capacity. What this means is that humans are the endurance champions of mammalia (not all animals, some migratory birds make us look like pikers).
You probably don’t know many people who are in excellent shape, either. A person in excellent shape can easily double that distance without deterioration. (Those Indians who ran down horses were in excellent shape, by the way.)
That’s exactly how the Indians did it. But there was no wit involved, just more endurance.
I could swear that I’ve read (although I have no idea where) that if a horse is pressed to continue running, it will continue until death. Any word on that?
Also, I seem to recall seeing the Horse v. Human race one time, back when That’s Incredible was a popular show. Can’t remember who won, though.
This waste of bandwidth brought to you by Mr. Cynical
To prove dtilque’s point (that a human can cover more than 30-40 miles a day), look at times for 100 Mile races.
As an example, I found these times for the Wasatch Front 100 Mile Endurance Run
Wasatch Front 100 Mile Winners
In 1998, the top times for men and women were both under 24 hours.
1998: 199 started; 152 finished
Karl Meltzer, UT…20:08
Ann Trason, CA…22:27
dtilque:
Sorry buddy. You said:
“You probably don’t know many people who are in excellent shape, either. A person in excellent shape can easily double that distance without deterioration”
I’ve run a marathon. I know lots of people in great shape. 60 - 80 miles per day, day after day, is just not a doable figure.
Let’s take 70 and split the difference.
Let’s pretend our person is pretty close to superhuman. He only needs to sleep 6 hours a day (More activity recquires more rest.) That leaves 18 hours for travelling, drinking, defecating, brushing teeth, reading the newspaper, getting girls, etcetera. He’s going to need to maintain his strength, and eat and drink a lot. Let’s say 3 big meals a day. He’ll need to digest a little and attend to his bodily needs, so let’s say 3 45 minute meal stops at which our fellow attends to other bodily needs as well. Let’s take another 45 minutes a day for water stops, popping blisters, and such.
That leaves 15 hours a day in which our fellow can travel his 70 miles. He needs to travel at 4 2/3 mph for those 15 hours. A light jog.
This is the equivalent of about a 5 1/2 more marathon (I did mine in 4 and felt like crap for two weeks.)
He will be running almost 3 marathons a day. Is the terrain perfectly level? The hills will make a big difference.
In order to maintain his body weight, our man is going to have to literally stuff himself every minute of those 45 minute breaks. This is going to cut down on the amount of water he’s going to be able to drink. I think it’s safe to say that at this level of activity he’s going to need upwards of 5 gallons of water per day at least, probably more.
Our man will need to wake up in the morning, eat the equivalent of 3 or 4 supersized Big Mac value meals, drink a gallon of water or so, and then go jog a marathon. During the marathon he will need to keep drinking.
For lunch he will need to eat two or 3 pizzas, drink another gallon of water or so, and start running again. Remember to keep drinking and for God’s sake don’t throw up! You need those calories!
At some point we will say our man pauses to take a giant poop or two.
For dinner let’s give him a 3 pound steak, salad, baked potato, apple pie ( a whole one he’ll need the sugar,) some vitamins, and Oh Yeah! Another gallon of water.
As evening sets in he can start his third marathon. He gets to drink more water than collapse for 6 hours before waking up and doing it again. and again. and again.
How long before his musculature breaks down? How long before his body goes into revolt? He will lose the urge to eat as his body finds it more efficient to use his limited energy to run rather than digest food. His body will be fighting him, seeking to reject food and break down the easily accessible energy in stored fat and muscle.
No, you will need to cite an example or two of documented sustained activity if you expect me to believe 70 miles a day won’t break a man down very very quickly.
Mr Cynical:
Yes, you can run a horse until it dies.
Arnold:
A horse can do 100 miles in a day as well. In some endurance races they cover that distance and more carrying a rider in significantly shorter times. What both humans and horses share in common after this kind of feat is that they are not good for much for quite some time while they recover from this tremendous exertion and bodily drain.
What we were looking at earlier was a sustainable rate of travel. There’s no doubt that humans have the edge here.
Oh, regarding the OP. Secretariat ran his Kentucky Derby at the average speed of 37.5 mph. That was over a long duration. 1 1/4 miles under 2 minutes. Man can barely break 4 minutes for a single mile.
A fast horse probably has a short term speed burst capability in excess of 50 mph. They accelerate very very quickly.
Do you see why the 100 yard dash is a joke?