Which is faster?

Factual Questions
1

Having watched my fair share of westerns I always wonder how the hero, who is usually just riding a horse, is able to catch up with the villain no matter what contraption he’s riding. I know that movies aren’t real, but what would happen in real life?

So let’s imagine a 3-way race between a single rider, a two-horse drawn buckboard, and a four-horse drawn standard stagecoach.

For our race let’s assume the buckboard and stagecoach are empty, and that all of the quarter horses are of equal size and strength. The coarse is a 1 mile straight dirt road, and given that getting a stagecoach up to speed takes time let’s assume a running start. All three racers have 1/2 mile to get up to speed before crossing the starting line.

In the movies the single rider is always able to catch up with, and overtake, a buckboard or stagecoach going at full gallop.

While the stagecoach is heaviest, you have 4 horses pulling it. And while the single horse isn’t pulling anything, it’s only a single horse.

So who wins our race?

2

Well, since all the horses are the same size and strength it follows that they’ll all run the same speed unencumbered.

Three (or four) horses aren’t going to run any faster than one horse by it’s lonesome.

Since you are encumbering the horses that are dragging wagons, I’m betting on the single horse being slightly faster.

3

Stagecoaches and buckboards were not built so that they rolled easily, and since the ground they are rolling on is uneven, the horses need to keep expending extra energy to keep them moving. Also a stagecoach (assuming a driver) is more than four times heavier than the rider. In addition, a team of horses is probably not going to be running as efficiently as a single horse; since they are not synchronized, energy is lost to overcome missteps or the slowest horse in the bunch.

Horses also don’t all run at the same speed. That’s why there are horse races.

4

I’d guess that four horses tethered together run at the speed of the slowest horse. The hero’s horse only needs to be faster than the slowest one of the four.

5

Brilliant thinking… I hadn’t even thought of that!

6

Scraps plan for Formula 1 car pulled by 800 horses.

7

How much horsepower that thing got?

8

Also, stagecoaches and buckboards were not built to be fast – they were built to carry cargo or passengers. A rider on a single horse will be faster, but can not carry a couple weeks worth of supplies or a few passengers. They have different purposes – it’s like comparing a moped to a diesel semi truck.

Actually, a good team IS synchronized. They will time their steps together. Look at some examples of draft horse teams or Dressage Pairs, or even the Budweiser team doing a back & turn – note how each pair stays synchronized in step.

Of course, this is slower – one or both horses have to slow down to keep in step. (But by staying in step, they provide more power to pull the wagon (like putting a truck into a lower gear).

9

the guy in the white hat is faster.

if the plot had the hero driving a wagon the he would overtake single horses.