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Clocking Your Speed-gaited Horse
by Isaac Wyler

Have a need for speed? Check out the truth about how fast gaited horses can really go!

Some pretty incredible speeds have been attributed to gaited horses, crediting them with hitting 40 and even 50 miles per hour (m.p.h.), "in gait". I shudder to think what would happen to the multi-billion dollar horse racing industry if one of these fantastic speed gaiting horses was to break gait and blast into a full-blown gallop!

For those seriously interested in speed-gaiting horses, I've compiled some facts that will make good food for thought concerning the physical abilities of race horses. With documented information, we can intelligently discuss the relative strengths and weaknesses of our horses as we strive to breed ever faster, smoother and prettier horses.

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Racing Speeds
The fastest breed to consider, in terms of speed at a distance of a mile or more (any race under one mile is considered a sprint), is the world renowned Thoroughbred. This breed has been developed over generations to be the fleetest equine ever put under saddle. One breeder I spoke with made this comment on the fantastic speeds being rumored about in the gaited horse world, "Sure I believe it, as long as the stopwatch wasn't started until the horse had slipped completely off the cliff".

Let's consider some verifiable records.
March 5, 1989. Racing on a dirt track at Santa Anita racetrack in California, a Thoroughbred named Ruhlmann, age four, carrying a jockey and saddle weight of 118 pounds, ran one mile in one minute, 33.4 seconds (1:33.4 minutes)That represents an average speed, from a standing start, of 38.54 m.p.h.
March 1, 1997. Racing on a faster grass track at Santa Anita, a Thoroughbred named Atticus, age five, carrying 117 pounds, ran one mile in 1:31.8 minutes, averaging an even faster speed of 39.21 m.p.h.

Thoroughbred race horses, coming down the home stretch during approximately 60+ seconds of extreme exertion, under a whip and with incredible drive to win, have been known to hit speeds of 38 to 40 m.p.h. [See reference 1]

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Sprinting Speeds
Let's now consider the American Quarter Horse, specifically the sprinting race horse. After generations of being bred to sprint, a good one can chew up 350 yards of track in about 17.72 seconds. [Reference 2] That's a sprinting speed of 40.40 m.p.h. Some have been clocked at 45 m.p.h. Now that's a "burst of speed" from an equine athlete bred to do one thing really well... sprint!

Speed in Trot and Pace
Let's move on to gaits that have similar (though slower than a gallop) locomotion to our own gaited horses. Keep in mind that a trotter (two-beat, diagonal gait) and a pacer (two-beat, lateral gait) have only two beats to concentrate on. A gaited horse (four distinct hoof beats somewhere between a dead trot and a dead pace) has twice as much to regulate. That's why it is harder for a gaited horse to accurately maintain the gaits required by their breed standard.

Let's look at an interesting trotting fact. The Standardbred harness racing stallion, Pineship, at four years old, trotting an average speed of 32.43 m.p.h., set a new world record of 1:51.00. His time reads T4T 1:51:00M.

Here is another juicy little tidbit, this time from a harness pacer. Cambest, a five-year-old Standardbred stallion blistered the track at an average speed of 33.89 m.p.h., setting a new world pace record. His time reads P5T1:46.1/5M.

Now to explain those letters and numbers. The first letter stands for trot or pace (T or P). The second number denotes the age. The third letter T stands for timed trial, meaning the race was alone against the clock, rather than an actual race with the slow downs that inevitably occur. The numbers stand for the minutes, seconds and 1/5 of seconds. The last letter M stands for exactly one mile. Unlike galloping Thoroughbreds who start from a standstill, Standardbred trotters and pacers are already up to speed when the time, or race, starts, so the "average" speeds, reflect much more closely the actual top speed of the horse. [Reference 3]

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Flying Speed
In 1999, the Icelandic World Championships at the Gut Matheshof horse show in Germany clocked the Icelandic stallion, Gordon frá Stóru-Ásgeirsá, piloted by Icelander Sigurbjörn Bárdarson (best known as Diddi) at 21.16 over 250 meters (820 feet) at the flying pace. [Reference 4] That is an average speed of 42.53 kilometers per hour, or 26.43 m.p.h., good enough to set a new world pace record for Icelandics at 250 meters. This August, Örvar frá Stykkisholmi, ridden by Magnus Skúlason, covered 100 meters (328 feet) at the Nordic Championships in Seljord, Norway in 7.5 seconds, to set a new world pace record for that distance with an average speed of 29.8 m.p.h. (47.95 k.p.h.)

Icelandic pace races are started by galloping very fast on a hard packed dirt track up to the starting line where they break from a gallop and lock down into a hard, literally flying pace for the distance of the race. In Iceland, this is sometimes done on snow covered ice.

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Clocking the Speed
Now that I've attracted your attention, let's look at some various ways we can accurately determine how fast our gaited friends are really going.

Before you clock your horse's speed in gait, you should know whether or not your horse is actually doing the proper gait for his breed. For example, the requirement for the Paso Largo horse is an evenly-timed, four-beat gait. If my horse is executing anything else, such as a Trocha (fox trot) or andadura imperfecta (broken pace), we are not largoing. I would be wasting my time with the clock, because we are not timing the proper gait. If you are not sure of the gait your horse is doing, get someone to video you and then watch it in slow motion.

It takes about 1/4 mile for a really fast horse to hit maximum speed.


If your horse is gaiting correctly, here are some ideas to determine speed.

  • Access a certified racetrack. It's extremely accurate but not always practical.
  • Gait alongside a vehicle and have the driver clock you. This can be practical, although not entirely accurate. Problems might include surges on the gas pedal, the speedometer being "off" by as much as several miles per hour and wrong-sized tires on the vehicle. Speedometers are set for factory standard-sized tires, put smaller tires on the vehicle and the speedometer will register a faster speed than you are actually driving. Larger tires will cause a slower reading than your actual speed. There is also the issue of safety when riding a fast horse near a moving vehicle. Remember, 6000 pounds of steel truck doesn't mix well with 1000 pounds of horse. Be careful!
  • Get a radar check. Of course, this might involve getting enough speeding tickets to know your hometown police officers on a first name basis. Once you are on good terms, ask them to radar you with a piece of metal on your saddle. The main problem here again is accuracy. Since I tend to dispute the accuracy of every radar gun that an officer used to issue me a speeding ticket, how can I say that they are accurately timing my horse? Police officers admit that the accuracy of a radar gun is +/- 3% and that is only if the radar gun is held perfectly still. If it is moving, as they try to follow a moving object, it is difficult to get an exact reading. The guns are also affected by high humidity. Radar is not used by racetracks to determine speed. They use an official timepiece, computers and mathematics.
  • Do the math. If you know the time it takes a horse to cover a set distance you can compute his speed with this formula: Rate (Speed) = Distance over Time. For example, if you cover 1 mile in one minute:
1 mile (Distance)
1 minute (Time)
X
60 minutes
1 hour
= 60 minutes = 60 m.p.h.

This formula works for any set distance and time. Let's use Ruhlmann as an example. Take his time in minutes and seconds, 1:33.4, and convert it into a decimal of the total minutes by dividing the seconds by 60.

1 minute + 33.4 seconds = 1 minute + (33.4 ÷ 60 = .5567 minute) = 1.5567 minutes

Put that number in the formula:

1 mile (Distance)
1 minute (Time)
X
60 minutes
1 hour
= 60 (mile)
1.5567(hour)
=___ 38.54 m.p.h. =38.54 m.p.h.

Remember, that bottom number always divides into the top number. What a speed-gaiting eye opener!

  • Measure and clock. If you don't particularly enjoy math, try this. The math is already done. Use a tape measure to measure 176 feet on a flat road or track. Mark each end of the 176 feet with a stake three-feet long and brightly colored flag. Stand about in the middle and safely back and clock the horse with an accurate stopwatch as it enters and exits the 176 zone.

    4 seconds = 30 m.p.h.
    5 seconds = 24 m.p.h.
    6 seconds = 20 m.p.h.
    7 seconds = 17 m.p.h.
    8 seconds = 15 m.p.h.

If it takes any longer to cross 176 feet, I suggest you trade your horse in for another speed gaiting prospect.

This way of determining speed would be extremely accurate with an electronic eye and a clock that could time to hundredths of a second. It can also be videotaped to doublecheck. Have the videographer stand back approximately 200 feet from the middle, keeping a little more than both flags in the screen. Just let the horse gait by without moving the camera.

  • Go hi tech. Though not as accurate as a stopwatch and a pre-set distance, my favorite speed measuring device is a Global Positioning System or G.P.S. (Starting at $250 for a good one.) Requiring only one rider to operate, it locks onto a minimum of four (up to twelve) satellites to triangulate your position and then displays your speed, distance traveled, elevation, direction, and even geographic items of interest (such as state lines, etc.)

Like a Speck in the distance...
One of the hottest competitors in speed racking events was the legendary roan, Speck, now retired, owned and exhibited by Robert Skimmyhorn. Winning the title World Champion Speed Racking Horse 14 times from 1987 through 1995, this great horse could burn up the track, or more accurately arena.

One of the inherent problems with clocking speed gaiting horses is that most "races" are held in an area with the horses racking at full tilt. Literally. To maintain their speed the horses lean into the curve of the arena throughout the race. Speck finally surrendered his title to Choice's Flashy Cut in 1995. The current reigning WC Speed Racking Horse is seven time winner, Hot Patches.

 

Feel free to verify the above information through these references:
[1] The Daily Racing Form, New York, NY. Phone: (800) 306-FORM, or visit www.drf2000.com; The Jockey Club, Lexington, KY. Phone: (800) 333-1778, or visit www.jockeyclub.com
[2] American Quarter Horse Association, Amarillo, TX. Phone: (806) 376-4811, or visit www.aqha.org
[3] United States Trotting Association, Columbus, OH. Phone: (614) 224-2291, or visit www.ustrotting.com/
[4] International Federation of Icelandic Horse Associations (FEIF), Zurich, Switzerland. In the U.S. Phone: (805) 688 6355, or visit www.feif.org/wr/wr.htm

Isaac Wyler has been a breeder, rider, racer and aficionado of Paso Largo horses for fifteen years. Over the years, he has acquired over 100 horses currently representing all known Largo speed-gaiting bloodlines available in the U.S. He is producing a gaited horse that can honestly execute the even four beat gait at speeds up to 20 mph. He has written several articles and produced videos promoting and explaining the unique speed gait of the Paso Largo Horse. Isaac owns Pisadas de Oro Stables in Arizona and Utah offering world class Largo Horses and information.