Ever feel like you’re flying while riding a horse only to be told that the horse is going slow? You’re not alone! Speeds feel much different in the saddle than they do on your own two feet or in a car! But, how fast do horses walk?
A normal horse has four gaits: the walk, the trot, the canter, and the gallop. There are some horses, called gaited horses, that have special and different gaits. Some of these gaits are called the rack, the tolt, and so on.
So now that we know the order of the speeds of gaits, we can begin to look at numbers. How fast do horses actually go? On average, a horse walks at a speed of four miles per hour. That’s not very fast at all!
Humans walk at an average speed of a human is about 3.1 miles per hour- not much slower than horses! People traditionally walk with a purpose, to get from one place to the next.
A horse’s trot can range from about eight miles per hour to twelve miles per hour. The canter can range from nineteen to twenty-four miles per hour. And, the gallop can reach top speeds of about fifty-five miles per hour!
So, horses walk about as fast as we do! But, don’t ask a track star to keep up with a horse at full gallop. I hope this article has helped you get a better understanding of the horse’s walk, and how fast it is in comparison with people and with a horse’s other gaits.