Quote:
Originally Posted by Dalillama
In the Tevis Cup, a 100 mile cross country horse race over 24 hours, roughly half the horses and riders don't make the finish line in time. This isn't always due to horse exhaustion, but it often is.
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Indeed.
What I'm trying to figure out is how much of a difference it makes if the horses mostly aren't carrying a rider or, indeed, anything. Only the best horses need to carry a rider at all and even then, the riders can afford to switch between three good horses and as many remounts as they like.
All the horses would need to run 80 miles, in the end, but they'd only carry someone for 10-30 of those miles.