Originally posted by tim60 A ??myth?? we were told in first year engineering was that no-one had ever found a horse capable of delivering one horsepower for a minute.
Having long been a student of engineering of several disciplines, I can appreciate the myths that are perpetrated in the effort to explain such things.
But I find it hard to believe that there has never been a horse alive that couldn't exert all he or she could for a minute. Think of it. What did the pony express riders do for hours at a time?
Ran their horse as hard as it would go all the way from station to station.
All those stagecoaches that criss crossed continents, run ragged all the way
The legendary Clydesdales pulling wagons of beer.
And the lowly Shetland ponies hauling coal from mines in the Shetlands, Britain and the US.
Millions of horses, giving all they could, all the time.
That's a lot of horsepower.
I have had experience with horses. I am no horseman by any means, but I can handle them, groom them, break them and then saddle and ride them. I can guarantee that any horse with good training will do everything he or she can to give their all, a full horsepower, for as long as they are asked to by their handler.