Please Help a Writer be Accurate About Travel by Horses

You know how offended us horse people get when we read books where the information or use of horses isn't accurate and it just ruins the whole story? Well, now's our chance to help a writer get it right.

A friend sent me an e-mail requesting information about how people traveled by horseback in pre-industrial revolution America. To me, traveling with horses requires a truck, so I don't know the answers. Can y'all help by answering the following very good questions?

My characters are going to travel on horseback and with a mule across South Carolina from the coast to the mountains. The first two days they want to travel fairly quickly, (I'm thinking about 4 miles an hour) just in case they are being followed. They will travel about eight hours a day.

 

Questions:

1. How often should they stop to rest the horses?

2. How many times a day would the horses eat?

3. What could the horses eat along the way? I'm thinking that since they stick close to the river, there should be access to grasses. Should I have them pack some feed on the mule (corn, oats)?

Comments

[Transylvanianhorseman]

I'd refer the writer to www.thelongridersguild.com which has considerable archive information about long horseback journeys in the pre-motor age.

[Anne]

Many thanks, Transylvanian. The Long Riders were a tremendous help to my friend -- and to literature!

When I put up this post, somehow I knew you'd be the one to know where to look.