What is a stagecoach?

Stagecoaches are often mentioned in historical fiction and sometimes in fantasy fiction. The stagecoach system was actually invented at about the time of the Renaissance, and allowed faster land travel than previous.

The term combines "coach" with "stage" - in a stagecoach system, the horses would be switched out for fresh ones at regular intervals. A stagecoach uses four horses (sometimes you will see "stagecoach rides" where they use two draft horses - this is not authentic) of a light harness or carriage type. Because the stages are kept short, the horses can be pushed to a faster pace without injuring or laming them.

The other key thing about stagecoaches was that they were the first carriages to have proper suspension. Stagecoaches were rendered obsolete by the growth of the rail network. They would run on a regular schedule. Their golden age was 1800 to 1830, when roads were improved and spring suspension invented.

As an etymological note, the dominance of the stagecoach is why we now use the word "coach" to refer to a long distance bus.

A stagecoach at the Wells Fargo museum in San Diego. Image source: Captain-tucker via Wikimedia Commons.

How Fast Does A Horse Travel?

So, we talked about safe distances of travel - but just how fast is a horse?

Here's a handy little table/list:

Walk - about 4 mph
Trot - 8.1 to 12 mph
Canter - 12 to 15 mph
Gallop 25 - 30 mph.

Over a sprint distance (a quarter of a mile or so) a horse has been known to reach over 50 miles per hour, but they can't keep it up. Harness racers can trot or pace at the same speed regular horses gallop.

One of the things you'll notice is the much greater variance at the higher gaits. All horses walk at close to the same pace, but at the faster paces speed is affected by conformation and breeding. A draft horse is never going to gallop as fast as a Thoroughbred. (Yes, draft horses are perfectly capable of galloping, they just aren't built to do it very well!).

For normal travel, riders and carriage drivers tend to alternate walk and trot, hitting an average speed of 6-7 mph.

In mountainous or rough terrain you will probably be traveling mostly at a walk. The same if leading pack horses.

The ambling gaits are about the same speed as a trot, but can be kept up for longer by both horse and rider. To give some idea, I've spent 5 hours at a walk on a normal horse and regretted it the next day. I spent 5 hours on an Icelandic, mostly at the tolt, and couldn't even physically tell I'd been on a horse at all...

Horses should not be asked to canter or gallop for extended periods of time. Post riders would alternate between trot and canter. (There's a reason we talk about "posting" the trot - I'll talk about that tomorrow).

How Far Can A Horse Safely Travel In A Day?

Assuming your heroes have a horse each, how far can they travel in a day without damaging the horses?

The American Endurance Ride Conference allows 12 hours to complete a 50 mile ride, and 24 hours for 100 miles. However, these horses are not covering this distance for days on end. They're rested after the race. It also can take several years to properly train and condition horses for 100 mile races.

A more reasonable figure, thus, would be about 30 miles a day - assuming a fit horse on reasonably level ground. In mountains, you might be doing well to cover 15 miles in a day. And this is staying in the saddle all day, which might not be feasible in any given situation.

Obviously, if your characters only have to cover 100 miles or less and are in a hurry, you could assume they could do it in less than 24 hours. The horses would need to be rested afterwards (and so would the riders, trust me), but it could be done safely for the horse.

For a normal, leisurely trip, such as the Starks going from Winterfell to King's Landing, I would generally apply a ballpark figure of about 20 miles a day.

On the other extreme, post riders can get a message from one end of a continent to another very quickly. The Roman post rider system averaged 50 miles a day and the famed Pony Express hit 75 miles a day. How? By using a relay system. The rider would change horses at regular intervals. Over longer distances, post riders would cover a specific shorter route and hand off letters to a different rider.

Hopefully, this gives some idea of reasonable travel times. (Obviously, if your characters are in dire straits and don't care about ruining a good horse...)

A good horse after a long day's work. (I know, I know, I keep showing this girl, but she really is a very nice horse).