If we went back to horses...

Tags: Politics, Transportation, Horses
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squinney and I were discussing how the government would screw up that idea...
there would have to be hitching posts in front of stores. Soon the government would regulate how close to the establishment the posts could be.... what material they could be constructed from, how deep the posts would be required to be sunk and how many horses could be hitched to a post...the animal rights groups would have their say in that...then there would have to be water and feed troughs...they would have to meet certain standards... the water would need to be freshened and circulated at all times... how long could your horse be left at the post while you shopped before it was cruelty to the animal and a ticket was issued? If your horse was left too long tied to the post would the horse be towed to an animal shelter? How about liability insurance in case someone's little darling tried to pet a horse and got nipped? The transportation department would get involved and build HAB lanes (horse and buggy).... and let's don't even talk about waste disposal.

I wonder how the Amish do it?

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There was an article in our newspaper today about a guy who rode his horse from Oklahoma to Washington. It took him five months.

It's a pretty cool story, let me see if I can find it.....

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@Bi-Polar Bear,

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/thebigblog/library/ferndalecowboy.jpg

Quote:

Ryan, Mr. Doodles and his mule, Festus, traveled about 2,000 miles on his nearly five-month journey. Ryan set off from Kingfisher June 2.

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/thebigblog/archives/151990.asp

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If you want to be serious about using horses, the guy you need to read about is Chengis Khan. Mongols in those days were covering huge distances and not taking years to do it, but the basic idea was that they were traveling with three or four horses per man and switching off every half hour or so, so that no one horse ever got terribly tired, and thus moving entire armies at something like the maximal rate at which a herd of wild horses could migrate, which could easily be a couple of hundred miles in a day.

That worked nicely enough out on the Eurasian steppelands. The problem arose when you tried to do it in cities; New York for instance prior to the automobile age, had as much or more of a problem with pollution than we've ever had since then, it was just a different SORT of pollution....

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@boomerang,

cool beyond words...

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@gungasnake,

that's really interesting...and a lot of horses......not to mention a lot of horse shit....could put a lot of people to work I ......I was trying to figure out how long it would take me to get my gear to show in a covered wagon...

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@gungasnake,

And no modern army can come close to 200 miles a day, today.

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@Bi-Polar Bear,

The 200 mile in 24 hour thing meant army groups. The arrow messengers and the Mongol pony express (Yam) system was something else again. At the time of Kublai Khan as I've read it, they could get messages from Beijing to Moscow in seven or eight days.

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@Bi-Polar Bear,

A basic horse costs as much as a car to purchase and probably costs more to keep functioning. Have you checked the price of hay lately? It's gone up as much as oil.Ever deal with a horse that has colic? It makes a flat tire look like a blessing. Vets charge a fortune to do an on-site visit, assuming you can even find a large animal vet nowadays. A little sleigh ride is romantic on occasion, but not for a quick trip to pick up a pizza would not be fun. The Amish are tough - they grow their own animal feed, endure the cold, and function as vets when they need to. They don't order takeout pizzas. I also doubt most Americans would appreciate having to shovel shit everyday and swat the giant flies that come with the deal. If horses were better than cars we would still be riding them.

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@boomerang,

boomerang wrote:

Quote:
Ryan, Mr. Doodles and his mule, Festus, traveled about 2,000 miles on his nearly five-month journey. Ryan set off from Kingfisher June 2.

Smart man, leaving Kingfisher, OK...even if he had to do it on a horse.

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@Eva,

I wish I could find the longish article about him that was in my newspaper where he talks about his adventure.

I love the fact that he didn't blog about it or make some kind of big statement about it. He took only maps and provisions, no GPS, no cell phone. He'd camp or he'd ride up to people's houses and ask to spend the night.

He bought a truck to drive back home but he only made it as far as Oregon when the truck broke down so now he's looking for a ride home.

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@Green Witch,

It's almost a certainty that the horse and animal based technology and economy of past ages could not begin to support anything like the present human population.

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@Green Witch,

squinney can do anything with a horse...

1 Reply

@Bi-Polar Bear,

Uh, not sure where you're going with that...

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@boomerang,

Why isn't he riding his horse home?

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@Eva,

Eva wrote:

Smart man, leaving Kingfisher, OK...even if he had to do it on a horse.

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@Mame,

I think it's because of the weather. The article said he would have to wait until March to leave to be able to make it back.

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@gungasnake,

Quote:

Mongols in those days were covering huge distances and not taking years to do it, but the basic idea was that they were traveling with three or four horses per man and switching off every half hour or so, so that no one horse ever got terribly tired...

Mexican vaqueros and American cowboys did the same thing on long treks. On any trail drive there would really be two herds -- the cattle and a remuda of extra mounts so the drovers could switch horses in mid-stream, so to speak. A wrangler was resonsible for tending the horse herd and this was a very specialized and responsible position. Wranglers usually got more pay than regular cowboys.

But you're right, Bi-Polar. In today's political climate of governmental oversight it would be a bureaucratic nightmare.

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@Bi-Polar Bear,

Bi-Polar Bear wrote:

If we went back to horses...

Who is "we" Kimosabe?

Very few of the masses have relied on horses for many, many decades.

I can quickly name two reasons it won't happen.

PETA, would be all over your ass for cruelty to animals and we would be up to our necks in horse shit.

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@Merry Andrew,

during the cattle drive era of our history, the drovers out of texas running cattle north to places like montana, a "cowboy" would start with about 15 horses and a "good hand" was judged by how many horses survived under his care on the journey. My great-grandfather was such a drover but I have no idea how good a cowboy he was.

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If we went back to horses...

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