Pegasus Magazine subscribers,
Sorry the magazine is taking so long to send out! With high school starting up, I feel like I don't have any time to work on it! My afternoons are taken up with tons of homework, and of course cross country. That's right... I'm a runner! (See picture.)
My XC coach told me that, at top sprinting speeds, a human can run up to 45 miles per hour (that being an insane male runner, like Usain Bolt, not a little female runner like me). This surprised me, because racing thoroughbreds reach top speeds of 45 mph when they race. Humans couldn't possibly be the same speed as horses, could they?
I looked into it, and learned that ideally, human muscles have the capability to run 45 mph, but we rarely do. Even olympic sprinters only go at about 25 mph.
Horses, however, can actually go much faster. Secretariat was estimated to be going atleast 50 mph when he won the Kentucky Derby, and Quarter Horses (who can actually gallop faster than thoroughbreds, but do not have enough stamina to compete in races) can go as fast as 55 mph when going short-distance. So technically, horses are faster. But can they run as far? Scientists guess that a horse could run a marathon in 48 minutes. Whether this is possible or not is difficult to prove, but due to their muscle mass and body size, it can be said that they beat the fastest human time for a marathon: 2 hours, 3 minutes, 3 seconds. Definetly beats my half marathon time of 2 hours 6 minutes!
So how do horses and humans stack up compared to the rest of the animal kingdom? A quarter horse is number 7 on the fastest animals list, losing only to wild cats, antelope, and wildebeast. Humans didn't even make the top 25.
Sorry the magazine is taking so long to send out! With high school starting up, I feel like I don't have any time to work on it! My afternoons are taken up with tons of homework, and of course cross country. That's right... I'm a runner! (See picture.)
My XC coach told me that, at top sprinting speeds, a human can run up to 45 miles per hour (that being an insane male runner, like Usain Bolt, not a little female runner like me). This surprised me, because racing thoroughbreds reach top speeds of 45 mph when they race. Humans couldn't possibly be the same speed as horses, could they?
I looked into it, and learned that ideally, human muscles have the capability to run 45 mph, but we rarely do. Even olympic sprinters only go at about 25 mph.
Horses, however, can actually go much faster. Secretariat was estimated to be going atleast 50 mph when he won the Kentucky Derby, and Quarter Horses (who can actually gallop faster than thoroughbreds, but do not have enough stamina to compete in races) can go as fast as 55 mph when going short-distance. So technically, horses are faster. But can they run as far? Scientists guess that a horse could run a marathon in 48 minutes. Whether this is possible or not is difficult to prove, but due to their muscle mass and body size, it can be said that they beat the fastest human time for a marathon: 2 hours, 3 minutes, 3 seconds. Definetly beats my half marathon time of 2 hours 6 minutes!
So how do horses and humans stack up compared to the rest of the animal kingdom? A quarter horse is number 7 on the fastest animals list, losing only to wild cats, antelope, and wildebeast. Humans didn't even make the top 25.