Hi, I've got a character who wants to catch up with another person.
I did some googling to get an idea specifically of horse vs human travel. One thing I gathered is that humans - while they don't go fast, can go all day, and that confers an advantage, and also that with most horses except for the palfrey, it's tiring for the horse and the human to go fast, like trot, for example.
I was guessing that if the intercept point is 2-3 days human walk away, that the speed of the horse could have the advantage - but - that's just my guess and I wanted to hear from people who know about horses what some of the considerations would be for tailing/catching up with a person on foot.
So, maybe a concrete question would be - could a person on a horse catch up with a person on foot? If so, how would they go about it? How does the length of the journey figure in?
thanks
LN
fyi the setting/story:
This is a fantasy. The culture is poor, but relatively stable/safe. People will often travel a week or two by foot for business, pilgrimage, what have you. I have a thief with a magical homing device who wants to intercept a courier and steal something, he's thinking of using a horse.
I did some googling to get an idea specifically of horse vs human travel. One thing I gathered is that humans - while they don't go fast, can go all day, and that confers an advantage, and also that with most horses except for the palfrey, it's tiring for the horse and the human to go fast, like trot, for example.
I was guessing that if the intercept point is 2-3 days human walk away, that the speed of the horse could have the advantage - but - that's just my guess and I wanted to hear from people who know about horses what some of the considerations would be for tailing/catching up with a person on foot.
So, maybe a concrete question would be - could a person on a horse catch up with a person on foot? If so, how would they go about it? How does the length of the journey figure in?
thanks
LN
fyi the setting/story:
This is a fantasy. The culture is poor, but relatively stable/safe. People will often travel a week or two by foot for business, pilgrimage, what have you. I have a thief with a magical homing device who wants to intercept a courier and steal something, he's thinking of using a horse.