Horse Power

Anonymous Poster · Dec 9, 2000

How much horse power does a real horse really have?

art · Dec 9, 2000

Are you asking about Clydesdales or Shetland pony's?

Anonymous Poster · Dec 9, 2000

Just for the sake of argument, let's say an average sized draft horse.

Von · Dec 9, 2000

My guess is 1.

Von

Anonymous Poster · Dec 9, 2000

We need 550 ft/lbs per second for 1 hp.

So we put a rope on our horse, run it over a pulley-on-a-tree, to a 550 lb. wt. on the ground. If the horse can pull it up 10 feet in 10 seconds he's a 1 horse-power horse( actually a little more, since there is some friction loss in the system. To make it a little more manageable "gear-wise" we can use 275 lbs., in which case he'll have to pull it 20 feet in 10 seconds, or 10 feet in 5 seconds. Any weight can be used, if the math is adjusted to suit,... a race horse might be able to put out impressive hp with a light weight, same as a small high-revving engine. but for heavy loads, the high-torque/low-geared draft-horse would be the way to go. HTH

Larry

PaulB · Dec 9, 2000

Not sure about a horse, but a true world class human athlete, like Lance Armstrong, can sustain only about 1/3 horsepower for any lenth of time except a brief moment where he might peak higher. Nobody, I mean nobody, could generate anything close to 1 full horsepower. I have to think that a horse would be, what, 5 or 10 times this???

scruffy · Dec 9, 2000

Old Horse, or Young Horse? Suppose that would have a bearing on the question! Kinda like us.

)

Anonymous Poster · Dec 9, 2000

If I remember correctly from years ago, the average horse produces about 3/4 of a horsepower. I would imagine a draft horse would be more like one horsepower.

Andy

Bird · Dec 9, 2000

Scruffy, age does make a difference, doesn't it? Even with tractors, I suppose. I remember the first tractor I ever drove when I was a kid. Dad had just bought it and before he had it overhauled, I asked him what horsepower it was, and he said, "I think it's supposed to be 11 hp, "but I think right now it's down to about one mule power."/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Bird

ERNIEB · Dec 9, 2000

Scruffy, the old horse being smarter would have nothing to do with pulling weights. He would be standing under a tree watching the younger one do it. Horse sense./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

ErnieB
"We were surrounded by some gross, proud, and victorious men. Anyone who knows the character of the North Americans can judge what our situation must have been.
Jose Juan Sanchez Navarro

Jag · Dec 9, 2000

Paul, you better check world class power lifter and the amount of weight they move. For a split second they can get better than 1 horse power...

Muhammad · Dec 10, 2000

Also, I have heard that some martial artists, with certain kicks executed in the proper manner, can generate up to 1.5 horsepower, with the force of the kick.

PaulB · Dec 10, 2000

Jag - you are right, for a brief moment in time. I meant sustained power output.

scruffy · Dec 10, 2000

What The 'Old Horse' loses in brute strength, he gains (hopefully) in wisdom... as stated above. He just does things differently, or lets the young stud do the heavy muscle work.

Thomas · Dec 10, 2000

I seen some of your beautiful pictures of your horse farms also notice how proud you talk about your horse ranches.

Growing up on a farm and still somewhat a farm boy, /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif lets not forget which has more horse power.
/w3tcompact/icons/cool.gif Ahhh yes a oxen in his prime /w3tcompact/icons/cool.gif
If you were lucky enough to have a set of oxen in there prime which work together,I don't believe a small farm tractor {20hp or less} back than could out work team of oxen in 8 hours...plowing fields doesn't count. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

The only down side would be letting the oxen&cows etc.. out in the early spring grass...yep never walk behind them with your back turn. /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Thomas..NH /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

hayden · Dec 13, 2000

Would that be gross, net or PTO HP?

And just where is the PTO?

gordon · Dec 13, 2000

In my area it depends on what number bottom plow they are pulling as to how many horses are in the team. So I would say one bottom plow= one horse net horsepower.

Guess pto horsepower would be when they are pulling a hay rake or bailer
gordon

Anonymous Poster · Dec 17, 2000

Re: Horse Power/weight

Does anybody care that a horse as strong as a tractor would weigh about 10 times as much as the tractor??

Boy, talk about holes in the lawn ( and piles ON it!) ...
and all you could use him for would be to raise his own grain and hay. I'll take the tractor!

Larry

s1120 · Dec 17, 2000

Re: Horse Power/weight

Ya, but if you had a horse, it would give you more things to do with your tractor. You would HAVE to get a FEL, to clean out all the stalls. A post hole digger, to fix the fences. Etc.

Paul Bradway