Cooke also tells instructors to drill the squad to uniform rates of travel:
At a walk, the squad should cover a mile in 16 minutes (3.75 mph). At a trot, the time should be 8 minutes (7.5 mph) and at a gallop, 6 minutes (10 mph).
You are correct that you can walk as fast as a horse does. When hiking with a backpack over irregular terrain, my average speed is 3.5 mph. Pony Express riders pushed the equine speed limit at an average of about 9 mph over a couple of thousand miles.
By the way, the concern about back problems and fatigue is only partially valid. With correct riding posture, stirrup length, etc. and a forward-and-back motion at the hips in time with the horse, it is possible to ride for hours without a break and no discomfort. During the Nineteenth Century, many riders routinely made the 4,000-mile round trip between California and Missouri -- mainly at a walk.
Two of Colonel Wesley Merritt's ten Fifth Cavalry companies pose in a long column outside of Custer City in the Black Hills, Dakota Territory, 1876. Dust from additional companies rises in the distant town.
Photo courtesy Denver Public Library.
