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How Many Steps Does a Horse or Mule Take to Walk a Mile: The Effect of 50,000 Steps a Day on Your Horse or Mule’s Back

Published July 1, 2019

I, Bernie Harberts, did not use generative AI to write or illustrate this article. Spell check and grammar check, yes. AI, no.

As I ride my mule Brick and Cracker from North Carolina to Idaho, folks often ask me, “How many miles do you and the mules travel every day?”.

I tell them 25 and they’re not impressed.

Bernie Harberts with mules Brick and Cracker starting the day's ride outside South Gifford, Missouri
Let the day – and miles – begin. Cracker and I get ready to head up the road with Brick. We travel 15 to 25 miles per day with 20 miles being an average day’s run. I walk a lot to save wear and tear on the mules’ backs. (outside South Gifford, MO)

25 miles a day with a mule. Big deal. I can knock off 25 miles in my pickup in half an hour while drinking coffee and splitting a pack of M&Ms with my wife Julia. In 25 miles, the candy will be gone but there’ll still be java left.

Bernie Harberts and Julia Carpenter in their 1992 Dodge on their honeymoon trail ride at Love Valley, North Carolina
Julia and I heading out in our ’92 Dodge on our honeymoon trail ride at Love Valley (NC). You can read Julia’s account of that – and her thoughts on my present mule ramble – here on her ConsideringAnimals.com site.

It irked me that a day’s worth of mule travel produced such an underwhelming result. So I bought a pedometer.

Mule Miles Math

A pedometer. You know, that thing you strap on your wrist or leg and it counts how many steps you take in a day. I strapped it to Cracker’s front leg and set off up the road.

One of the biggest challenges of equine travel is chaff. Specifically, saddle sores. Riding up the road I looked down at the saddle horn. I noticed how, every time Cracker took a step, the saddle horn moved forward and back. That means every time Cracker took a step, the saddle rubbed twice across his back.

Bernie Harberts' saddle horn with the lead rope for pack mule Brick
My saddle horn. In my gloved hand, the lead rope I use to lead Brick, my pack mule. I wear gloves to protect my hands from rope and sun burn.

Until I looked down at the saddle horn, I never knew – or appreciated – how much the saddle moved across his back with every step he took.

We made about 20 miles that day. At day’s end I checked the pedometer to see how many steps Cracker had taken.

Twenty five thousand steps.

Wow! That’s a lot of steps. 25,000 steps sure as hell sounds better than 20 miles. This was a step in the right direction in terms of explaining how far we traveled every day.

Mules Brick and Cracker walking the road on the Two Mules to Triumph ramble

Converting Steps to Wear and Tear

But what do 25,000 mule steps mean in terms of wear and tear on a mule?

A mule is a flesh and blood creature, not a metal and ball bearing machine. When you hurt something on your mule – like rub a hole in its back with your saddle – you can’t just replace the injured part. You have to heal it. And that takes time.

You stop traveling until the damage heals up. That can take from a week to much longer. If that doesn’t work, you go home. Many would-be long distance riders have set off at a blazing pace only to trailer their saddle sore mounts home a few weeks later.

I can relate. I sored up my pack pony Maggie’s back on my first trip across America. It took weeks to mend.

Mule Woody and pony Maggie in Southern Pines, North Carolina
Woody and Maggie. The 3 of us traveled from Atlantic to Pacific Oceans a few years back. That journey became the books “Too Proud to Ride a Cow” (available here on Kindle) and “Woody and Maggie Walk Across America”. (Southern Pines, NC)

I got to thinking about that saddle sliding back and forth across Cracker’s back. How it moved twice across his back – one forward and once back – every time he took a step.

So how many times was that saddle sliding across his back?

Cracker’s saddle rubbed back and forth across his back 50,000 times every time he walked 20 miles.

Holy Crap!

No wonder it was so easy to rub a saddle sore on his back.

Mules Cracker and Brick's backs seen from above showing wear from carrying loads
Cracker and Brick’s backs as seen from above. You can see the miles are leaving their mark. Brick (R) has less white hair on her back. I think it’s because as the pack mule, she’s carrying a lighter load (110 pounds vs 200 pounds for Cracker). Someday I ride Brick and pack Cracker.
Mule Cracker resting during a break in Newark, Missouri
Cracker, deciding that he isn’t a vehicle, can go graze in the park. Here, on one of his every-other-hour rest breaks. You can see the white hairs on his back. They are under the saddle where I sit. Even though his Queen Valley Mule Ranch saddle fits really well, the miles are starting to show. Luckily, the white hair is only cosmetic. Cracker’s back isn’t sore. (Newark, MO)

The pedometer experiment made me change in ways I hadn’t expected. Since I did that little experiment in mule mile measurement, I’ve been even more sensitive to how much weight I put on my mules’ back. And how far I travel with them. And how often I pull their saddles.

Bernie Harberts unsaddling mules Brick and Cracker for a break outside Taylor, Missouri
Break time: In hot weather, like now in July, I unsaddle Brick and Cracker every 2 hours. They get 30 minutes off before I re-saddle and travel 2 more hours. Every full day on the road, they get a 1 1/2 hour lunch break. (outside Taylor, MO)

I projected the pedometer measurements ahead. Longer term, the numbers are even more impressive.

  • One week (100 miles): 200,000 steps
  • One month (400 miles): 800,000 steps

The pedometer experiment has given me a much more accurate way of conveying the distance the mules travel every day. It’s also got me thinking of strapping a pedometer to one of my Dodge’s wheels when I get home.

More Pedometer Fun

A few years back, getting ready for the “Lost Sea Expedition”, my wagon voyage across America, I did a similar experiment. Read about it in the article “Not Knots and Miles Anymore”.

More adventures by horse and mule: Travel by Horse and Mule.

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Posted in Around the Homestead, Horse and Mule Travel How To, Horseing Around, Travel by Horse & Mule, Two Mules to Triumph — Riding from North Carolina to Idaho

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