Booth's Horse Fell....

[BettyO]

Quote:Would the different style of riding in 1865, made a difference in whether or not a man's leg could be broken in his horse rolling on him? Straight leg vs. bent leg...?

I don't think that with the leg being bent or straight would make much difference in the break other than the fact that if you have a horse weighing almost a ton falling on you and crushing your leg, that break (if such it could be called - would be more of a crushing type injury) could be far more severe than simply being thrown or jumping from a 12 foot drop (which I believe the drop is at Ford's) -

Quote:These were not race horses, nor were they stallions from the plains out West. Even racehorses are not long distance runners. Booth was counting on out-distancing the cavalry pursuers enough in the first few hours to make it to an obscure refuge in Southern Maryland.

These were most certainly not race horses, although Booth's little mare may have had some Thoroughbred in her from the descriptions of her skittishness and high spirits. Herold's Charlie was more or less a pacer; i.e. a horse of Standardbred or perhaps Morgan breeding. We'll never know, of course as the majority of breeds known today (except for Thoroughbreds) were not well defined in the middle of the 19th Century. Most horses can only run at top speed for about 1 - 1 1/2 miles; and those which do are Thoroughbred racehorses trained to do such. I agree that JWB and Herold were only attempting to outdistance any pursuers in the first few hours.