Could a one-horse, open sleigh really get up to dashing speed?

Depends if the driver’s been naughty or nice.

Not usually. But in the lights of the 1800s, perhaps.

Maybe “dashing” is being used as an adjective, as in how stylish or fashionable s/he looked while traveling through the snow in a one-horse open sleigh?

I WANT ro ride a one horse open Sleigh. It’s on my bucket list. I hope it will “dash!”

Absolutely, since it is a relative thing. Dashing would be rushing, as in they are late and need to get there as fast as possible. In fact, you could be rushing so fast, that you are being thrown around in the sleigh. This is quite possible given the unevenness of snow that has been trampled by horse hooves and where there are no sleigh tracks.

Of course, since ANSI had determined that dashing requires a speed of 23 mph at a minimum, it is highly doubtful that in today’s winter climates, a sleigh would get up to dashing speed. Just saying.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=oT7NqOwEM9Y

These are the ones my son and I go on each winter in Rorøs. They are beautiful, great fun and it certainly feels like a dash, when they pick up speed.

(the drivers wear long coats of wolf fur that are passed down, generation to generation. They are not made any more and many of the coats are around a century old.)

Hell yes! One of the most fun activities when I was a child was using my horse to give mock sleigh rides.

He’d “tow” us around on a big sled and let me tell you, when he was in full frisk mode we were whipping around at the speed of light. lol

Depends – are the bells jingling all the way?

Dashing is what makes the bells on bobtails ring.

That depends on how you define “dashing speed”, the strength and endurance of the horse, the mass of the sleigh and the composition of the snow, the latter two of which determine the amount of friction created between the sleigh and the snow, which in turn, together with the strength and endurance of the horse, determine whether or not the horse will be able to sustain that speed despite the constant friction, and whether or not the horse is capable of accelerating to that speed in the first place.

Maybe if the horse in question had just eaten a curry allowing it to shit through the eye of a needle…...& dash, probably to the toilet!

I thought it was “laughing all the way”

If the horse slipped going down a very steep icy hill (or cliff) then the dashing point velocity could theoretically be reached and or exceeded.

I bet it can dash faster than you can run.

Only if Secretariat was pulling it…god rest his hide..