What Is the Fastest Horse in the World?

The horse has won over the human heart with its elegance, its power and its sheer magnificence. Its speed is another story altogether, and it only adds to the fascination. On the racetrack, the Quarter Horse can hit top speeds of nearly 95 km/h. So is it really the fastest horse in the world? How do we even measure a horse's speed? Here is everything you need to know about the fastest horse breeds.

A closer look at the power of horses

To work out which is the fastest horse in the world, we first need to understand the criteria used to gauge a horse's speed. A horse's average galloping speed sits between 15 and 21 km/h, while the fastest ones blow past 60 km/h. The gait itself plays a key role: walk, trot, canter, gallop and amble. The gallop is the fastest of them all: a horse can reach 60 km/h over a short distance and roughly 50 to 55 km/h over longer stretches.

On top of that, stride length is the main driver of a racehorse's speed, since the stride is the distance covered in a single bound. In practice, the fastest horse is the one that can pick its legs up quickly. A horse with overly long, gangly legs, by contrast, will find it harder to move them at pace.

The stride rate is the number of strides a racehorse takes in a given time. The average stride rate sits between 130 and 140 strides per minute, and top performers can push up to 160 strides per minute. The Quarter Horse has a faster stride rate than the Thoroughbred. The Thoroughbred, on the other hand, has to sustain its stride for far longer to cover greater distances.

The stride angle is another metric used to define a racehorse's speed. It is the spread between the front foot and the back foot in motion, an essential measurement for working out how far the horse will stretch out during the race. As a result, the fastest racehorses tend to have the widest stride angles.

The Thoroughbred: the fastest horse in the world

A racetrack horse through and through, often called the "king of the racecourse", the Thoroughbred is without a doubt the fastest horse breed in the world. Bred for distance racing, the Thoroughbred consistently takes the top spots. Thoroughbreds are regulars at the most prestigious flat racing events, such as the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, the Prix de Diane, the Epsom Derby and the Jockey Club. They have a lean, muscular build with long legs: the perfect anatomy for long-distance racing.

Clocked at 71 km/h, "Winning Brew" is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the fastest horse in the world. "Winning Brew" is a British-bred Thoroughbred filly with a strong track record in sprint racing. At just two years old, she set her famous record at Penn National Race Course in 2008. By comparison, the average Kentucky Derby winner clocks in at roughly 60 km/h. She holds the title of fastest horse in the world thanks to her sheer power and outstanding speed.

This racehorse breed traces back to 17th-century England, born from a country with a deep horse-racing tradition, and a top prospect can be worth a small fortune. Arabian, Barb and Turk stallions were the foundation sires of this purebred line, which explains its toughness and its speed. That said, the Thoroughbred is most often used in crossbreeding to improve other breeds: crossed with the Arabian, it produces the Anglo-Arabian. The English Thoroughbred also has its own distinctive features. The stud book is kept pure by breeding only registered Thoroughbreds together, and the strongest and fastest have always been selected for breeding. The English racehorse can take on extreme physical effort: its heart is unusually large, close to twice the size of an average horse's. In the end, its exceptional speed places it at the very top of all horse breeds.

The Quarter Horse: the fastest horse over short distances

Why has the Quarter Horse been ranked among the fastest horses in the world? It is an American breed known since the 16th century: versatile and hardy. Clocked at 86 km/h, it holds the highest top speed of any horse breed. Since breeders have always focused on speed, the Quarter Horse holds the short-distance record over 400 m (a quarter of a mile, which is where the name comes from). It is a heavily muscled racehorse, with powerful hindquarters and a striking, sculpted physique, along with solid legs and heavily muscled thighs. Its feet, however, are a little small for its overall size.

On the temperament side, the Quarter Horse is calm, affectionate, intelligent, very social, cooperative and incredibly responsive. Today, the breed is mostly found across three countries: the United States, Canada and Mexico. That said, you will also come across Quarter Horses in other countries with a strong equestrian sports culture.

The Arabian: an unmatched level of endurance

Originally from the Middle East, the Arabian is one of the oldest equine breeds in existence. This saddle horse is a featherweight, tipping the scales at up to 400 kg and standing on average between 1.40 m and 1.55 m at the withers. Arabian horses are built more for endurance than for outright speed in equestrian competition. In fact, they are the most enduring of all horse breeds.

You would rarely see an Arabian pushing top speeds of 64 km/h. Far slower than the Quarter Horse and the Thoroughbred, this breed is prized above all for its incredible stamina, which can carry it to victory in a long-distance endurance race.

The Standardbred: the fastest harness racing horse in the world

Standardbreds are American trotting horses. The name comes from the "standard" time these horses had to meet to be entered in the breed registry: covering a mile in 2 minutes 30 seconds or less. This breed is known as the world's fastest trotting horse thanks to its harness racing performance. At full speed, it has covered 1,600 m in a record time of 1 minute 46 seconds.

Developed in North America, the Standardbred comes from crossing the Thoroughbred with the Norfolk Trotter. At a glance, the body of a Standardbred looks a lot like that of the Thoroughbred. That said, its speed is driven by the musculature of its shoulders and its hindquarters. On top of that, it is a gentle animal with a great temperament.