Up until this time, all English horse racing tracks were grass. Clay track surface: Whitley’s track surface was clay.Whitelys’ disdain for the British was so strong that he wanted to incorporate some features to distinguish United States horse racing from the English tracks. Whitely’s track was the first one built in the United States after the revolution.ĭuring the period Whitely created the track, Thoroughbred horse racing was very popular in England. In 1787 he built a large brick home and added a horse racing track on the property the following year. Sometime during the 1780s, Whitley had returned to his home in Kentucky. Whitely and his family had to move around the countryside and seek shelter and protection at area forts. The land Whitley lived on in Kentucky was included in the English and Native American agreement.īy Theodore Webb – Library of Congress, Built-in 1787, it may have been the first brick house to be built in Kentucky, National Register of Historic Places. In 1773 the English entered a pact with the local Indians, promising the land west of the mountains would be reserved solely for their use. He married and eventually moved to Kentucky with his wife. Whitley was born in 1749 to Irish immigrants living in Virginia. But there are other theories why horses race counterclockwise in the United States.Ĭounter-clockwise horse racing in the United States can be traced to one person, William Whitley. So changing the running direction in the “sport of kings” made sense. During the American Revolution, patriot emotion was high, and colonists sought to separate themselves from all English traditions. Counter-clockwise horse racing began as a protest against English tradition.Ĭounter-clockwise horseracing in the U.S. American patriots didn’t want to continue following English traditions, horses run more naturally, traveling counter-clockwise, and ancient horse racing traditions. There are three primary theories why horses run counter-clockwise during a race. Did the United States turn back the clock to follow the forebearers of racing? Or were there other reasons that determined counter-clockwise racing? The reasons horse races run counter-clockwise.Īncient Greeks and Romans raced counter-clockwise, but in most of Europe, horses raced clockwise. But for those of us who enjoy horse racing history, counter-clockwise racing has an interesting backstory. The directions horses run in a race isn’t something that’s frequently thought about. Counter-clockwise running is also more natural for racehorses and is how the Greeks and Romans ran their horses at the advent of formal horse racing. Horses race counter-clockwise because American racehorse owners didn’t want to conform to Engish standards and its horse racing establishment. But, recently, I was stumped by an old man who asked me, “why do the horses run counter-clockwise?” I had no idea, so I decided to research this question. I have been going to horse racing tracks for a long time. Thanks in advance – I really appreciate it! Don’t know how to do that yet, but my colleagues are more knowledgeable than me in electronics.Any links on this page that lead to products on Amazon are affiliate links and I earn a commission if you make a purchase. But I’m going to take this project industrial scale and hopefully cut off the microcontroller. Oh, I also devised a method that uses a potentiometer to read the servo position. But I can just gear it to extend the range. Yes, I know it can pulse the servo beyond the 180° range. So, my question is how can I write those bits. Got around it by using a method hat reads and writes a step motor position, which turned out to be quite a chunky code in comparison to these 6 lines that seemed so simple I have to include some calibration variables to the sensor inputs and some tolerance to the comparisons, else the servo will get twitchy Just rotate the damn Servo COUNTERclockwise
My question is specifically about how to do a bit of the code, highlighted below, so I’m trying to be brief. The Servo (Tower Pro Sg90, 180°, if it’s relevant) just needs to rotate clock or counterclockwise if certain conditions are met.ĭon’t know if I should write it like actual code or I could just write a generic algorithm. I tought I could make it easy the first time. I’m testing out a concept and there’s this itch I need to scratch.