The walking gait of your ancestors frequently indicated their vocation or place in society. A townsman might demonstrate a quickness of step and there’s the gentleman’s swagger. Yet the sheepherder needs a lithe or nimble stride compared to the flatfooted march of the plowman.

The plowman, working acres of rows upon closely lined rows of soil, developed a walk that amused city dwellers. Yet those who imitated the plowman’s tireless stride could walk for miles and miles and hours and hours across the countryside.

With the body leaning slightly forward at the hips, the plowman would “fall” into his forward moving step, landing his feet flat on the soil.

Keeping a stead pace, he could easily cover a mile in fifteen minutes, or four miles in an hour, or forty miles in ten hours. In the centuries prior to convenient transportation, people with no horses often walked twenty to forty miles a day. The plowman’s walk, though laughable by the gentry and others, provided reliable movement between farms, villages, and cities.

You still have ingrained habits arising from your social ancestral heritage. For example, children by at least the 15th and 16th centuries knew to avoid their parents’ scorn by not picking their noses, squinting, or putting their fingers in their mouths. At mealtime they learned quickly to only rest their forearms not their elbows on the table. Maybe your walking gait says something about your ancestors. How far and how long can you walk in one day?