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Free horse health advice from localriding.com

 

Horse facts - Interesting informative and fun facts and figures about horses.

Interesting and fun horse facts and figures from localriding.com Basic Horse Facts
Scientific Horse Facts
Horsey Superstitions
Horse Anatomy Facts
Strange Horse Facts
Technical Horse Facts

Basic horse facts can elude horse owners who care for a large living, breathing creature and who's sport or hobby often involves significant personal time.

Horse riding can take up to several hours of every day, in grooming, taking care of tack and the actual riding.

Learning basic horse facts and figures as well as the more fun and interesting ones is often placed on the back burner or never considered important.

The following bulleted lists are for those too busy to stick their nose in a four hundred page book .... enjoy.

local riding - interesting horse facts and figuresBasic Horse Factslocal riding - basic horse facts and interesting figures.

local riding - interesting horse facts and figures A horse isn't considered an adult until it reaches age four.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures A female horse over 4 years old is called a mare.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures A male horse over 4 years old is called a Stallion or a Gelding, if castrated.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures Horses are measured in hands high (hh).
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures A hand is equivalent to four inches or 10.2cm.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures Horses are normally over 14.2hh except for miniature horses.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures Anything under 14.2hh is classed as a pony.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures There are over 200 breeds of horses in the world.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures A horse's gestation period (time from breeding to birth) is about 11 mths
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures Horses usualy live to be 20-25 years old. The oldest horse lived to be 62.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures A father horse is called a sire.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures A mother horse is called a dam.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures A young female is called a filly.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures A young male is called a colt.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures The scientific name for the horse is equus caballus.

local riding - interesting horse facts and figures A mule is a cross between a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare).
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures Mules are usually sterile.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures A hinny is a cross between a male horse (a stallion) and a female donkey (a jenny).
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures Hinnies are usually sterile.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures Mules are known for having very long ears.

local riding - interesting horse facts and figuresScientific Classification of the Horse

local riding - interesting horse facts and figures Kingdom: Animalia
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures Phylum: Chordata
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures Subphylum: Vertebrata
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures Class: Mammalia
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures Subclass: Theria
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures Infraclass: Eutheria
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures Order: Perissodactyla
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures Family: Equidae

local riding - interesting horse facts and figuresHorse Superstitions

local riding - interesting horse facts and figures Horsehoes are supposed to be lucky.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures The luckiest horse shoe of all, is one from the hind leg of a grey mare.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures If you hang a horseshoe upside down, the luck runs out.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures Grey horses are supposed to be lucky and piebalds unlucky.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures A local superstition in lincolnshire, UK says; ( If you see a white dog, stay silent until you see a white horse. )

local riding - interesting horse facts and figuresHorse Anatomy Facts

local riding - interesting horse facts and figures A full grown horse weighing 1000 pounds (455kg) contains approximately 13.2 gallons of blood.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures Horses have about 175 bones in their body.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures A horse's hoof grows at the rate of about 1cm per month.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures Horses leg joints are not fully fused (grown) until the age of 3.5yrs.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures Most horse breeds have 18 ribs.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures The Arabian horse has 17 ribs.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures Most horses have 6 lumbar bones.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures The Arabian horse has 5 lumbar bones.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures Most horses have 18 tail vertabrea.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures The Arabian horse has 16 tail vertabrea.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures Arabian horse are very strong for their size.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures Horses can see in two directions at once.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures Horses can see everywhere, except directly in front or behind them.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures Horses can't vomit and it is very dangerous for a horse to choke
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures Horses make 8 basic sounds; Snort, Squeal, Greeting nicker, Courtship nicker, Maternal nicker, Neigh, Roar, Blow.

local riding - interesting horse facts and figures Horses cannot breathe through their mouths.

local riding - interesting horse facts and figures Horses have a prehensile upper lip. Prehensile means "adapted for seizing, grasping, or taking hold of something." Their upper lips are very sensitive and capable of feeling the smallest of differences in objects.

local riding - interesting horse facts and figures All horses, regardless of when they were actually born, are considered to have a common birthday of January 1. This is one of the reasons most horsemen don't like their foals to be born late in the year: Even if a foal is born on December 31st he or she will have their first birthday the very next day.

local riding - interesting horse facts and figures Scientists believe that the first known ancestor of the horse lived about 50 million years ago. This prehistoric horse is called Eohippus and had four padded toes on the front legs and three padded toes on the back legs. Eo means "dawn" and hippus means "horse," so Eohippus is "dawn horse."


local riding - interesting horse facts and figures A horses splint bones are thought to be remnants of toes from prehistoric horses. The splint bones are small bones (about the size of a pencil at the top and tapering down to be much smaller) found on each side of the cannon bone.

Sometimes a small bulge will appear on the horses lower leg, this is usually a splint bone that has popped. This happens when the splint bone becomes detached from the cannon bone. A splint might become detached due to a nutritional imbalance or trauma. It is usually not a cause for concern. In most cases a popped splint will cause mild pain to the horse but when the splint has "set" or healed it is completely pain free and is not a health or soundness concern

local riding - interesting horse facts and figures Your horses vision

local riding - interesting horse facts and figures Most of the time, a horse has monocular vision. This means a different image is seen by each eye so that a horse is seeing two different pictures at the same time.

local riding - interesting horse facts and figures Your horse can also have binocular vision. Binocular vision is when both eyes work together to see one picture (humans have binocular vision). A horse only has binocular vision when it is looking down its nose.

local riding - interesting horse facts and figures Your horse has a wide visual range. Your horse can see completely around its entire body except for two small blind spots. One directly in front of its face, underneath its head, and the other directly behind itself. This is why it's very important not to walk up, directly behind a horse - you are in its blind spot and if you startle it you can get kicked.

local riding - interesting horse facts and figures Inside your horse

local riding - interesting horse facts and figures The horse has one stomach. In contrast, cattle, sheep, goats, bison, deer, elk, caribou, moose, and camels are "ruminants" which means (among other things) they have four digestive chambers instead of just one stomach.

local riding - interesting horse facts and figures The horse is an herbivore, which means it feeds mostly on plants.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures The normal horse’s small intestine is about 70 feet long.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures The normal horse's large intestine is about 12 feet long.

local riding - interesting horse facts and figures The average horse's heart weighs approximately 9 or 10 pounds. The great New Zealand / Australian racehorse, Phar Lap, had a heart that weighed 14 pounds. The great American racehorse Secretariat had a heart estimated during his autopsy to weigh 21 pounds, though the heart was not weighed.

local riding - interesting horse facts and figures Horses produce approximately 10 gallons of saliva a day.

local riding - interesting horse facts and figuresHorse Facts - Foals and Foaling

local riding - interesting horse facts and figures A newborn foal's legs are already 80-90% of the length they will be when full grown.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures A foal is able to stand just one hour after birth.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures A foal can walk, trot, and run just two hours after birth.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures The first milk the mare makes is called colostrum. This rich milk builds the foals immune system.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures Most foals will start to nurse less than two hours after birth.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures A female foal is called a filly.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures A male foal is called a colt.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures More foals are born between April 15 and May 15 than at any other time.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures Mares usualy foal at night.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures Foaling mares don't like being watched. They will stop foaling and wait till a person leaves.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures A mare may give birth in as little as 15 minutes, but usually no longer than an hour.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures If a mare is still straining after an hour has passed, something is seriously wrong.
local riding - interesting horse facts and figures If you have to help pull a foal out, NEVER pull up! Always pull down, toward the mares feet.

 

local riding - interesting horse facts and figuresDid you know - Strange or Unusual Horse Facts

local riding - interesting horse facts and figures Horses like classical music.

local riding - interesting horse facts and figures The oldest horse was named Old Billy. He was a cross breed, he was born in 1760 and lived to 62.

local riding - interesting horse facts and figures The oldest pony ever recorded was named Teddy E. Bear. He lived to be 55 and was owned by Kathy Pennington of Virginia Beach, VA. He was still alive in 1998.

local riding - interesting horse facts and figuresThe World's Largest Horse was a purebred Belgian stallion named Brooklyn Supreme. He stood 19.2hh (6'6") at his withers. He weighed over 3,200 pounds and is entered in the Guiness Book of World Records. He was foaled in 1928 and died in 1948. He lived in Iowa, USA.

local riding - interesting horse facts and figuresThe oldest winning thoroughbred racehorses are ;

The 18-year-olds - Revenge, at Shrewsbury, England 1790; Marksman, at Ashford, Kent, England, 1826; and Jorrocks, at Bathurst, Australia, 1851.

Also at 18yrs old; Wild Aster won three hurdle races in 1919, and Sonny Somers won two steeplechases in February 1980.

local riding - interesting horse facts and figuresThe smallest horse breed is the Falebella miniature horse of Argentina. The tallest recorded member of the breed stands just 74cm (30 inches) at the shoulder.

local riding - interesting horse facts and figuresThe smallest pony in history was a stallion named "Little Pumpkin". He stood just 14 inches tall and weighed only 20lbs.

local riding - interesting horse facts and figuresThe tallest horse recorded was a Shire horse called Samson. He stood 21.2hh (7ft 2in). Samson is also recorded as the heaviest horse weighing in at 1524kg (3360lbs)

local riding - interesting horse facts and figures The World Record log pull was set in 1893. 2 Clydesdale Stallions hauled a sledge stacked with timber weighing 128 tonnes. The equivalent of pulling 22 African Elephants.

local riding - interesting horse facts and figuresThe record for the highest jump is 8ft. 1.25in (247cm). By Huaso - ridden by Capt. Alberto Larraguibel Morales (Chile) at Vina del Mar, Santiago, Chile on Feb. 5, 1949.

local riding - interesting horse facts and figuresThe record for the longest jump over water is 27ft 6.75in (8.4m). By Something - ridden by Andre Ferreira (South Africa) in Johannesburg, South Africa on April 25, 1975.

 

local riding - interesting horse facts and figuresTechnical horse terms ....

Here are some words that are derived from the latin word for horse, equus, and the Greek word for horse, hippos. From the American Heritage Dictionary

local riding - interesting horse facts and figures equine adj.

1. Of, relating to, or characteristic of a horse.
2. Of or belonging to the family Equidae, which includes horses, asses, and zebras.

local riding - interesting horse facts and figures equestrian adj.

1. Of or relating to horseback riding or horseback riders.
2. Depicted or represented on horseback: an equestrian statue of a famous monarch.

local riding - interesting horse facts and figures equestrian n.

One who rides a horse or performs on horseback. [From Latin equester, equestr-, from eques, horseman, from equus, horse.

local riding - interesting horse facts and figures equitation n.

The art and practice of riding a horse. [Latin equitatio, equitation-, from equitare, to ride horseback.

local riding - interesting horse facts and figures equitant adj.

Overlapping at the base to form a flat, fanlike arrangement in two ranks, as the leaves of some irises. [Latin equitans, equitant-, present participle of equitare, to ride horseback, from eques, equit-, horseman, from equus, horse.

local riding - interesting horse facts and figures equisetum n., pl. equisetums or equiseta. (horsetail).

Any of various nonflowering plants of the genus Equisetum, having a jointed, hollow stem and narrow, sometimes much reduced leaves. Also called equisetum.

local riding - interesting horse facts and figures eohippus n.

A small, herbivorous, extinct mammal of the genus Hyracotherium (or Eohippus) from the Eocene Epoch of the western United States, having four-toed front feet and three-toed hind feet and related ancestrally to the horse. [New Latin : eo- + Greek hippos, horse]


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