Horse facts - Interesting informative and fun facts and figures about
horses.
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.
A horse isn't considered an adult until it reaches age four.
A female horse over 4 years old is called a mare.
A male horse over 4 years old is called a Stallion or a Gelding, if castrated.
Horses are measured in hands high (hh).
A hand is equivalent to four inches or 10.2cm.
Horses are normally over 14.2hh except for miniature horses.
Anything under 14.2hh is classed as a pony.
There are over 200 breeds of horses in the world.
A horse's gestation period (time from breeding to birth) is about 11 mths
Horses usualy live to be 20-25 years old. The oldest horse lived to be
62.
A father horse is called a sire.
A mother horse is called a dam.
A young female is called a filly.
A young male is called a colt.
The scientific name for the horse is equus caballus.
A mule is a cross between a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a
mare).
Mules are usually sterile.
A hinny is a cross between a male horse (a stallion) and a female donkey
(a jenny).
Hinnies are usually sterile.
Mules are known for having very long ears.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Class: Mammalia
Subclass: Theria
Infraclass: Eutheria
Order: Perissodactyla
Family: Equidae
 Horse
Superstitions
Horsehoes are supposed to be lucky.
The luckiest horse shoe of all, is one from the hind leg of a grey mare.
If you hang a horseshoe upside down, the luck runs out.
Grey horses are supposed to be lucky and piebalds unlucky.
A local superstition in lincolnshire, UK says; ( If you see a white
dog, stay silent until you see a white horse. )
A full grown horse weighing 1000 pounds (455kg) contains approximately
13.2 gallons of blood.
Horses have about 175 bones in their body.
A horse's hoof grows at the rate of about 1cm per month.
Horses leg joints are not fully fused (grown) until the age of 3.5yrs.
Most horse breeds have 18 ribs.
The Arabian horse has 17 ribs.
Most horses have 6 lumbar bones.
The Arabian horse has 5 lumbar bones.
Most horses have 18 tail vertabrea.
The Arabian horse has 16 tail vertabrea.
Arabian horse are very strong for their size.
Horses can see in two directions at once.
Horses can see everywhere, except directly in front or behind them.
Horses can't vomit and it is very dangerous for a horse to choke
Horses make 8 basic sounds; Snort, Squeal, Greeting nicker, Courtship
nicker, Maternal nicker, Neigh, Roar, Blow.
Horses cannot breathe through their mouths.
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.
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.
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."
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
Your horses vision
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.
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.
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.
Inside your horse
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.
The horse is an herbivore, which means it feeds mostly on plants.
The normal horse’s small intestine is about 70 feet long.
The normal horse's large intestine is about 12 feet long.
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.
Horses produce approximately 10 gallons of saliva a day.
A newborn foal's legs are already 80-90% of the length they will be when
full grown.
A foal is able to stand just one hour after birth.
A foal can walk, trot, and run just two hours after birth.
The first milk the mare makes is called colostrum. This rich milk builds
the foals immune system.
Most foals will start to nurse less than two hours after birth.
A female foal is called a filly.
A male foal is called a colt.
More foals are born between April 15 and May 15 than at any other time.
Mares usualy foal at night.
Foaling mares don't like being watched. They will stop foaling and wait
till a person leaves.
A mare may give birth in as little as 15 minutes, but usually no longer
than an hour.
If a mare is still straining after an hour has passed, something is seriously
wrong.
If you have to help pull a foal out, NEVER pull up! Always pull down,
toward the mares feet.
Did
you know - Strange or Unusual Horse Facts
Horses like classical music.
The oldest horse was named Old Billy. He was a cross breed, he was born
in 1760 and lived to 62.
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.
The
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.
The
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.
The
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.
The
smallest pony in history was a stallion named "Little Pumpkin".
He stood just 14 inches tall and weighed only 20lbs.
The
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)
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.
The
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.
The
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.
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
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.
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.
equestrian n.
One who rides a horse or performs on horseback. [From Latin equester,
equestr-, from eques, horseman, from equus, horse.
equitation n.
The art and practice of riding a horse. [Latin equitatio, equitation-,
from equitare, to ride horseback.
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.
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.
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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