Facts about the Horse

Facts about a Horse

Horses are extremely interesting animals. and no matter how long you've been around them, you'll be surprised by certain horse facts and figures.

Even if you never used for riding, you could spend your entire life to study facts about the horse and still find new things to learn. 

Horses have existed in the world for more than 50 million years.

Our relationship with these species has had a significant impact on our own human history, and they have had an impact on us as well.

Humans have generated hundreds of horse breeds since domesticating the horse 6,000 years ago.

They were used for different purposes ranging from racing and warfare to ploughing and pulling carts and carriages.

The following are amazing facts about horse.

1| Horses can sleep while standing

Horses have a "stay-apparatus," which is a system of tendons and ligaments that allows them to lock their legs in place so they can relax without falling over.

When horses aren't sleeping, they use this apparatus to rest while standing for long periods of time so they don't exhaust.

This allows them to store energy while standing, allowing them to take travel if necessary.

However, it is a myth that horses never sleep; they do, however, spend a short amount of time each day laying down for deeper sleep.

2| Horse are Carnivores

Humans are omnivores, whereas lions and horses are carnivores and herbivores.

Herbivores are distinguished by the shape of their teeth, the position of their eyes, and the type of digestive system they have.

3| Arabian horses are built differently than other horses.

Arabian horses are notable for their historical significance, particularly to the culture and lives of Middle Eastern desert tribes.

They are distinguished from other horse breeds, however, by their distinct build.

Arabian horses have higher bone density and a shorter back with one fewer lumbar vertebrae than other horses.

Arabians also have one fewer pair of ribs and their ribs are spaced wider apart.

And, while they are known for carrying their tails high like a flag behind them.

This may be due to having two fewer tail vertebrae than other horse breeds.

4| Horses have a broad range of vision.

Horses have a wide range of views because their eyes are located on the sides of their heads.

They have a nearly 360-degree vision and only have blind spots in front of and behind their bodies.

Horses primarily use monocular vision, which is the use of both eyes separately.

That means a horse can recognize and process information from both sides of its body.

When a horse switches to binocular vision, it is doing so to focus both of its eyes on a single object in front of it.

5| You can tell how old a horse is by looking at its teeth.

Male and female horses have different tooth counts;

1. males have 44 teeth, while 
2. females have between 36 and 44. 

So, if you look at a horse skull, you can probably tell its gender by counting its teeth.

The teeth of a horse can also be used to estimate its age.

According to the University of Missouri, this can be done by observing the

• appearance of permanent teeth,
• the disappearance of cups (indents in each tooth),
• the shape of the surface of the teeth, and
• the angle at which the top and bottom rows meet,

Horses require proper equine dental care for their teeth, but because horses sometimes live longer than their teeth. 

Horses sometimes outlive their teeth, extra care is required when feeding older horses.

Much information about a horse can be gathered from its teeth, beginning with its gender.

6| Humans first domesticated horses around 3,000 years ago.

Around 14,000 years ago, dogs may have been domesticated. Cats became human companions some 8,500 years ago.

The horse's association with humans began a little later, around 6,000 years ago.

However some evidence suggests horses may have been domesticated much earlier.

7| Horses Are Social Animals

Horses in the wild live in small herds, and domestic horses benefit from having companions as well.

Because horses are prey animals, they seek safety in herds and form strong social bonds with one another.

They use their senses to identify familiar horses and spend time with those with whom they have developed friendships.

Living alone can be very stressful for a horse.

Your horse will require a (preferably equine) companion to keep it happy.

In the wild, one horse will stand guard to keep an eye on the herd while the other horses eat, rest, and sleep.

8| The majority of white horses are actually Grey.

The majority of the white horses you see were born a much darker color and gradually turned white.

These "white" horses can be bay, chestnut, or almost black at birth.

These horses are referred to as grey rather than white.

9| Horses are measured in "Hands"

A hand is a conventional measurement for measuring the height of a horse.

A pony is an equine that stands less than 14.2 hands tall. 

The miniature horses are the only equines not measured in hands. They are measured in centimetres or inches.

10| They are unable to vomit.

Horses have no physical ability to vomit.

There are several anatomical reasons for this, including the strength of the esophageal muscles, the way the esophagus connects to the horse's stomach, and the location of the stomach itself.

The evolutionary reason for this is unknown, but one theory suggests that it is protective.

The back-and-forth motion of a full gallop could theoretically induce vomiting, allowing a predator to catch it, so evolution may have completely eliminated the risk.

11| The resting respiratory rate of a horse is approximately 8-14 breaths per minute.

It's critical to understand your horse's resting pulse and respiration rate.

While a horse's resting respiration rate can be as low as eight breaths per minute, it can quickly rise with work or stress.

Find out what your horse's resting pulse and respiration rate are (TPR).

12| Horses' ears have ten different Muscles.

They can rotate nearly 180 degrees and move independently of one another as a result of this.

Ears have only three muscles in humans.

13| A Foal is a young horse

What is the main difference between a foal, a colt, and a filly? It overall depends on the gender and age of the horse.

A foal is a baby horse in general. A weanling is a young horse that has been breastfed by its mother.

Horses, on the other hand, are called fillies or colts until they are two years old.

14| North American horses are native to the other continent.

Every horse found in the North American region is descended from European horses.

Even the horses we think of as "wild" are feral horses whose forefathers escaped from domestication.

Horses vanished from the Americas around 11,000 years ago, and there is plenty of evidence that their ancestors lived here before that.

15| Ponies and Miniature Horses Are Not the Same

Ponies are miniature horses, but not all miniature horses are ponies.

Ponies are horses that are shorter than 14.2 hands (58 inches) at the withers.

Miniature horses, according to the American Miniature Horse Association, must be no taller than 34 inches, putting them squarely in the pony category as well as their own group.

Many horse enthusiasts, however, consider miniature ponies to be a distinct breed of the horse,

It is because, they maintain standard horse body proportions, as opposed to ponies with shorter legs, longer bodies, and an overall stockier build.

16| The first "horse" resembled a Golden Retriever in size.

The first horse was roughly the size of a golden retriever.

Diminutive Hyracotherium may have closely resembled a small goat or deer rather than a modern-day horse.

Hyracotherium existed during the Eocene Era.

17| Horses were introduced to Australia in 1788

Horses were introduced to Australia with the first Western settlers in 1788 and were used for farming and utility work.

Only the strongest and fittest horses survived the perilous sea voyage from Europe.

Australian horses are still regarded as among the toughest horses in the world.

18| Arabian horses have one fewer vertebra than others

Arabian horses have one fewer vertebra than other breeds oF horses.

Many other light horse breeds are originated from the Arabian horse. They also have certain distinguishing qualities.

Other horses have one more vertebrae, rib bone, and tail bone than Arabian horses.

19| They Are Related to Rhinos.

Horses belong to the genus Equus, which is the only extant group in the horse family.

The genus includes the domesticated horse (Equus caballus), as well as Przewalski's horse, zebras, and asses such as donkeys.

They are, however, not the horse's closest living relatives.

The horse, as an odd-toed ungulate, is most closely related to the similarly hooved rhinoceros.

20| Horses cannot breathe through their mouths.

Horses are "obligate nose breathers,"

It means they can only breathe through their nose, not their mouth, as humans can.

21| Horses have supernatural reflexes.

You might have seen heavy kick delivered by a angry horse in real or in movies or videos.

If they are forced to fight, they can go from standing still to delivering a powerful kick in 0.3 seconds, compared to 1.6 seconds for humans.

22| Horses have a wide range of vision that is nearly 360 degrees.

This is attributable to the fact that their eyes are positioned on the sides of their heads.

They do, however, have two blind spots: one right behind them and the other directly in front of and under their nose.

This means they won't be able to see the grass they're grazing on or the carrot you've hung in front of them!

Instead, they use their mobile and sensitive lips, whiskers, and sense of smell to determine what is in front of them and whether it is edible.

23| Horses are extremely intelligent animals

They, like dogs, can be taught a variety of tasks using positive reinforcement and clicker training.

One study found that horses can communicate their needs to their caretakers by touching symbols on a board.

These horses learned to communicate whether they wanted a blanket on or off by touching symbols aboard.

24| Their humorous expressions aren't caused by laughter.

Many people interpret a horse curling its upper lip and raising its head in the air as a funny face or an expression of laughter, but this is incorrect.

The flehmen response is a behavior that involves getting a better whiff of an interesting smell.

This action allows pheromones and other scents to enter the vomeronasal organ (VMO), which then sends signals to the brain, triggering physiologic and behavioral responses.

Stallions are the most likely to exhibit the flehmen response because they pick up on mare pheromones.

Mares will flehmen shortly after birth in response to their foal's pheromones.

25| There is only one horse species that is truly wild.

Only one horse subspecies is truly wild, not feral: Przewalski's horse.

It came dangerously close to extinction and is now listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List. 

However, there have been global efforts to bring this horseback from the brink of extinction.

One example is the Foundation for the Preservation and Protection of the Przewalski Horse. 

It worked for nearly 40 years on breeding strategies before releasing over 350 horses in Mongolia's Hustai National Park.

26| Because horses have a fixed pelvis, they cannot perform the splits.

They do, however, have some lateral movement, allowing them to scratch their ears with their hind feet.

27| There is one breed with a metallic coat

The coat of the Akhal-Teke horse is legendary. While many well-kept horses have lovely sheens, this breed has a metallic gleam.

It all comes down to the structure of its hair.

Hair strands in most horse breeds have an opaque core, but in the Akhal-Teke, that core is either extremely small or completely absent.

The transparent part of the hair fills the gap, bending and refracting light as it passes through and giving each hair a distinct natural glow.

28| Horses Can't Burp

That's correct! Burping is not something horses can do, at least not in the same manner that humans can.

They can't vomit or breathe through their mouths in the same way that humans can.

Unlike cattle and other animals, which regurgitate food to re-chew it, a horse's digestive system is a one-way street.

Although they have a rather efficient technique of processing the rough fibrous grains that make up their forage, this long, one-directional system can lead to diarrhea.

The American quarter horse is the most popular breed in the world, loved by both amateur and expert riders.

30| They've Got Muscular Ears

Horses' ears are small, but they are powerful.

Each ear has ten muscles (compared to three in humans) and can rotate 180 degrees, from facing directly forward to facing directly backward.

They can also identify and distinguish distinct sounds by directing their hearing to specific areas.

Horses use their ears to communicate as well, for example, by pinning them back to indicate anger or for guidance.

Horses were found to make decisions based on where another's ears were pointing in a 2014 study by the University of Sussex, indicating that the animals may use their ears to direct each other.

31| They are highly smart.

There are studies that show horses are intelligent creatures.

According to a 2012 study, horses use input from multiple senses to identify and remember people.

The horses were able to tell the difference between a familiar and an unfamiliar human based solely on their voices (without using sight or smell).

The horses could also do the opposite, distinguishing between people based solely on their appearance and smell, rather than hearing their voices.

Meanwhile, the Equine Research Foundation has dismissed the myth that horses can't transfer information from one side of their brain to the other.

Their research discovered that horses were easily able to use this interocular transfer skill, recognizing objects with one eye that they had learned about with the other.