Equine Facts

Basic Horse Facts

• A horse is considered adult at age four.
• A female horse over 4 years old is called a mare.
• A male horse over 4 years old is called a stallion.
• Horses are measured in hands.
• A hand is four inches.
• A horse is generaly over 14.2 hh (hands high).
• Anything under 14.2 hh is a pony.
• There are over 200 breeds of horses in the world.
• A horse's gestation period (time between breeding and birth) is about 11 months, but can be anywhere from 10-12 months.
• 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.
• The scientific name for the horse is equus caballus.

Scientific Classification of the Horse

Horse Superstitions

• Horshoes are supposed to be lucky.
• The luckiest horse shoe of all is one off the hind leg of a gray mare.
• If you hang a horseshoe upside down, the luck runs out.
• Gray horses are supposed to be lucky, while piebalds are unlucky.
• According to superstition in Lincolnshire, England, if you see a white dog, you should stay silent until you see a white horse.

Horse Anatomy Facts

• A full grown horse that weighs about 1,000 pounds contains approximately 13.2 gallons of blood.
• Horses have about 175 bones in their body.
• A horse's hoof grows at a rate of about 1 cm per month.
• A horse's leg joints are not fully fused (grown) until around the age of 3 1/2.
• Most horse breeds have 18 ribs.
• The Arabian has 17 ribs.
• Most horses have 6 lumbar bones.
• The Arabian has 5 lumbar bones.
• Most horses have 18 tail vertabrea.
• The Arabian has 16 tail vertabrea.
• Horses can see in two directions at once.
• Horses can see everywhere, except directly in front or behind them.
• Horses make 8 basic sounds- snort, squeal, greeting nicker, courtship nicker, maternal nicker, neigh, roar, blow.
• It is almost impossible for a horse to vomit-- if they do, their stomachs usually rupture soon after.

Foals and Foaling

• A newborn foal's legs are already 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 is a rich milk and it is very important for the foal, because it helps protect it against disease.
• Most foals will start to nurse less than two hours after being born.
• A female foal is called a filly.
• A male foal is called a colt.
• More foals are born between April 15- May 15 than any other time.
• Mares usualy foal at night.
• Mares don't like to be watched when they foal. If someone is watching, they might stop foaling and wait till the the person goes away.
• A mare may give birth in as little as 15 minutes, but no longer than an hour. If she 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 horse's feet.

Strange Facts

• Horses like classical music.
  
• The oldest horse was named Old Billy. He was a cross breed, he was born in 1760 and he lived to be 62.
  
• The World's Largest Horse was a Shire gelding named Samson, bred by Thomas Cleaver of Toddington Mills, England. Foaled in 1846, this horse measured 21.2 1/2 hand high in 1850, and weighed 3,360 pounds.
  
  
  

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  Did you know....

  
  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:
  
  
  
  
  • e·quine adj. 1. Of, relating to, or characteristic of a horse. 2. Of or belonging to the family Equidae, which includes the horses, asses, and zebras.
    
    
  • e·ques·tri·an adj. 1. Of or relating to horseback riding or horseback riders. 2. Depicted or represented on horseback: an equestrian statue of a famous monarch. --e·ques·tri·an n. One who rides a horse or performs on horseback. [From Latin equester, equestr-, from eques, horseman, from equus, horse.
    
  • 
    eq·ui·ta·tion n. The art and practice of riding a horse. [Latin equitatio, equitation-, from equitare, to ride horseback. See EQUITANT.]
    
    
  • eq·ui·tant 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.
    
    
  • eq·ui·se·tum n., pl. eq·ui·se·tums or eq·ui·se·ta. See horsetail.
    
    horse·tail n. Any of various nonflowering plants of the genus Equisetum, having a jointed, hollow stem and narrow, sometimes much reduced leaves. Also called equisetum.
    
    
  • e·o·hip·pus 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]