27 Amazing Facts About Horses You Didn't Know
Did you know that horses have lived on our planet for more than 50 mil
lion years? That's a pretty ancient relationship between us and them. According to National Geographic, Asian nomads domesticated the first horses 4,000 years ago, and the rest is history.
Horses have truly shaped human history, and they've captured our hearts along the way. In ancient times they were used mostly for milk, meat, trade, and transport. Today they still play an essential role in our daily lives, whether it's for work, sport, or as loyal companions.
There's no doubt horses are fascinating creatures, but there's plenty most people don't know about them. Here are some surprising facts about man's "other best friend."
Birth, Growth & Care
1. Horses can run within hours of being born. Foals can stand within 2 to 6 hours of birth and can gallop within 24 hours.
2. You can estimate a horse's age by its teeth. According to Equisearch, a young horse's age is determined by which teeth are present. After age 5, age is estimated from tooth wear and the shape and slope of the incisors - Galvayne's Groove becomes the key marker from that point on.
3. It takes 9 to 12 months to regrow an entire horse hoof. A barefoot horse in full endurance training can regrow a hoof in just over 5 months, since maximum blood flow means maximum growth.
4. If a horse has a red ribbon tied in its tail, keep your distance... it kicks. A blue ribbon indicates the horse is a stallion.
Body & Biology
5. Horses can't burp or vomit. They have no gag reflex, and according to Equus Magazine, the muscles of the equine lower esophageal sphincter are far stronger than in other animals, making it nearly impossible for that valve to open under backward pressure from the stomach.
6. Horses produce roughly 9 to 11 gallons (35 - 40 litres) of saliva every single day.
7. Horses with pink skin can sunburn quickly, according to The Equinest.
8. A horse's brain only weighs around 22 ounces (600 - 700 grams).
9. A horse's heart is huge relative to its body: About 1% of total body weight. A standard 1,000-pound horse carries a heart weighing roughly 10 pounds (4.5 kg).
10. Horses' knee joints are the equivalent of a human wrist, and their hock joints compare to our ankles.
Senses & Communication
11. Horses use their ears, eyes, and nostrils to express their mood.
12. Horses have a sweet tooth: They favour sweet flavours and tend to reject anything sour or bitter.
13. If your horse's ears are pointing in different directions, they're often actually looking at two different things at once.
14. Horses hear and smell better than humans. Their ears can turn independently in different directions to aid their hearing.
15. A horse's eyes are the biggest of any land mammal, and because they sit on the sides of the head, horses can see almost 300 degrees around them. They do have blind spots directly in front of the nose and directly behind the rump. which is why horses actually jump from memory, since they can't see a jump the instant it's right in front of them.
16. Horses are not entirely colour-blind. They can distinguish blue from grey, yellow from grey, and green from grey.
Sleep & Behaviour
17. Horses can sleep both lying down and standing up, according to Science Kids.
18. When horses sleep standing up, they lock their legs to avoid collapsing a mechanism called the stay apparatus.
19. Horses are deeply social animals. They often get lonely if kept alone, and will mourn the loss of a companion.
20. Want to know if a horse is feeling cold? Check their ears if they're cold, so is the horse. Shivering is the other giveaway.
Breeds, History & Records
21. Horse height is measured in "hands," a unit equal to four inches that originated in ancient Egypt. A horse standing 64 inches at the withers is 16 hands high, or 16 hh.
22. A zebroid is a cross between a zebra and any other member of the horse family. A zebra-donkey cross is called a zonkey, while a zebra-pony cross is a zony.
Image: Sheldrick Wildlife Trust
23. The Przewalski's horse is the only truly wild horse species still in existence. The last Przewalski's horse in the wild was seen in Mongolia in 1968.
24. Arabian horses have one fewer vertebra and one fewer pair of ribs than most other breeds, along with greater bone density though there's natural variation within the breed.
25. Most horses gallop at around 44–65 kph (27 mph), but the fastest recorded sprint belongs to a quarter horse at 88 kph (55 mph).
26. Old Billy, the oldest domestic horse on record, lived to 62.
27. The first cloned horse, Prometea, was created by fusing an adult skin cell with an empty egg from a female horse, then implanting the resulting embryo back into the mare's womb.
Image: Globe Trotting
Sources linked throughout. Facts compiled from National Geographic, The Spruce Pets, Equisearch, Equimed, Equus Magazine, Ker Equine Nutrition, The Equinest, CBS News, Science Kids, The Horse, Cowboy Way, Equine Tips, Chronicle of the Horse, Mental Floss, One Kind Planet, Tufts University, The Fact Site, Treehugger, Doubled Trailers, Nature, and Horsetalk.
