10 Fun Facts About Horses

1. Horses have a nearly 360-degree field of vision.

This is due to the positioning of their eyes on the sides of their head.

However, they have two blind spots – one directly behind them, and the other

directly in-front of their head. This means that they cannot see the grass they

are grazing on, or the carrot you are sticking out to them! Instead, they will

move their head or use their mobile and sensitive lips, whiskers and sense of

smell to know what is in-front of them.

2. Horses Are Measured in Hands.

The standard measurement for determining the height of a horse is called a

hand. One hand is equal to 4 inches. A pony is an equine under 14.2 hands.

The only equines not measured in hands are miniature horses, which are

measured in inches or centimeters.

3. A Baby Horse is Called a Foal

What is the difference between a filly, a colt, and a foal? It all depends on

gender and age. Generally, a foal is a baby horse, but a filly is female, and a

colt is a male. After they are weaned from their dam, they are called a

weanling. Horses remain fillies or colts until they are 4 years old.

4. There are around 350 horse breeds and types around the world.

5. Horses can sleep both lying down and standing up.

Horses have a unique survival adaptation called the stay apparatus that

allows them to completely relax and sleep standing up. The point of this is to

enable horses to run at the first sign of danger. However, they still need to lie

down for short periods of time to achieve deep (REM) sleep and complete

their sleep cycle. Horses can’t lie down for too long as that would put undue

strain on their bones and internal organs.

6. Horses in a herd (especially wild horses) will not lie down simultaneously.

The reason is that because at least one will act as a look-out - or sentry - to

alert its companions of potential dangers, thereby greatly increasing their

chances for survival.

7. Most of the time, wherever a horse's ear is pointing is where the horse is looking with

the eye on the same side.

If the ears are pointing in different directions, the horse is looking at two

different things at the same time.

8. Horses use their ears, eyes, and nostrils to express their mood.

They also communicate their feelings through facial expressions. They can

also understand human expressions and remember a person’s previous

emotional state, adapting their behavior accordingly. This ability comes

naturally to horses as they have complex facial expressions themselves.

9. Most horses have 205 bones in their bodies, while humans have 206.

While we both have a pelvis, only humans have collar bones. In humans,

collar bones attach the arms to the skeleton and stabilize the shoulders.

However, in horses this function is performed by the thoracic sling instead.

The thoracic sling is a group of muscles, tendons, and ligaments that attach

the forelimbs to the rest of the body. This is so they can run at a faster speed.

Having a collarbone would restrict the horse’s reach and stride length, making

them much slower runners. The horse and human skeletons are quite similar,

even though we stand in completely different orientations. However, Arabian

horses have one less pair of ribs, lumbar and tail vertebrae, meaning they

only have 201 bones.

10. All existing horse breeds fit into five categories: hot-blooded, warm-blooded, cold-

blooded/draft, pony, and miniature.

Hot-blooded horses include the Arabian, Thoroughbred, and Barb breeds with

origins in the Middle East. In contrast, cold-blooded (heavy) horses and

ponies developed in northern Europe. A warm blood horse refers to any

breed whose ancestors were crosses between hot-blooded and cold-

blooded/pony type breeds. Finally, miniature horse breeds are scaled-down

versions of their big cousins with a specified maximum height.