10 Horse Facts Every Equinest Should Know
You may not know everything about horses
Horse people tend to collect cool and interesting horse tidbits like hooves collect dirt, packing them into their minds for future reference on random occasions. Here are a few cool horse facts you may not know.
Did you know that…
You Can Tell Where Your Horse is Looking
1. Most of the time a horses ears point where they are looking. If a horses ears are pointed in different directions, then chances are they are looking at two different things at the same time.
You Can’t Plug Your Horses Nose
2. Horses can’t breath through their mouth, they can only breath through their nose, so make sure that noseband fits properly.
All Horses Share One Birthday
3. Horses have a common birthday of January 1st, regardless of when they are actually born. This means that technically a horse born on Christmas Day celebrates it’s first birthday a week later on New Years day.
One Side is Shorter Than the Other
4. Like humans, horses have one leg / side a tad shorter than the other. You can tell which side it is by which side their mane lies on.
Arabians Were Shorted A Few Bones
5. Arabian horses have shorter backs than most breeds. This is because they have one less tail vertebre, one less lumbar bone and one less rib than all other breeds.
Some Breeds Are Hardier Than Others
6. The Russian breed Akhal-Teke can go days without food or water.
Laying Down is Taxing
7. Horses consume more energy when they lay down than when they stand up.
China Loves Horses
8. China has the most horses of any country the world. Which makes sense when you consider they have more people too.
Horse Statues Mean Something
9. The leg position of the horses has significance in park statues of famous riders with their mounts.
If both front legs are in the air, the rider died in battle; if one front leg is in the air, the rider died due to battle wounds; and if all four legs are on the ground, the person died naturally.
Horsepower is Scottish
10. The term ‘horsepower’ was coined by a Scottish engineer named James Watt. He used it in his experiments to define the power of an engine, and based his definition on the power of draft horses.
