25 Amazing facts about horses

Horses are such facinating creatures! Even if you never learned to ride or drive one, you could spend your whole life studying them and still have plenty to explore. Here are fifteen interesting facts about horses.

1. Horses have the largest eyes of any land mammal. (Source: HorseswithAmie)

Image: Wikipedia Commons

2. Horses can run within hours after birth. (Source: ScienceKids)

3. When horses look like they’re laughing, they’re actually engaging in a special nose-enhancing technique known as “flehmen,” to determine whether a smell is good or bad. (Source: Dictionary)

Image: Lazerhorse

4. At one-time people thought horses were colorblind. They’re not, though they are better at seeing yellows and greens than purples and violets. (Source: The Horse)

5. A horse’s teeth take up a larger amount of space in their head than their brain. (Source: LiveScience)

6. You can generally tell the difference between male and female horses by their number of teeth: males have 40 while females have 36 (but honestly, most us are going to use the much “easier” way).

7. Horse hooves are made from the same protein that comprises human hair and fingernails. (Source: Ker)

8. The horse trailer (“horse box”) was invented by Lord George Bentinck, a U.K. man who needed a more effective transport for getting his six horses from one racetrack to another.

9. In 1872, Leland Stanford (1824-1893) made a bet that at some point in the gallop all four of a horse’s legs are off the ground at the same time. Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904) proved him right by using a series of 24 cameras and photographing a racehorse named Sallie Gardner. (Source: HorseswithAmie

10. Horses are more secure and comfortable when trailering if they can face the rear, but they prefer openings. (Source: Animal People News)

Image: MyHorse

11. Horses can sleep both lying down and standing up. (Source: ScienceKids)

Image: Horse And Man

12. A 19th-century horse named ‘Old Billy’ reportedly lived 62 years. (Source: Manchester Museum)

13. From 1867 to 1920, the number of horses shot up from 7.8 million to 25 million. Experts believe this was due to the rise of the automobile. (Source: HorseswithAmie) 

14. Because horse’s eyes are on the side of their head they are capable of seeing nearly 360 degrees at one time.(Source: ScienceKids)

15. The fastest recorded sprinting speed of a horse was 88 kph (55 mph). Most gallop at around 44 kph or 27 mph. (Source: Purely Facts)

16. The Przewalski’s horse is the only truly wild horse species still in existence. The only wild population is in Mongolia. There are however numerous populations across the world of feral horses e.g. mustangs in North America. (Source: Onekind)

Image: Onekind

17. Horses use their ears, eyes and nostrils to express their mood. They also communicate their feelings through facial expressions. (Source: CBS News)

18. Horses will not lie down simultaneously because at least one will act as a look-out to alert its companions of potential dangers.(Source: EquiSearch)

19. Vocalizations are highly important to horses. Examples: Whinnying and neighing sounds are elicited when horses meet or leave each other. Stallions (adult male horses) perform loud roars as mating calls, and all horses will use snorts to alert others of potential danger. (Source: Onekind)

20. Approximately 4.6 million Americans work in the horse industry in one way or another. The US horse industry has an economic effect of $39 billion annually on just nine million American horses. There are approximately 58 million horses in the world and the vast majority are cared for by humans. (Source: American Horse Council)

21. An adult horse’s brain weights 22 oz, about half that of a human. (Source: The Equinest)

Image: TurboSquid

22. Horses still hold a place of honor in many cultures, often linked to heroic exploits in war, China being one of those countries. (Source: National Geographic)

23. Horses can not vomit. (Source: The Equinest)

24. There is only one species of domestic horse, but around 400 different breeds that specialize in everything from pulling wagons to racing. All horses are grazers. (Source: National Geographic)

25. A horse can see better at night than a human. However, it takes a horse’s eyes longer to adjust from light to dark and from dark to light than a human’s. (Source: Cowboy Way)

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