One of the first horses was
called a Hyracotherium. It lived about 50 million years ago and
was as tall as a fox. It had toes! This horse changed over
millions of years to become a modern horse.
Camargue horses are completely
white as adults. Their babies are pure black when they are born.
There is a breed of horse from
Russia called Akhal-Teke. It can go for days without food or
water.
You measure a horse's height
in hands. Each hand equals four inches. If you say a horse is 16.2
hands high, the 2 stands for 2 fingers.
You can tell how old a horse
is by how many teeth it has. A horse gets all of its teeth by the
time it is five years old. After that, they just get
longer.
A female horse is called a
mare. In the wild it is the mare that decides when the herd moves
on to another spot to find food.
A male horse is called a
stallion. Usually only one stallion will stay with a herd.
Any marking on a horse's
forehead is called a star, even if it is not shaped like a
star.
Horses and ponies feel safer
when they are in a herd.
Mustangs are one of the few
breeds of horses that live wild in North America. They are related
to the horses that the Spanish explorers brought to North America
400 years ago.
Horses can communicate how
they are feeling by their facial expressions. They use their ears,
nostrils, and eyes to show their moods. Beware of a horse that has
flared nostrils and their ears back. That means it might
attack!
A hoof is like a fingernail.
It is always growing and needs to be clipped so that it won't be
uncomfortable for the horse.
A farrier is a person who
makes horse shoes and fits them on your horse. They also clip
hooves to keep them from getting overgrown.
A horse can move in four ways:
walk, trot, canter, and gallop. A gallop is the fastest
gait.
