Is there anyone in the world who doesn’t or at least did at some time in their life love horses? Is there anything on this earth more beautiful than a herd of horses racing across the prairie, heads held high with manes and tails whipped by the wind?
Humans began domesticating the horse around 3,500 BC in Central Asia.
The horse is especially adapted to running, with a good sense of balance, and a strong fight-or-flight instinct. Horses sleep both standing and lying down. A mare carries her foal for 11 months, but once born, it is capable of walking and running within an hour after its birth. Foal is the generic word for a young horse regardless of its gender. Specifically, a male is referred to as a colt and a female as a filly.
Horses are divided into three categories based on temperament:
Hot blood – spirited, known for speed and endurance (such as the Thoroughbred and Arabian)
Cold blood – suitable for slow, heavy work (draft horses such as the Shire and Belgian)
Warmbloods – obviously a cross between hot and cold blood breeds, specifically for riding, often in competitions that include jumping and dressage, and as those high-stepping carriage horses depicted strutting their stuff down the streets of London in times past.
The typical lifespan for a horse is 25–30 years.
The height of a horse is measured from its withers, the bony point at the base of the neck where it meets the beginning of the horse’s back and the apex of the horse’s shoulders, and the ground. The horn of a saddle would sit just behind it. The unit of measure for a horse is a hand, approximately four inches. The average, well-cared for horse is typically 14–16 hands, weighing between 800–1,200 pounds. The larger riding breeds can be 15–17 hands, weighing between 1,100–1,320 pounds. A draft breed can be 16–18 hands weighing between 1,500–2,220 pounds. The Shire Horse, as a breed, is recognized as the strongest in the world, able to pull as much as 58,000 pounds (29 tons), like Old Billy, the oldest horse living to be 62 (1760–1822), a record that is yet to be broken.
For centuries, horses have been used by man in many ways—as a companion, for transportation, in construction, farming, shipping, towing, even in war, and sadly, in some countries, as food, to name just a few.
The fastest breeds are the American Quarter Horse, the Thoroughbred, the Arabian and the Akhal-Teke.
The American Quarter Horse is the fastest in short distances, particularly in the quarter mile (hence its name) reaching speeds over 50 mph. A Long Goodbye is recorded as the fastest at 55 mph. This breed is most often used on ranches working with cattle, and can be found in rodeo competitions such as barrel racing and cattle roping and cutting out.
Thoroughbreds on the other hand, run at a speed around 44 mph, but dominate in the flat, 2–3-mile races, such as the Preakness, Belmont Stakes, and the Kentucky Derby. Horses who win all three of these races in a racing season are said to have won the Triple Crown.
The Arabian runs at about 40 mph but is known for its endurance and stamina during 100-mile endurance races.
The lesser-known Akhal-Teke is no slouch reaching up to 35 mph. They are highly resilient and excel in endurance riding and competition events such as show jumping and dressage.
A horse’s value is most often determined by the races he or she wins and the prize money that comes with winning. Or its value may be determined by how long it can work and how much it can carry or pull. Or its value may be not what it can earn, but what it passes on to the following generations.
According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture database, there are 784 horse breeds, though only 200 of those are recognized by equine experts. However, Wikipedia believes a more reasonable estimate would be around 350 recognized breeds.
All horses originate from the base colors black, bay, chestnut/sorrel, and gray. From these colors, more colors emerge: black, bay, chestnut, sorrel, brown, dun, buckskin, gray, palomino, roan, pinto, and spotted patterns. Then you have the dapples and stripes with facial and/or leg markings. This amounts to four primary base colors, 12 common colors and 12 rarer colors, all effected by combinations of base colors, gene dilution, modifiers, patterns and shading. The genetic foundation is simple, the resulting diversity is vast.
The eyes of a horse are vastly different from the human eye. Placed on the sides of their head, they have wide peripheral vision, almost a 360° ability to see in any direction. Small blind spots over the tail and in the center of the forehead prevent it from being a full 360°. The eyes are not a perfect sphere but flattened from anterior to posterior. They are usually dark brown in color, but blue eyes are not uncommon and a variety of other colors, hazel, amber, and green, are also seen. They also have excellent night vision.
Scripture uses the horse as a symbol of strength and majesty, serving as instruments of warfare (Job 39:19–25; Psalm 33:17; Revelation 6:2; Jeremiah 46:4; Zechariah 1:8). The Bible offers the horse to symbolize grace and beauty (Isaiah 63:13). Revelation depicts Christ riding on a white horse and it associates the horse with Christ’s work of atonement and justice (Revelation 19:11).
“When the encircling hills were filled with the horses and chariots of the king of Syria, and the great host of his armed men, Elisha beheld the nearer hill slopes covered with the armies of God—horses and chariots of fire round about the servant of the Lord.” The Desire of Ages, 240
Sources: horseyhooves.com/fastest-horse-breeds; wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse; wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergeant_Reckless; horsefactbook.com/guides/horse-colors; wikipedia.org/wiki/Equine_vision
Did You Know?
The tallest and heaviest horse recorded is a Shire Horse named Sampson (photo above). Foaled in 1846, he stood 21.25 hands (7’ 2.5”) and weighed 3,359 pounds. He died in 1866. The smallest recorded horse is Thumbelina (photo below), a dwarf miniature horse foaled in 2001, she stood 17.5” and weighed 57 pounds. She died in 2018.
Blue eyes are often associated with white markings or patterns in the horse’s coat. Horses are also capable of having dichromatic eyes (each eye a different color).
Fusaichi Pegasus (photo above), a Thoroughbred stallion, holds the record for being the most expensive horse with a ticket price of $70 million.
Sergeant Reckless (left photo) is the most decorated war horse (yes, they received medals, too), a chestnut-coated Mongolian mare. She was purchased by the United States Marines for $250 to carry ammunition and supplies and transport the wounded during the Korean War. She was the first horse in the Marine Corps to be promoted to staff sergeant. She made 51 solo trips in a single day, carrying 9,000 pounds of ammunition during the Battle for Outpost Vegas in 1953. She was awarded, among others, two Purple Hearts, the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, and the Korean Service Medal. She died in 1968 at the age of 20.