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The horse (Equus caballus, sometimes seen as a subspecies of the Wild Horse, Equus ferus caballus) is a large odd-toed ungulate mammal, one of ten modern species of the genus Equus. Horses first evolved in the Americas, but went extinct there until reintroduced by Europeans. Horses have long been among the most economically important domesticated animals and are prominent in religion and mythology. The horse has played an important role as transportation, as a source of food, fuel, and clothing, and as a weapon. While isolated domestication may have occurred as early as 10,000 years ago, the first clear evidence dates to c. 5000 BC, and becomes widespread only after 2000 BC. Selective breeding since that time has produced numerous breeds. Some have been bred so that they can be ridden, usually with a saddle, while other breeds can be harnessed to pull objects like carriages or plows. In some societies, horses are a source of food, both meat and milk; in others it is taboo to consume them. In industrialized countries horses are predominantly kept for leisure and sporting pursuits, while they are still used as working animals in many other parts of the world.
Biology of the horse Depending on breed, management, and environment, the domestic horse today has an average life expectancy of 25 to 30 years. Some specific breeds of horse can live into their 40s, and, occasionally, beyond. The oldest verifiable record was "Old Billy," a horse that lived in the 19th century, believed to have lived to the age of 62. Pregnancy lasts for approximately 11 months and usually results in one foal (male: colt, female: filly). Twins are rare. Horses, particularly colts, may sometimes be physically capable of reproduction at approximately 18 months but in practice are rarely allowed to breed until a minimum age of 3 years, especially females. Horses four years old are considered mature, though the skeleton usually finishes developing at the age of six, and the precise time of completion of development also depends on the horse's size and gender; large horses and males mature more slowly than small horses and females. Females 4 years and over are called mares and males are stallions. A castrated male is a gelding. Depending on maturity, breed and the tasks expected, young horses are usually put under saddle and trained to be ridden between the ages of two and four. Although Thoroughbred and American Quarter Horse race horses are put on the track at as young as two years old in some countries (notably the United States), horses specifically bred for sports such as show jumping and dressage are generally not entered into top-level competition until a minimum age of four years old, because their bones and muscles are not solidly developed, nor is their advanced training complete. The size of horses varies by breed. The cutoff in height between what is considered a horse and a pony is always 14.2 hands or smaller (145 cm, 58 inches), though some smaller horse breeds are considered "horses" regardless of height (including Icelandics, Morgans, Arabians, and Fjords). Light horses such as Arabians, Morgans, Quarter Horses, Paints and Thoroughbreds usually range in height from 14.0 to 17.0 hands and can weigh up to about 682 kg (1500 lb). Heavy or draft horses such as the Clydesdale, Belgian, Percheron, and Shire are usually at least 16.0 to 18.0 hands high and can weigh up to about 900 kg (2000 lb). Ponies are no taller than 14.2 hands, but can be much smaller, down to the Shetland at around 10 hands, and the Falabella which can be the size of a medium-sized dog. The miniature horse is as small as or smaller than either of the aforementioned ponies but are considered to be very small horses rather than ponies despite their size. The difference between a horse and pony is not just a height difference. They have different temperaments, different conformation, and ponies often exhibit thicker manes, tails and overall coat. Evolution of the horse
Domestication of the horse and surviving wild species Competing theories exist as to the time and place of initial domestication. The earliest evidence for the domestication of the horse comes from Central Asia and dates to approximately 4,500 BC. Archaeological finds such as the Sintashta chariot burials provided unequivocal evidence that the horse was definitely domesticated by 2000 BC. Wild species
Feral horses
Other modern equids Main artice: Equidae for full species list. Other members of the horse family include zebras, donkeys, and onagers. The Donkey, Burro or Domestic Ass, Equus asinus, like the horse, has many breeds. A mule is a hybrid of a male ass (jack) and a mare, and is usually infertile. A hinny is the less common hybrid of a female ass (jenny) and a stallion. Breeders have also tried crossing various species of zebra with mares or female asses to produce "zebra mules" (zorses, and zonkeys (also called zedonks)). This will probably remain a novelty hybrid as these individuals tend to inherit some of the undomesticated nature of their zebra parent, but they may inherit the zebra's resistance to nagana pest: zorses, also called zebroids, have been used in Central African game parks for light haulage. Horse behavior Horses are prey animals with a well-developed fight-or-flight instinct. Their first response to threat is to flee, although they are known to stand their ground and defend themselves or their offspring in cases where flight is not possible, such as when a foal would be threatened. Through selective breeding, some breeds of horses have been bred to be quite docile, particularly certain large draft horses. However, most light horse riding breeds were developed for speed, agility, alertness and endurance; natural qualities that extend from their wild ancestors. Horses are herd animals, and become very attached to their species and to humans. They communicate in various ways, such as nickering, grooming, and body language. Many horses will become flighty and hard to manage if they are away from their herd. This is called being "herd-bound". However, through proper training, it is possible to teach any horse to be comfortable away from the herd. Horses within the human economy
Horses for sport Horses are used in two ways for sports: as competitors, and as mounts for human competitors. Horses as competitors are trained to be ridden or driven in a particular event. Examples include barrel racing, eventing, carriage driving, dressage, and show jumping. Although scoring varies by event, most emphasize the horse's speed, maneuverability, obedience and/or precision. Sometimes the equitation of the rider is also considered. Sports such as polo and horseball use horses as mounts on which the human competitors ride. Although their riders are the primary competitors, horses serve as a necessary part of the game. In jousting, for example, the main goal is for one rider to dismount the other. Buzkashi is a game played throughout Central Asia, the aim being to capture a goat while on horseback. * Although the horse assists this process and requires specialized training to do so, the details of its performance are not judged, only the result of the rider's actions. The most widely-known use of horses for sport is horse racing, seen in almost every nation in the world. There are three types: "flat" racing, steeple chasing, i.e. racing with jumps, and harness racing, where horses trot towing a small cart where the driver sits. Most racing horses in the developed world are Thoroughbreds, a breed which can reach speeds up to 40 mph/70 km/h. In the case of a specialized sprinting breed, the American quarter horse, speeds over 50 mph have been clocked. In harness racing, speeds over 30 mph have been measured. A major part of the economic importance of horse racing, as for many sports, lies in the gambling associated with it. Horses for work There are certain jobs that horses do very well, and no amount of technology appears able to supersede. Mounted police horses are still effective for crowd control. Cattle ranches still require riders on horseback to round up cattle that are scattered across remote, rugged terrain. Search and rescue organizations in some countries depend upon mounted teams to locate people, particularly hikers and hunters, who are lost in remote areas. Some land management practices such as logging can be more efficiently managed with horses, to avoid vehicular disruption to delicate soil in areas such as a nature reserve. Forestry rangers may use horses for their patrols. In poor countries such as Romania, Kyrgyzstan, and many parts of the Third World, horses, donkeys and mules are widely used for transport and agriculture, especially for pulling plows or carts. In areas where roads are poor or non-existent, fossil fuels are scarce, and the terrain rugged, riding horseback is still the most efficient way to get from place to place. Horses used for entertainment and culture Horses today also are used to re-enact their historical work purposes. A famous example are the Budweiser Clydesdales, a team of draft horses who pull a beer wagon in a manner similar to that used prior to the invention of the modern motorized truck. Horses are used, complete with equipment that is authentic or a meticulously recreated replica, to enact various historical battles. Popular subjects include American Revolutionary War and Civil War reenactments, as well as battles of the 19th century between the U.S. Cavalry and Native Americans. Horses also are used to reenact specific periods of history, or to preserve cultural resources, or for ceremonial purposes. Examples include the use of horses at tourist destinations such as Colonial Williamsburg. Countries such as the United Kingdom still use horse-drawn carriages to convey royalty and VIPs to and from certain culturally significant events. Horses are frequently used in movies to add authenticity to historical dramas as well as adding charm to films set in the modern-day, or even futuristic dramas. Horses used for therapeutic purposes A form of physical therapy is Therapeutic horseback riding. This is also called hippotherapy. Hippotherapy comes from the Greek roots hippo-, meaning horse, and wikt:therapy. People with both physical and mental disabilities have obtained medically beneficial results from riding. The movement of a horse strengthens muscles throughout a rider's body and promotes better overall health. In many cases, riding has also led to increased mobility for the rider and sometimes has helped injured people regain the ability to walk. Soldiers injured in warfare have been known to use this form of physical therapy to regain movement in limbs or simply become accustomed to prosthetic limbs. People who have cognitive or sensory disabilities benefit because riding requires attention, reasoning skills and memory. The benefits of equestrian activity for people with disabilities has also been recognized with the addition of equestrian events to the Paralympic Games. "Equine-assisted" or "equine-facilitated" psychotherapy is a new but growing movement which uses horses as companion animals to assist people with psychological problems. Actual practices vary widely due to the newness of the field; some programs include Therapeutic Horseback Riding and hippotherapy. Non-riding therapies simply encourage a person to touch, speak to and otherwise interact with the horse. Even without riding, people appear to benefit from being able to connect to a horse on a personal level; horses are very sensitive to non-verbal signals from humans and are an ideal tool for working with patients who have "tuned out" human therapists. Benefits can be obtained from the interaction and relationships formed between horses and people. Horses are also used in camps and programs for young people with emotional difficulties. There also have been experimental programs using horses in prison settings. Exposure to horses appears to improve the behavior of inmates in a prison setting and help reduce recidivism when they leave. A correctional facility in Nevada has a successful program where inmates learn to train young mustangs captured off the range in order to make it more likely that these horses will find adoptive homes. Both adult and juvenile prisons in New York, Florida, and Kentucky work in cooperation with the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation to re-train former racehorses as pleasure mounts and find them new homes. Horses in warfare
Horse products Specialized vocabulary
Horses versus ponies Ponies are smaller than horses and stay that way through their lives. In general, to be a pony the equine in question must stand 14.2hh or lower at the withers. Many breeds do not grow bigger than this measurement of size, and part of the breed characteristics is pony. Therefore, any equine in that breed must be pony sized to be registered. Ponies also tend to have certain conformational characteristics: they tend to be stockier than horses, have shorter legs, wide barrels, and thick necks and heads. There are exceptions to this general rule. Some breeds are pony sized, but called horses. Examples include the caspian horse which often stands only eleven or twelve hands, but it has the conformation of a horse – refined head, clean legs and fine bones – rather than that of a pony. Other breeds, such as the Pony of the Americas or the Welsh cob, share some features of horses but are still considered ponies. Gaits All horses move naturally with four basic gaits; these are referred to as walk, trot ("English") or jog ("Western"), canter ("English") or lope ("Western"), and gallop. Besides these basic gaits, additional gaits such as pace, slow gait, rack, fox trot and tölt can be distinguished. These special gaits are often found in specific breeds, and are referred to as "gaited" because they naturally possess additional "single-footed" gaits that are approximately the same speed as the trot but smoother to ride. Technically speaking the so called "gaited horses" replace the standard trot which is a 2 beat gait with a four beated gait (as opposed to the canter/lope and gallop which are three beated gaits). This can be clearly heard when shod horses are riding on the street. The anatomy of the trot consists of the lifting a front hoof and a rear opposite sided hoof at the same time. This can be seen vividly when watching lippizaners on parade, and is similar to a dog's trot. A four beated gait occurs when only one foot at a time lifts off, and hence is called a "running walk". In a manner of speaking this is like the front legs being operated independently of the rear. A true gaited horse will rarely, if ever, trot; gaited horse foals will gait from birth. A pace is a two beat gait where the animal moves the front and rear legs of one side at the same time, similar to an elephant. This produces a ride that is not as jarring up and down as a trot but has a definite side to side or rocking motion, this is considered an undesireable gait by people in the gaited horse trade. A trot is an up and down action of the legs whereas the true gaited horse generally has some sort of circular motion to the front hooves (either a somewhat exaggerated forward circle, or in the case of the paso fino an outward winging motion from the knee down) and a sliding or shuffling motion to the rear hooves, when done perfectly this produces a gait that is as fast and oftentimes faster than a trot and smooth enough that the rider feels as though in an easy chair. Through training a gaited horse may effectively be rendered a 3 gaited horse with only the walk, the special gait (running walk, rack, foxtrot, etc), and the gallop. This does not diminish the speed of the horse, the animal just has no need to lope/canter due to the speed that it can perform its' special gait. Horse breeds with additional gaits include the Tennessee Walking Horse with its running walk, the American Saddlebred with its "slow gait" and rack, the Paso Fino horse with the paso corto and paso largo and Icelandic horse which are known for the tölt. The Fox Trot is found in several gaited breeds, most notably the Missouri Foxtrotter while some Standardbreds, pace instead of trot. The origin of modern horse breeds Horses come in various sizes and shapes. The draft breeds can top 19 hands (2 metres, 76 inches) while the smallest miniature horses stand as low as 5.2 hands (0.56 metres, 22 inches). The Patagonian Fallabella, usually considered the smallest horse in the world, compares in size to a German Shepherd Dog. Different schools of thought exist to explain how this range of size and shape came about. One school, which we can call the "Four Foundations", described in the domestication section above, suggests that the modern horse evolved from multiple types of early domesticated pony and early domesticated horse; the differences between these types account for the differences in type of the modern breeds. A second school - the "Single Foundation" - holds only one breed of horse underwent domestication, and it diverged in form after domestication through human selective breeding (or in the case of feral horses, through ecological pressures). This question will most likely only be resolved once geneticists have finished evaluating the horse genome, analyzing DNA and mitochondrial DNA to construct family trees. See: Domestication of the horse. In either case, modern horse breeds developed in response to the need of "form to function"; that is, the necessity to develop certain physical characteristics necessary to perform a certain type of work. Thus, light, refined horses such as the Arabian horse or the Akhal Teke developed in dry climates to be fast and with great endurance over long distances, while the heavy draft horse such as the Belgian developed out of a need to pull plows. Ponies of all breeds developed out of a dual need to create mounts suitable for children as well as for work in small places like mine shafts or in areas where there was insufficient forage to support larger draft animals. In between these extremes, horses were bred to be particularly suitable for tasks that included pulling carriages, carrying heavily-armored knights, jumping, racing, herding other animals, and packing supplies. The Icelandic horse (pony-sized but called a horse) provides an opportunity to compare contemporary and historical breed appearances and behavior. Introduced by the Vikings into Iceland over one thousand years ago, these horses did not subsequently undergo the intensive selective breeding that took place in the rest of Europe from the Middle Ages onwards, and consequently bear a closer resemblance to pre-Medieval horses. The Icelandic horse is of small stature and has a four-beat gait called the "tölt", similar to the rack of the American Saddlebred. Some countries specialize in breeding horses suitable for particular activities. For example, Australia, the United States, and the Patagonia region of South America are known for breeding horses particularly suitable for working cattle and other livestock. Germany produces Holsteiner and other Warmblood breeds that are used for dressage. Ireland is recognized for breeding hunters and jumpers. Spain and Portugal are known for the "Iberian horses", Andalusians (Pura Raza Espanola) and Lusitanos, used in high school dressage and bullfighting. Austria is known worldwide for its Lipizzaner horses, used for dressage and high school work in the famous Spanish Riding School in Vienna. The United Kingdom breeds an array of heavy draft horses and several breeds of hardy ponies, including the Dartmoor pony, Exmoor pony and Welsh pony. Both the United States and Great Britain are noted for breeding Thoroughbred race horses. Great Britain is well known for the bay haired Shire horse breed. The United States is also known for the Morgan and Quarter horse breeds. Russia takes great pride in breeding harness racing horses, a tradition dating back to the development of the Orlov Trotter in the 18th century. Breeds, studbooks, purebreds, and landraces
Hot bloods, warm bloods, and cold bloods Horses are mammals and as such are all warm-blooded creatures, as opposed to reptiles, which are cold-blooded. However, these words have developed a separate meaning in the context of equine description, with the "hot-bloods", such as race horses, exhibiting more sensitivity and energy, while the "cold-bloods" are heavier, calmer creatures such as the draft giants. Hot bloods Arabian horses, whether originating on the Arabian peninsula or from the European studs (breeding establishments) of the 18th and 19th centuries, gained the title of "hot bloods" for their temperament, characterized by sensitivity, keen awareness, athleticism, and energy. European breeders wished to infuse some of this energy and athleticism into their own best cavalry horses. These traits, combined with the lighter, aesthetically refined bone structure of the Arabian, was used as the foundation of the thoroughbred breed. The Thoroughbred is unique to all breeds in that its muscles can be trained for either fast-twitch (for sprinting) or slow-twitch (for endurance), making them extremely versatile breed. Arabians are used in the sport horse world almost exclusively for endurance competitions. Breeders continue to use Arabian sires with Thoroughbred dams to enhance the sensitivity of the offspring for use in equestrian sports. This Arabian/Thoroughbred cross is known as an Anglo-Arabian. True hot bloods usually offer both greater riding challenges and rewards than other horses. Their sensitivity and intelligence enable quick learning with greater communication and cooperation with their riders. However, their intelligence also allows them to learn bad habits as quickly as good ones. Because of this, they also can quickly lose trust in a poor rider and do not tolerate inept or abusive training practices. Cold bloods Muscular and heavy draft horses are known as "cold bloods", as they have been bred to have the calm, steady, patient temperament needed to pull a plow or a heavy carriage full of people. One of the most best-known draft breeds is the Belgian. The largest is the Shire. The Clydesdales, with their common coloration of a bay or black coat with white legs and long-haired, "feathered" fetlocks are among the most easily recognized. Warmbloods "Warmblood" breeds began when the European carriage and war horses were crossed with Arabians, Anglo-Arabians and Thoroughbreds. The term "warm blood" was originally used to mean any cross of heavy horses on Thoroughbred or Arabian horses. Examples included breeds such as the Irish Draught horse, and sometimes also referred to the "Baroque" horses used for "high school" dressage, such as the Lipizzaner, Andalusian, Lusitano and the Alter Real. Sometimes the term was even used to refer to breeds of light riding horse other than Thoroughbreds or Arabians, such as the Morgan horse. But today the term "warmblood" usually refers to a group of sport horse breeds that have dominated the Olympic Games and World Equestrian Games in Dressage and Show Jumping since the 1950s. These breeds include the Hanoverian, Oldenburg, Trakehner, Holsteiner, Swedish Warmblood, and Dutch Warmblood. The list of horse breeds provides a partial alphabetical list of breeds of horse extant today, plus a discussion of rare breeds' conservation. Saddling and mounting The common European practice and tradition of saddling and mounting the horse from the left hand side is sometimes said to originate from the practice of right-handed fighters carrying their sheathed sword on their left hip, making it easier to throw their right leg over the horse when mounting, and sometimes it is regarded as a superstition. However, several other explanations are equally plausible. Horses can be mounted bareback with a vault from the ground, by grabbing the mane to provide leverage as a rider makes a small jump and scrambles up onto the horse's back (an awkward but popular method used by children), or by "bellying over", a technique which involves placing both hands side by side on the horse's back, jumping up so that the rider lays belly down on the horse's back, and swinging the leg over to sit astride. Some people prefer bareback pads, which are basically sheepskin cushions, when riding bareback, especially on old, under-nourished or bony horses. In actual practice, however, most bareback riders use a fence or mounting block, or another object which can be stood upon to be able to simply slide onto the horse's back. This method is more convenient for both horse and rider, as the horse does not like someone "hiking' onto their back, and the "hiking" can be found to be very difficult for the rider, especially if the horse is tall or large. Zodiac The horse features in the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar. According to Chinese folklore, each animal is associated with certain personality traits, and those born in the year of the horse are: intelligent, independent and free-spirited. See: Horse (Zodiac). Bibliography See also | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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