All about horses

For thousands of years, and in almost all parts of the world people have used horses for riding, to pull heavy loads and for sport and leisure. Herds of wild horses still survive in some parts of the world-though all but the zebras of Africa are very rare.

Horses ‘anatomy enables them to make use of speed to escape predators and they have a well- developed sense of balance and a strong fight-or-flight response. Related to this need to flee from predators in the wild is an unusual trait: horses are able to sleep both standing up and lying down. Female horses, called mares, carry their young for approximately 11 months, and a young horse, called foal, can stand and run shortly after birth. Most domesticated horses begin training under saddle or in harness between the ages of two and four. They reach full adult development by age five and have an average lifespan of between 25 and 30 years.

Lifespan and life stages depend on breed, management and environment, the modern domestic horse has a life expectancy of 25 to 30 years. Uncommonly, a few animals live into their 40s and, occasionally, beyond. The oldest verifiable record was “Old Billy”, a 19th-century horse that lived to the age of 62.

Various horses are divided in different categories with different terminologies given to them are following:

Colt: A young male horse under age of four.

Filly: A female horse under ager of four.

Foal: A horse of either sex less than one year old. A nursing foal is sometimes called suckling and a foal that has been weaned is called a weanling.

Mare: A female horse of four years old and older.

Yearling: a horse of either sex that is between one and two years old.

The height of horses is usually measured at the highest point of the withers, where the neck meets the back. This point is used because it is a stable point of the anatomy, unlike the head or neck, which move up and down in relation to the body of the horse .

Size of horses varies by breed, but also influenced by nutrition. The largest horse in recorded history was probably a Shire horse.

Well wild horses live in herds in open grassland, in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. They have sharp senses of sight, hearing and smell, and can detect hunting animals from a distance. They are strong runners, and use their speed over long distances to escape from danger. Herds of feral horses survive in many places, especially in Americas and Australia.

Horses are being used for many years in sports. Horse racing is an ancient sport: the Greeks and the Romans matched their fastest horses against each other. Today the fastest horses run in flat races and are usually thoroughbreds- horses whose ancestry dates back to three stallions that lived in the early 18th century. Some races are over jumps. Hurdles are small jumps, usually about 1 meter in height. Steeplechases include much bigger and more dangerous jumps.