![]() If a male horse is castrated by humans, it becomes known as a gelding. (Image credit: Anadolu Agency/Contributor via Getty Images) (opens in new tab)Īn adult male horse is called a stallion, and an adult female horse is called a mare. The life of a horseĪ horse foal running on snow in Eskisehir, Turkey. The Humane Society (opens in new tab) suggests that a healthy horse should be fed 1% to 2% of its body weight in grass or hay every day. Most nutrients are absorbed as food passes through the small intestines and into the hindgut, which includes the cecum, large colon and small colon, where it is fermented by bacteria. A horse's low-capacity stomach is suited to small but frequent meals. Horses have the smallest stomach relative to body size of any domesticated animal, according to Iowa State University (opens in new tab). Large, flat teeth called incisors at the front of the horse's mouth help it to grab and rip grasses from the ground, which the horse then grinds with the molars and premolars that line each side of its jaw, according to the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine (opens in new tab). Horses are herbivores, and their diet consists mainly of tough grasses. Horse owners often attach metal horseshoes to the bottom of their horse's hooves to protect the hooves from wear. Like fingernails, hooves never stop growing and need to be trimmed. Hooves are made of keratin, which is the same protein that makes human fingernails, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica (opens in new tab). Horses have evolved to have a single toe on each foot encased by a hard hoof. Horses are ungulates, which are mammals that have hooves, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History (opens in new tab). However, the American quarter horse is often considered to be the fastest horse breed, and the American Quarter Horse Association (opens in new tab) states these horses have reached speeds of up to 55 mph (88.5 km/h). This was achieved by a Thoroughbred named Winning Brew in 2008 over a quarter-mile distance. Guinness World Records recognizes 44 mph (70.8 km/h) as being the fastest speed reached by a racehorse. Related: Thoroughbred racehorses get speed from just a few ancestors (opens in new tab) The average domestic horse can gallop at a speed of about 30 mph (48 km/h), but horses have been clocked at speeds of over 40 mph (64 km/h), according to AMNH. Horses have four main movement patterns, called gaits: walk, trot (a little faster than walking), canter (faster than a trot) and gallop (a horse's fastest gait). ![]() (Image credit: Lo Chun Kit/Contributor via Getty Images) (opens in new tab) Horses racing at the Sha Tin Racecourse on in Hong Kong. The shortest horse ever recorded by Guinness World Records (opens in new tab) was a miniature horse named Thumbelina, who was measured to be just 17.5 inches (44.5 cm) tall before she died in 2018. ![]() A miniature horse is even smaller, at less than 3 feet 2 inches (97 cm) tall. A pony is an adult horse that is shorter than 4 feet 10 inches (147 cm), according to Encyclopedia Britannica (opens in new tab). The tallest horse to have ever lived was a shire horse named Sampson, or Mammoth, who in 1850 was measured to be about 7 feet 2 inches tall (86.2 inches or 219 cm), according to Guinness World Records.Īt the other end of the scale are ponies and miniature horses. The Belgian breed is known for being one of the strongest and most powerful horse breeds in the world. Guinness World Records (opens in new tab) considers the tallest living horse to be a Belgian horse named Big Jake that's nearly 7 feet tall (82.8 inches, or 210 cm, to be exact). Either way, Przewalski's horses are distinct from domestic horses, although their evolutionary origins are debated within the scientific community. However, some experts categorize domesticated horses and Prezewalski's horses as subspecies of the same species, called Equus ferus caballus and Equus ferus przewalskii, respectively. ITIS lists these wild horses as a separate species named Equus przewalskii. The only horses alive today that aren't considered domesticated are Przewalski's horses, or takhi, in central Asia. Similar to other domestic animals, being led by humans has been encouraged through multiple generations of breeding. ![]() This enables humans to more easily train horses to be ridden. In captivity, and in the absence of a herd, horses have a tendency to bond with people and learn to follow their instructions. Horses are social animals and are known for bonding with members of their herd and for following the most dominant horses in the herd, according to AMNH (opens in new tab).
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