Horse

The horse, (equus ferus caballus), a hoofed herbivorous mammal of the family equidae is a domesticated perisodactyl mammal of the equine family.

It comprises a single species, equus caballus, whose numerous varieties are called breeds.

Before the advent of mechanized vehicles, the horse was widely used as a draft animal, and riding on horseback was one of the chief means of transportation.

History and features.[]

In prehistoric times the wild horse was probably first hunted for food.

Research suggests that domestication had taken place by approximately 5,500 years ago.

It is supposed that the horse was first used by a tribe of Indo-European origin that lived in the steppes north of the chain of mountains adjacent to the Black and Caspian seas.

Influenced by climate, food, and humans, the horse rapidly acquired its present form.

It is estimated that the horse has an age of about 55 million years.

The fossil found of the Eohippus, or dawn horse, measures about 30 centimeters, and in life spread to Europe, in the period called Eocene. Several types of evolution took place.

The Mesohippus, a little older, that existed 25 to 40 million years ago; The Miohippus followed him; and then the Merychippus.

The latter had a certain resemblance to the donkey.

The Dinohippus and the Pliohippus were the first species that had formed helmets, although their fingers had already disappeared.

About 8,000 years ago, during the Ice Age, the number of the ancestors of the present horse was decreasing until completely extinguished of the American continent.

The few survivors began to be distributed throughout Asia, Europe and Africa, and became the predecessors of the horse that today is known as Eqqus caballus.

The races that exist today fall from four basic types: the horse of the forest, strong animal that gave origin to the draft horses; the finest horse of the plateau, from which came the small, sturdy, semi-wild Mongolian horses; the horse of the steppe, progenitor of the oriental races, as the Arabian and the barbarian; and the tundra horse, big and heavy, like the Yukat from the polar religions.

Influenced by climate, food, and humans, the horse rapidly acquired its present form.

The relationship of the horse to humans has been unique.

The horse is a partner and friend.

It has ploughed fields and brought in the harvest, hauled goods and conveyed passengers, followed game and tracked cattle, and carried combatants into battle and adventurers to unknown lands.

It has provided recreation in the form of jousts, tournaments, carousels, and the sport of riding.

Even today, horse riding is an activity enjoyed by many.

The influence of the horse is expressed in the English language in such terms as chivalry and cavalier, which connote honour, respect, good manners, and straightforwardness.

The horse is the “proudest conquest of Man,” according to the French zoologist Georges-Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon.

Its place was at its master’s side in the graves of the Scythian kings or in the tombs of the pharaohs.

Many early human cultures were centred on possession of the horse.

Superstition read meaning into the colours of the horse, and a horse’s head suspended near a grave or sanctuary or on the gables of a house conferred supernatural powers on the place.

Greek mythology created the Centaur, the most obvious symbol of the oneness of horse and rider.

White stallions were the supreme sacrifice to the gods, and the Greek general Xenophon recorded that “gods and heroes are depicted on well-trained horses.”

A beautiful and well-trained horse was, therefore, a status symbol in ancient Greece. Kings, generals, and statesmen, of necessity, had to be horsemen.

The names of famous horses are inseparably linked to those of their famous riders.

Bucephalus, the charger of Alexander the Great; Incitatus, once believed to have been made a senator by the Roman emperor Caligula (see Researcher’s Note); El Morzillo, Hernán Cortés’s favourite horse, to whom the Indians erected a statue; Roan Barbery, the stallion of Richard II, mentioned by Shakespeare;

Copenhagen, the duke of Wellington’s horse, which was buried with military honours.

The horse has occupied a special place in the realm of art.

From Stone Age drawings to the marvel of the Parthenon frieze, from Chinese Tang dynasty tomb sculptures to Leonardo da Vinci’s sketches and Andrea del Verrocchio’s Colleoni, from the Qurʾān to modern literature, the horse has inspired artists of all ages and in all parts of the world.

The horse in life has served its master in travels, wars, and labours and in death has provided many commodities.

Long before their domestication, horses were hunted by primitive tribes for their flesh, and horsemeat is still consumed by people in parts of Europe and in Iceland and is the basis of many pet foods.

Horse bones and cartilage are used to make glue.

Tetanus antitoxin is obtained from the blood serum of horses previously inoculated with tetanus toxoid.

From horsehide a number of articles are manufactured, including fine shoes and belts.

The cordovan leather fabricated by the Moors in Córdoba, Spain, was originally made from horsehide.

Stylish fur coats are made of the sleek coats of foals.

Horsehair has wide use in upholstery, mattresses, and stiff lining for coats and suits; high-quality horsehair, usually white, is employed for violin bows.

Mare’s milk was drunk by the Scythians, the Mongols, and the Arabs.

Excretion.[]

Horse manure (dung or poo) is still used to this day as fertiliser. Horses generally produce about 9 tons of poo each year and poo 8-12 times a day. These droppings are usually individually capsule shaped and build up to form a large pile. They are usually either light beige or brown in colour and tend to darken over time. Horses may need to do a poo on a ride. There is no obligation by law, however, to pick this dung up. See this source.

Horses also tend to urinate (pee) 7-10 times a day and generally produce 12,500 litres of wee every year. This is usually from either the penis for stallions or from the urethra for mares.

Horses are one of the most frequently flatulant (farting) animals. It is estimated that they produce about 20,000 pounds (lbs) of methane every year.

Form and function.[]

A mature male horse is called a stallion, the female a mare.

A stallion used for breeding is known as a stud.

A castrated stallion is commonly called a gelding.

Formerly, stallions were employed as riding horses, while mares were kept for breeding purposes only.

Geldings were used for work and as lady`s riding horses.

Recently, however, geldings generally have replaced stallions as riding horses.

Young horses are known as foals; male foals are called colts and females fillies.

Anatomical adaptations.[]

The primitive horse probably stood 12 hands (about 120 cm, or 48 inches [1 hand = 10 cm, or 4 inches]) tall at the withers, the high point on the back at the base of the neck, and was dun coloured (typically brownish to dark grey).

Domestic horses gone wild, such as the mustangs of western north America, tend to revert to those primitive features under random mating: they generally are somewhat taller (about 15 hands [152.

4 cm, or 60 inches]), are usually grey, dun, or brownish in colour, and move in herds led by a stallion.

The horse’s general form is characteristic of an animal of speed: the long leg bones pivot on pulley-like joints that restrict movement to the fore and aft, the limbs are levered to muscle masses in such a way as to provide the most efficient use of energy, and the compact body is supported permanently on the tips of the toes, allowing fuller extension of the limbs in running.

The rounded skull houses a large and complex brain, well developed in those areas that direct muscle coordination, though it is not as intelligent as a human brain.

While the horse is intelligent among subhuman animals, it is safe to say that the horse is more concerned with the functioning of its acute sensory reception and its musculature than with mental processes.

Though much has been written about “educated” horses that appear to exhibit an ability to spell and count, it is generally agreed that in such cases a very perceptive animal is responding to cues from its master.

But this ability is remarkable enough in its own right, for the cues are often given unconsciously by the human trainer, and detection of such subtle signals requires extremely sharp perception.

The horse, like other grazing herbivores, has typical adaptations for plant eating: a set of strong, high-crowned teeth, suited to grinding grasses and other harsh vegetation, and a relatively long digestive tract, most of which is intestine concerned with digesting cellulose matter from vegetation.

Young horses have milk (or baby) teeth, which they begin to shed at about age two and a half.

The permanent teeth, numbering 36 to 40, are completely developed by age four to five years.

In the stallion these teeth are arranged as follows on the upper and lower jaws: 12 incisors that cut and pull at grasses; 4 canines, remnants without function in the modern horse and usually not found in mares; 12 premolars and 12 molars, high prisms that continue to grow out of the jaw in order to replace the surfaces worn off in grinding food.