Everything You Need To Know About Horses
August 19th, 2011 at 10:46
Horses are beautiful social animals that enjoy interacting with humans and other horses. They are herd animals and usually the herd is led by a mare, which is a female horse over the age of four years. Horses are mammals that have single hooves.
They are both beautiful and fascinating. They are able to sleep either standing up or laying down, something that not many other animals can do. Their legs lock allowing them to sleep standing up. When they need to go into a deep REM sleep, they sleep laying down, and they need to do that for several hours a day.
Female horses carry their young for eleven months, and shortly after a baby horse, called a foal is born, it can stand up and run. A horses lifespan is usually between 25 and 30 years of age, although some have lived longer.
A horse is not mature until it reaches age four, and saddles are put on horses sometime between age two and four. If a horse is being trained for racing, he’ll have a saddle put on around age two. For most horses, though, people wait until between age three and four to saddle them.
Horses and humans have been interacting for centuries. Horses are social and will form attachments to either humans or other horses. This interaction can take place in the form of sporting competitions, or even in some occupations such as police work and therapy functions. Horses are sometimes used by people with limited mobility to help them to get around without the aid of devices.
Horses have highly developed senses, and their best sense is sight. They have the largest eyes of any land mammal, with extraordinary vision. They have good hearing and smell, and their sense of touch is very well developed. A horse can feel if a tiny insect lands anywhere on their body. Their sense of taste is extraordinarily developed as well and they can find and pick up even the tiniest of grains to eat. In addition, they are very alert animals with a highly developed flight or fight response in reaction to danger.
Beautiful, sleek, social and athletic animals, horses are considered to be one of the top four favorite animals when people are asked to list their favorites. Horses were crucial in early times to help developing societies, and continue to be fascinating and loved today.