Horses have been called the noblest of creatures, and it’s easy to see why. Depending on which scientific accounts you believe, they’ve been man’s original best friend since anywhere from 4000 to 2000 B.C. They’ve taken us wherever we’ve asked them to include the fields of battle. Here is our list of the Most Random, Amazing and Bizarre Facts about Horses that we’ve managed to gather. Which is your favorite?
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A male horse is called a stallion and a female horse is a mare. A male horse which has been castrated is known as a gelding. Young horses have different names – a young male is called a colt and the young females are fillies. Baby horses can walk and run after just a few hours of being born. In total, there are 205 bones in the skeleton of a horse. Horses which have been tamed usually live to be around 25 years old. However, the oldest domestic horse on record was Old Billy, who died at the age of 62. Horses have the largest eyes of any land mammal. Horses can run within hours after birth. When a horse is seen standing up, don’t assume it’s awake! These creatures can sleep either standing up or lying down. A group of horses will not go to sleep at the same time – at least one of them will stay awake to look out for the others. Horses are often seen in photographs ‘laughing’ or ‘smiling’, but this movement is actually to help them smell better. They only eat plants, making them herbivores. You can generally tell the difference between male and female horses by their number of teeth: males have 40 while females have 36 (but honestly, most us are going to use the much “easier” way). The Przewalski’s horse is the only truly wild horse species still in existence. The only wild population is in Mongolia. There are however numerous populations across the world of feral horses e.g. mustangs in North America. An adult horse’s brain weights 22 oz, about half that of a human. The first cloned horse was a Haflinger mare in Italy in 2003. Horses produce approximately 10 gallons of saliva a day. On the underside of a horse's hoof is a triangular shaped area called the “frog," which acts as a shock absorber for a horse's leg, and also helps to pump blood back up the leg. For a regular horse, their top speed is approximately 27 miles per hour, although the fastest horse ever recorded could reach 55 miles per hour! There are an estimated 60 million horses in the world, combining wild and domesticated horses. The eyes of a horse are bigger than those of any other land mammal, and the fact they are located on the side of their heads means they can see almost 360 degrees. Experts used to believe that horses were completely colour-blind, although this has now been disproven. They can, however, see certain colours a lot clearer than others. When a horse gallops, all four hooves are off the ground at one point.also read: Amazing Facts: Lesser known facts about the ‘God’s own country’ Kerala