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IT’S ALL ABOUT HORSES

Most people in this country, myself included, aren’t fortunate enough to have a horse, or in fact to have much of a connection to this wonderful animal. But I imagine that, also like me, you may be curious about horses, their history and their characteristics. Juliet Abrahamson explains more

Such importance was attached to horses in prehistoric times that there are giant horses carved into chalk hills in the south, and paintings in caves in France and other places. Even our history of working with horses goes back 6,000 years.

Domesticated, the horse could be harnessed, ridden, used to pull carts, to herd other animals, was used in war, for communication, for travelling distances before any automation; the list goes on and on.

And now of course it is wonderful to be able to own horses and ride them for pleasure, or just to ride occasionally, or see them racing or jumping.

Here area few interesting Facts:

• Foals are able to stand almost immediately after birth, and run too, and their senses are quickly developed.

• As horses have eyes on the side of their heads (and they are the largest eyes of any mammal on land) they can see nearly 360° round. However, if you stand directly in front of a horse or at the back they may be slightly nervous as they may not see you properly. Hence the danger of being kicked if you are at the tail-end – and they are faster than you can be!

• Horses walk at about 4mph, about the same as a person, but they can trot at double the speed and for long distances. And at a gallop, over shorter distances, they can go at about 35 mph.

• Horses can sleep lying down or standing up. Because they are animals that live in herds in the wild, they prefer to have company, and if they are in a group will often not all lie down at the same time but one may stand on guard.

• The way a horse’s ears are pointing is the direction he is looking, and horses can look in two directions at the same time! If a horse is cold behind his ears it is likely that the rest of him is cold too.

• The horse’s intelligence has been questioned, mainly because unlike the other domesticated animals, cats or dogs, they have no instinct to fight; rather they are flight animals – born to run away from danger – and this flightiness was equated with not being very smart. But their instincts have been proven to be very sharp: they are incredibly aware and very sensitive in hearing, vision and tactile awareness. Horses also have been proved to have excellent memories.

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