30 Horse Facts | Your Horse Farm

What wonderful and interesting animals they are!

There’s a lot to learn about horses. In fact, it would seem every time you interact with them you learn something new. From their unique behavior to how they see and hear, horses are such interesting animals. By familiarizing yourself with their world, you can understand and communicate with them easier. This will improve your riding and horse handling!

Let these 30 bizarre facts about horses amaze you!

Horses are able to sleep standing and lying down. In order to reach deep sleep (REM), they need to lie down for short periods.
The average horse produces 10 gallons of saliva daily. This is why they need upwards of 25 gallons of water per day.
By observing their ears, eyes, and nostrils, you can tell how a horse is feeling.
There are 205 bones in their body, unlike a human that has 206.
Foals are able to stand shortly after birth. They should be nursing within two hours. Furthermore, they’re able to run within 24 hours.
The triangular shape on the underside of a horse’s hoof is called a frog. It absorbs shock and pumps blood back up the leg.
The prehistoric horse named Eohippus lived 50 million years ago. They had four padded toes on the front and three padded toes in the back.
Horses can see yellow and green better than purple shades.
Their eyes are the largest of land mammals. They even have a third eyelid.
There are approximately 60 million horses in the world.
Horses have 10 ear muscles, while a human only has three.
The average horse heart is the size of a basketball and weighs between 4 and 4.5kg.
An adult male horse has 40 teeth, whereas mares have 36.
A horse can see 350 degrees around their body. They have blind spots directly in front and behind themselves.
There are over 600 different breeds of horses in the world.
When a horse curls their top lip upwards, they’re taking in a new scent. This is known as flehmen.
Most horses like sweet flavors, but reject sour and bitter tastes.
The first horse didn’t arrive in Australia until 1788. They came with the first Western settlers.
A horse can only breathe through their nose, not their mouth.
A fear of horses is known as equinophobia.
The Falabella is the smallest horse breed in the world with the average one being between 30 and 34 inches tall.
Lord George Bentinck invented horse trailers. He wanted to conserve his racehorse’s energy.
A hoof is constructed of a protein called keratin. It’s the same thing that human fingernails are made of.
Horses have incredible memories! They’re said to be 2nd in rank after elephants in the animal world.
A horse’s height is measured in hands. Each ‘hand’ is four inches.
They’re unable to vomit.
The only truly wild horses are Przewalski’s horses. Mustangs and other island ponies are considered feral horses because they originated from domesticated ones.
The Akhal-Teke breed has a metallic sheen to its coat because of the structure of the hair strands.
It can take up to 12 months to regrow an entire hoof.
The Arabian horse has one fewer vertebra and rib, compared to other breeds.