Horse Facts

Height
A horse's height is measured in hands, one hand generally equaling about 4 inches. Draft horses can reach 16-18 hands. Miniature horses are only about 5.2 hands.

Weight
An average horse weight is 1000 lbs.

Food
Mainly coarse grasses, thorn bushes, and shrubs.

Life Span
Average life span is 20-25 years.

Reproduction
Both male and female horses are sexually mature by the age of two. They are seldom used for breeding purposes, however, before they are three years old. The gestation period is about 11 months, and single births are the rule. Twins are a genuine rarity.

Colors
Horses come in many colors including : Chesnut- Golden brown coat with lighter or darker tail than mane, Flea-Bitten- Grey coat, with small dark specks more appear in age, Gray: White coat with black skin, the coat lightening with age, Skewbald: Big patches of white on many other colors except black, Brown: Mixture of black and brown on limbs, tail and mane, Bay: Dark golden color also a red-brown color with black tail, mane and limbs, Black: Black coat mane, tail and limbs.

Habitat
Grassland, semi-deserts, mountain plateaus and moorlands.

Interesting Facts
The longest tail measured was 22ft long was grown by an American Palomino named Chinook.

Horses have two blind spots. One is directly behind them and the other is directly in front of them.

A horse's heart weighs about 10 pounds.

A horse can drink up to 10 gallons of water a day.

A quarter of the horses in the US died of a vast virus epidemic in 1872.

The first domestic horses introduced into the Americas were of Arabian descent, brought by the Spanish conquistadores in the 16th century.

You can tell how old a horse is by how many teeth it has. A horse gets all of its teeth by the time it is five years old. After that, they just get longer.

Mustangs are one of the few breeds of horses that live wild in North America. They are related to the horses that the Spanish explorers brought to North America 400 years ago.

A hoof is like a fingernail. It is always growing and needs to be clipped so that it won't be uncomfortable for the horse.

Sub Species
The genus contains the domestic horse and three groups of species living in the wild state.