Learn about the horses on the Giddy Up for Wishes ride.
 

by Jackie Lowe Stevenson

"Just a horse"

From time to time, people tell me, "lighten up, it's just a horse". Or," that's a lot of money for just a horse". They don't understand the distance traveled, the time spent, or the costs involved for "just a horse." Some of my proudest moments have come about with "just a horse." Many hours have passed and my only company was "just a horse," but I did not once feel slighted. Some of my saddest moments have been brought about by "just a horse," and in those days of darkness, the gentle touch of "just a horse" gave me comfort and reason to overcome the day. If you, too, think it's "just a horse," then you will probably understand phrases like "just a friend," "just a sunrise," or "just a promise."

"Just a horse" brings into my life the very essence of friendship, trust, and pure unbridled joy. "Just a horse" brings out the compassion and patience that make me a better person. Because of "just a horse" I will rise early, take long walks and look longingly to the future. So for me and folks like me, it's not "just a horse" but an embodiment of all the hopes and dreams of the future, the fond memories of the past, and the pure joy of the moment. "Just a horse" brings out what's good in me and diverts my thoughts away from myself and the worries of the day. I hope that someday they can understand that it's not "just a horse" but the thing that gives me humanity and keeps me from being "just a woman" or "just a man." So the next time you hear the phrase "just a horse" just smile, because they "just" don't understand.

Horse Terms

• Colt - A young male horse, 4 years old or younger
• Filly - A young female horse, 4 years old or younger
• Foal - A newborn or very young horse, male or female
• Gelding - A male horse that has been castrated, or gelded
• Mare - A mature female horse. In the wild it is the mare that decides when the herd moves on to another spot to find food.
• Stallion - A male horse that has not been castrated. Usually only one stallion will stay with a herd.
• Dam - The term give to a mare when she becomes a mother
• Sire - The term given to a stallion when he becomes a father

Horse Superstitions

• Horseshoes are supposed to be lucky.
• The luckiest horse shoe of all is one off the hind leg of a gray mare.
• If you hang a horseshoe upside down, the luck runs out.
• Gray horses are supposed to be lucky, while pie-balds are unlucky.
• According to superstition in Lincolnshire, England, if you see a white dog, you should stay silent until you see a white horse.

Horse Anatomy Facts

• A horse is generally over 14.2 hh (hands high).
• Anything under 14.2 hh is a pony
• A full grown horse that weighs about 1,000 pounds contains approximately 13.2 gallons of blood.
• You measure a horse's height in hands. Each hand equals four inches. If you say a horse is 16.2 hands high, the 2 stands for 2 fingers.
• Horses have about 175 bones in their body.
• A horse's hoof grows at a rate of about 1 cm per month.
• A horse's leg joints are not fully fused (grown) until around the age of 3 1/2.
• Most horse breeds have 18 ribs.
• The Arabian has 17 ribs.
• Most horses have 6 lumbar bones.
• The Arabian has 5 lumbar bones.
• Most horses have 18 tail vertabrea.
• The Arabian has 16 tail vertabrea.
• Horses can see in two directions at once.
• Horses can see everywhere, except directly in front or behind them.
• Horses make 8 basic sounds- snort, squeal, greeting nicker, courtship nicker, maternal nicker, neigh, roar, blow.
• It is almost impossible for a horse to vomit-- if they do, their stomachs usually rupture soon after.
• 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.

Foals and Foaling

• A horse's gestation period (time between breeding and birth) is about 11 months, but can be anywhere from 10-12 months
• A newborn foal's legs are already 90% of the length they will be when full grown.
• A foal is able to stand just one hour after birth.
• A foal can walk, trot, and run just two hours after birth!
• The first milk the mare makes is called colostrum. This is a rich milk and it is very important for the foal, because it helps protect it against disease.
• Most foals will start to nurse less than two hours after being born.
• More foals are born between April 15- May 15 than any other time.
• Mares usualy foal at night.
• Mares don't like to be watched when they foal. If someone is watching, they might stop foaling and wait till the the person goes away.
• A mare may give birth in as little as 15 minutes, but no longer than an hour. If she is still straining after an hour has passed, something is seriously wrong.

Strange Facts

• Horses like classical music.
• The oldest horse was named Old Billy. He was a cross breed, he was born in 1760 and he lived to be 62.
• The World's Largest Horse was a Shire gelding named Samson, bred by Thomas Cleaver of Toddington Mills, England. Foaled in 1846, this horse measured 21.2 1/2 hand high in 1850, and weighed 3,360 pounds
• Rabbits are not rodents. They are lagomorphs, and are more closely related to horses than they are to rats or mice.
• The male seahorse is the one who gets pregnant and delivers the baby seahorses
• Horses expend more energy lying down than they do when they are standing up!
• Wild stallions mark their territory by ‘pooping’ in the same spots. Their ‘stud piles’ can reach several feet high over time.
• Do you know why it is very unusual to see all the horses in the same field lying down at once? This is because one animal always stands 'on look out' to be able to alert the others to any dangers.
• Horses have one leg (or side) that is a hair shorter than the other. By seeing which side of the neck a horse's mane falls on you can tell which front leg is the shortest. The mane will fall to the short-legged side.
• If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.
• Why do we always mount from the nearside of a horse? In olden days, men used to wear scabbards for their swords on their left hip (so they could draw the sword quickly with their right hand.) If they had got on from the other side of the horse the sword would have got in the way.

When a Horse Isn’t a Horse

• A mule is a cross between a male donkey (called a jack) and a female horse (called a mare). Mules are usually sterile.
• A hinny is a cross between a male horse (called a stallion) and a female donkey (called a jenny). Hinnies are usually sterile.

Horse Records

• The tallest horse on record was a Shire named Samson. He was 21.2 hands (7 feet, 2 inches) tall. He was born in 1846 in Toddington Mills, England.
• The oldest horse on record is "Old Billy," an English barge horse. He was 62 years old when he died, living from 1760 to 1822.
• The record for the highest jump made by a horse is held by a horse named Huaso who jumped 8 feet, 1 and 1/4 inches on February 5th, 1949 in Vina del Mar, Chile. He was ridden by Captain Alberto Larraguibel.
• The record for the longest jump over water is held by a horse named Something who jumped 27 feet, 6 and 3/4 inches on April 25, 1975 in Johannesburg, South Africa. He was ridden by Andre Ferreira
• The longest tail measured was 22ft long was grown by an American Palomino named Chinook
• The longest mane was 18 ft long and grown by a Californian mare named Maude

Websites

http://www.spiritofrelationship.com/horses-helping-people-heal.htm
http://library.thinkquest.org/3887/facts.html http://www.cowboyway.com/What/HorseFacts.htm http://www.limebrook.com/horseyfacts.html
http://www.ultimatehorsesite.com/info/facts.html http://www.shannonleighstables.com/HORSE-FACTS-