There's endless information about horses. We're going to cover the basics and most interesting facts.

A horse is a mammal that has hooves. They are herbivores and are a member of the Equidae family of animals which includes zebra's and donkeys. Mammals have existed on earth for roughly 200 MILLION years! Horses have been in existance for roughly 50 MILLION years! Obviously evolution has occured during this time period, and therefore the domesticated horses of today are very different to the undomesticated horses millions of years ago. Domestication of horses is thought to have occurred around 4000 BC. There are still undomesticated horses but they are mostly found in Asia. There are more than 300 breeds of horses.

An interesting trait of horses is that they are able to sleep both standing up and laying down. This feature goes hand in hand with their designed ability to use their speed to escape threats and predators. They do not sleep in a continuous time frame, but take many short naps of sleep.

The average horse pregnancy lasts a little longer than a human pregnancy. A horses gives birth at about 11 months. They are considered adults by about five years old. They have a life span of about 25 years. The oldest horse on record was a horse that lived to be 62 years old!

Horses and humans have had a long long positive relationship together. Horses work with humans in law enforcement, agriculture, the entertainment industry, and were even used in war.

Another interesting fact is that the height of a horse is measured in hands. Yes, you read that correctly, nowadays a hand is standardized at 4". As far as I know in my research, a horse is the only thing on earth that is measured by hand length. For instance a horse that is 13 h is really 52" tall.

Have you ever wondered what the difference between a horse and a pony is? There is more to the difference than just the size of the two animals, where ponies are much smaller. A pony generally has thicker fur in their manes, tails, and coats. Their temperments are much more relaxed than that of horses.

Equines have a wide variety of distinctive marks, coloring, and coats. Each horse is physically different like each human is physically different. A adult human skeleton has an average of 206 bones. A skeleton of a horse has an average of 205 bones. Another major difference between humans and equines is that a human has a collarbone and equines do not.

A horse eats anywhere from 15 to 25 lbs of feed each day and consumes about 11 gallons of water a day.

They have the largest eyes of any land mammal and a range of vision of almost 360°! Their senses are also incredible and have superb night vision, but they can only see two colors.

A horse will not go hunting for a rattle snake to protect his owner but horses can get bitten by rattle snakes. Some horses become curious at 'that moving rope' through a paddock or corral or pasture and will reach down to sniff it and get bitten on the nose or head by the disturbed reptile. Or horses in a pasture eating grass may get bitten on the face, neck or ears. Usually the horse will suffer only reaction to the venom and will not die unless the horse is very old or very young. But it can take weeks and months of care to get them back to full health. Snakes are just that, dangerous and there is virtually no physical chemicals that will deter or eliminate snakes. The two methods are usually firearms and shovels. Consider Them Gone® Raleigh pest control and snake extermination information has a bit more on the subject.