{"id":9356,"date":"2021-12-26T07:28:04","date_gmt":"2021-12-26T12:28:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/?p=9356"},"modified":"2021-12-26T07:28:30","modified_gmt":"2021-12-26T12:28:30","slug":"5-facts-about-horses-thatll-surprise-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/5-facts-about-horses-thatll-surprise-you\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Facts About Horses That&#8217;ll Surprise You"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Remember the 2003 film <em>Seabiscuit<\/em> starring Tobey Maguire?&nbsp;It won the best picture award at the 76th Academy Awards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you don&#8217;t remember, it&#8217;s a film based on a non-fiction book about the racing horse Seabiscuit. When researching horse racing facts, Seabiscuit comes up a lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But horses are much more than racing animals. There are&nbsp;dozens&nbsp;of exciting horse facts to learn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>Let&#8217;s dive into our&nbsp;five most surprising&nbsp;facts about horses!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1. There Are&nbsp;Hundreds of Different Horse Breeds<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The specific number of horse breeds is difficult to determine because of unclear distinctions between species. But, experts estimate there are at least 200 different types of horses.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cell.com\/current-biology\/fulltext\/S0960-9822%2817%2930694-2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">2017 genetic study<\/a> suggests all modern horses are descendants of two breeds. They are the Arabian and Turkoman horses. Also, existing horse breeds fit into five categories:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Hot-blood<\/li><li>Warmblood<\/li><li>Cold-blood or draft<\/li><li>Pony<\/li><li>Minature<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Each type of horse has originals from a different part of the world. For example, hot-blooded horses have&nbsp;origins in the Middle East.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Further, historians believe humans domesticated horses between 4,000-6,000 years ago. This caused horses to evolve differently than their wild, prehistoric ancestors.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2. A Horse&#8217;s Shoes Need Changing Every Six Weeks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>An essential part of taking care of a horse includes maintaining its shoes. The horseshoe protects&nbsp;the soft inner part of the hoof (frog), which is prone to injury.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It keeps the outer hoof from wearing down too far, thus preventing the frog from excessively contacting the ground.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even though the process looks grueling, it&#8217;s painless for horses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">3. The Most Common Health Problem Is Lameness<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Lameness is an abnormal stance or gait. It can result from inflammation, injury, arthritis, or hoof obstruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An excellent remedy for lameness is to&nbsp;cool the horse&#8217;s leg. Plus, you can enhance circulation with special boots like those found on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.countryandstable.com\/horse-tack\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">countryandstable.com<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Proper horse care doesn&#8217;t just mean attentiveness. It also means investing in the right tools and equipment to aid your horse&#8217;s daily stable management and health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">4. Horses Can Sleep Standing Up<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Horses have an adaptation called the <a href=\"https:\/\/onlinepethealth.com\/2021\/02\/04\/equine-stay-apparatus-active-or-passive-and-why-it-matters\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">stay apparatus<\/a>. The apparatus is a series of tendons and ligaments. They connect the stifle to the hock and lock them in place.&nbsp;This allows them to relax entirely.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The stay apparatus is also why horses can&#8217;t move their knees separately from their hocks.&nbsp;The characteristic allows horses to run at the first sign of danger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet, for horses to achieve deep sleep (REM) and complete their sleep cycle, they still need to lay down for short periods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">5. Horses Can&#8217;t Breathe Through Their Mouths<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Horses are non-ruminant herbivores. The horse&#8217;s digestive system, the connection between the esophagus and the stomach, is like a one-way street.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thus, they cannot breathe through their mouths as humans can. They also cannot burp or vomit. But, this simple structure of their stomachs can lead to colic and other gastrointestinal problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It again highlights the importance of daily horse health care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Now You Know Some Unique Facts About Horses<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>While we only covered five&nbsp;facts about horses, you have more information about these fantastic animals than you did before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you enjoyed learning about horses and&nbsp;found this article interesting, make sure to check out the rest of the blog.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Remember the 2003 film Seabiscuit starring Tobey Maguire?&nbsp;It won the best picture award at the 76th Academy Awards. If you don&#8217;t remember, it&#8217;s a film based on a non-fiction book about the racing horse Seabiscuit. When researching horse racing facts, Seabiscuit comes up a lot. But horses are much more than racing animals. There are&nbsp;dozens&nbsp;of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9356"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9356"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9358,"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9356\/revisions\/9358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}