Our horses are called Jimmy, who is a gelding, and Lola, who is a mare. During weekends and school holidays, they can often be found giving horse rides to visitors!
Horse facts:
- An adult male is a stallion and an adult female is a mare. A castrated male is called a Gelding. A newborn is called a foal.
- Horses were first domesticated over 10,000 years ago.
- There are over half a million horses in the UK.
- Horses are herbivores. This means that they only eat food that comes from plants.
- A horse will eat approximately 7 times its own body weight of food in a year.
- Horses can’t vomit!
- Horses are measured in hands. A hand is 10cm or 4 inches.
- A farrier is the name of a person who trims horses’ feet and puts their metal shoes on.
- A mare is pregnant for 11 months.
- The average life expectancy for a horse is 20 to 30 years, although the oldest horse on record lived to 62 years old.
- All horses need to have passports and must never travel anywhere, e.g. to shows, without them.
- Horses have monocular vision, which means that they can see separate views with each eye at the same time.
- Horses have 175 bones in their body!
- Horses can sleep standing up as they’re able to lock their kneecaps to prevent their legs from bending!
