All About Horses Horse Breeds Appaloosa, Belgian Draft, Holsteiner, Quarter Horse ... These are just a few of the over 200 different horse...
All About Horses
Appaloosa, Belgian Draft, Holsteiner, Quarter Horse ... These are just a few of the over 200 different horse breeds living around the world today.
Although breeds can look wildly different, they all belong to a single species: Equus caballus.
Over thousands of years, people created different breeds by mating horses that have desirable traits. That's why the look of a breed is often related to what it's used for. When these traits get passed down over many generations, a new breed is produced.
For example, about 200 years ago, English horse breeders mated light, swift Arabians with local riding horses. This created the Thoroughbred–a lean, leggy, super-speedy breed used in horse racing.
Horses come in a wide range of colors and patterns. For some horse breeds , only a particular color or color combination is allowed. In others, individual horses may be virtually any color.
The coat color of a horse is determined by its genes. There are two basic coat colors: "red" & "black," which are associated with major genes . However, many other genes affect the final appearance of the horse. The mixing of these genes results in the rainbow of colors and patterns we see in horse breeds today.
Chestnut horses come in various shades, ranging from reddish orange to dark brown. The mane and tail are either chestnut or cream-colored.
Black horses are black all over, including tail and mane. However, they sometimes have white face and leg markings.
Bay horses have coats that look reddish brown, with black manes, black tails, and black lower legs. The shades vary from sandy bay to mahogany bay.
Some coat colors change during the lifetime of a horse. "Gray" horses are born with darker-colored coats. As they turn gray over time, they may go through intermediate stages, such as "fleabitten" (specks of white on a dark coat) and "dapple gray". A horse that has gone completely gray looks white.
Palominos are yellowish-gold horses with cream-colored manes and tails.
Roan horses have white hairs scattered on coats of chestnut, black, or bay. This causes their coats to look lighter in color. A black horse with roaning is called a "blue roan." A chestnut horse with roaning is called a "strawberry roan."
Dun is a genetic variation that dilutes the coloring of bay, chestnut, and black horses. It makes their coats look paler. Also, dun horses have a dark stripe running down their spines. Sometimes duns have stripes on their withers or horizontal striping on their legs—like zebras. A black dun is called a "grullo." It typically has a blue-gray or smoky-colored coat, with darker mane, tail, and legs.
Spotted horses carry the leopard complex (Lp) gene. This gene causes different types of white patterning that overlay the horse's base coat color. "Leopard" and "blanket" are two of the patterning types. "Leopard" makes the horse look like it has spots all over. "Blanket" makes it look like the horse has a white "blanket" thrown across its back, though spots may show through.
Part-colored horses are called pintos. They have patterned coats that combine large patches of white with a darker color. The two main types of pinto patterning are tobiano and overo. Tobianos have big patches of color, white legs, and dark coloring on the neck and breast. They often have a two-toned mane. Overos have jagged patches of white that are large or small. They have one or more dark legs. The tail is one color, rather than two-toned.
Horses of all colors may have a variety of white markings on their faces and legs, such as blazes, stars, and socks. Horses are born with these markings. They can help identify individual horses.
Horses are measured from the ground to the top of the withers. The withers is the highest point of the back. It is created by the vertebrae between the shoulder blades.
Traditionally, horses are measured in "hands." One horse hand (or hh) is 4 inches long (10 centimeters). It's about the width of a man's fist. So 1 1/4 hands is written 1.1 hands, while 1 3/4 hands is written 1.3 hands.
One of the tallest breeds, the Shire, can reach 19 hands high (76 inches, or 193 centimeters). Miniature horses can be as small as 5 hands high (20 inches, or 51 centimeters).
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