Horse Facts
Did you know that horses can lock the muscles in their legs so they can go to sleep standing up and not fall over? This was a useful trick when horses lived as wild animals and needed to be able to make a fast get away from a predator!
Did you know the interesting horse fact that horses have close to 360 degree all round vision? The only place they cannot see is directly behind them! It is very dangerous to stand behind a horse - they get easily scared if they think something is behind them and they can't see it. As prey animals they think it is safer to kick first and ask questions afterwards!
Have you ever wondered why, when you are out on a hack, your horse will suddenly spook at a bag or other object that you have been looking at for the past five minutes? Horses have very good distance vision, and can see much further than we can. However they only see near objects in sharp focus when they are quite close to them. Hence they will only see that bag when they are almost on top of it! This is quite useful to remember, as you will have time to prepare yourself and get ready to coax your horse past an object which you know he may get worried about! Knowing horse facts can help a rider!
Horse facts - Why do we always mount from the nearside of a horse? Well, 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!
Did you know that 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.
Horse Facts: 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.
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Did you know that Arabians have one less rib, one less back vertebrae and one less neck vertebrae than any other horse in the world? This is the reason why they have such short backs. (Thank you very much to Shayla for this fact!)
Because of the position of horse's eyes on either side of their head they also cannot see objects directly in front of their noses. This means they cannot see the food that they eat! It also means that they cannot see a jump once they are about a 110 cm (or 4 feet) from it, and have to rely on memory as to its height and shape!