As social herd animals, horses really need the company of other horses to stay emotionally healthy. Even if you ride it every day, feed it, love it, groom it, play with it, you are still a human and not a horse. And let’s not forget the fact that you will not be there at night or whenever you are at …
More than Meets the Horse’s Eye
So how does a horse see the world? Our understanding of horses’ vision is not yet perfect, but we are starting to understand quite a bit more. So let’s take a moment to look at some of the basics.
Horse Sounds Part III: The Neigh
For the third part of our series on horse sounds, today we will briefly discuss the neigh. If you would like to view our previous posts on this topic, please check out the post on the snort – and the nicker.
Basic Horse Body Language
It’s important to understand that every horse is different so the more time you spend with a horse, the better you can interpret their behavior. Still it’s good to make note of some basic horse body language.
The Reason Horses Sleep Standing Up
It does seem a bit silly how horses can sleep standing up. But there’s a great reason for it. By nature, horses are prey animals – which means they are usually being hunted in the wild. Horses have straight backs, so they can’t get up quickly. If a predator gets close to a sleeping horse while it’s lying down, the …
A Horse’s Ears Can Tell You Quite a Bit!
You’d be surprised how much you can gather by observing a horse’s ears. By simply identifying some of these common ear positions, you may be able to figure out what a horse is feeling.
Top Speeds: How do horses stack up?
Though not quite as fast a cheetah, horses hold a top position in overall speed in the animal kingdom. What makes this more impressive is the ability to actually RIDE on these majestic creatures!
What kind of food do horses eat?
A horse’s favorite breakfast, lunch, and dinner is nothing other than good ol’ grass! In addition to grazing on pasture, horses also often eat things like hay, concentrates, and treats! Let’s a take a closer look at each.
Jim Key – Smartest Horse that Ever Was
A motherless foal who quickly became attached to his human caregiver (William Key) – the story of Jim Key is one that is not very well known. Jim was able to do math problems, spell names, share his political preferences, and retrieve a coin from the bottom of a large glass jar filled with water. Skeptical audience members could give …
How to make a Lunge Line
So you might be asking yourself – What on earth is a lunge line? Well, it’s a rope-like piece of equipment, usually 20 feet or longer in length, attached to the halter (picture below) of a horse to provide control while lungeing. Lungeing is a common practice that handlers do routinely to exercise a horse in a circle. The lunge …