When you greet your horse, or simply want to thank them for a nice ride, do you pat them or do you give them a good scratch? If you had to guess, which horse human interaction do you think horses prefer, to be patted or scratched? Three researchers at Nottingham Trent University asked this very…
The Quarter Horse is an American breed that excels at quick turns and stops and at sprinting short distances. Its name came from its ability to outdistance other horse breeds in short races of a quarter mile or less. Thoroughbred racing has the Kentucky Derby. Quarter Horse racing has the All American Futurity, the richest…
Have you ever watched horses together in a field or paddock? How do they interact when confined in a small space? Is their behaviour different when they’re out in a big field together? Let’s look at different horse paddock sizes to get an idea of how much space horses need. For paddocks used only for…
We’re nearing that time of year again—Halloween! Will you be carving a horse jack-o’-lantern for your front porch or barn? In this post you’ll find a horse jack-o’-lantern pattern and a tutorial on how to use scale drawing to resize any image. Who knows? By the end of this post you may decide to create…
Have you ever watched a mare and her foal together? Newborn foals tend to stay close to their mother’s side. Over time, as the foal gets older, they venture further apart. Researchers in Japan were curious about how this distance changes over time. To study mare and foal behaviour, they attached GPS devices to the halters on…
Is it possible to estimate how big a foal will be when they reach mature size? While there is no one exact mathematical formula for estimating a foals’ mature size, several methods have been developed for estimating mature horse height in foals and yearlings. One method of measurement is to measure a straight line in inches…
Do you love making things for Christmas? This post will show you how to make horse head Christmas ornaments! Let’s get started. You’ll need: fine yarn or thread to be used for the horse’s body. I’ve chosen white, an orange for a chestnut colour and grey. cardboard (or a book) about 7″ (18 cm) wide…
You may have already heard about the wild ponies of Assateague Island. What you may not know is that the ponies on the island are split into two main herds separated by a fence at the Virginia/Maryland State line. The herd on the Virginia side is managed by the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company. The National Park Service…
Thoroughbred racing is popular in many different countries in the world and each nation has their own Triple Crown series. England has the 2,000 Guineas Stakes, the Epsom Derby and the St. Leger Stakes. Australia has the Randwick Guineas, The Rosehill Guineas and the AJC Australian Derby. Canada has a Triple Crown series, as does…
Horses in the wild are known to graze for up to 16 hours a day! A horse’s digestive system is designed to deal with large amounts of forage, either grass or hay, eaten slowly over a long period of time. Hay makes up the largest part of a horse’s diet, so it is important to make…