Horses routinely show up on lists of the most beautiful animals in the world. They have both power and elegance in a combination that is rarely matched in the animal kingdom. While these animals are fairly common and most people are familiar with them, they still hold a few surprises. Trainers and horse owners know more about them than most as they deal with horses daily. They also get to see them in action and witness some of the amazing feats these animals can pull off.
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Horses Are Skillful Jumpers
Trained horses delight thousands of people in events that are variously called show jumping, stadium jumping or sometimes hunter jumpers. To do this, a course is set up with a sequence of jumps that are made up of poles set at different heights. A pole bracket caddy holds these poles so that they are available to set up the course.
While most horses can only jump about three feet in the air, a trained horse can sometimes jump as high as seven feet. The world record for a horse jump is just over 8 feet, accomplished by a horse named Huaso in 1949.
Horses Come in Many Colors
Horses have many different colors; however, these colors rarely are called by their regular color names. For instance, sorrel is a kind of reddish or chestnut color. A bay is sort of a brown color and a roan tends to be a shade of gray. A few colors, though, are more or less what the name says: a dapple gray is indeed gray and a dun is what you would expect. Other horse colors and patterns include the following:
- Paint
- Palomino
- Buckskin
- Appaloosa
- Chestnut
- Black
Painted horses are also known as spotted horses or pintos. No two painted horses look exactly alike and the color combinations are said to be infinite.
Horses Come in Several Breeds
While the American Quarter horse is the most popular breed in the U.S., there are many other horse breeds. One study found that all horses today descend from two breeds: the Arabian horse and the now-extinct Turkoman horse. Other breeds that exist today include the thoroughbred, the Tennessee Walker, the Clydesdale and the Belgian. Depending upon who is doing the separating, there can be numerous breeds of horses.
Horses were bred in different localities around the world, with each region looking for favorable characteristics. This resulted in the variety of horses in the world today.
