Horse people tend to collect cool and interesting horse tidbits like hooves collect dirt, packing them into their minds for future reference on random occasions. Here are a few cool horse facts you may not know.

Did you know that…

1. You Can Tell Where Your Horse is Looking



Most of the time a horses ears point where they are looking. If a horses ears are pointed in different directions, then chances are they are looking at two different things at the same time.



2 You Can’t Plug Your Horses Nose



Horses can’t breath through their mouth, they can only breath through their nose, so make sure that noseband fits properly.

3. All Horses Share One Birthday



Thoroughbred horses have a common birthday of January 1st, (Aug 1st in Australia) regardless of when they are actually born. This means that technically a horse born on Christmas Day celebrates it’s first birthday a week later on New Years day.

4. One Side is Shorter Than the Other



Like humans, horses have one leg / side a tad shorter than the other. You can tell which side it is by which side their mane lies on naturally.

5. Arabians Were Shorted A Few Bones



Arabian horses have shorter backs than most breeds. This is because they have one less tail vertebre, one less lumbar bone and one less rib than all other breeds.

6. Some Breeds Are Hardier Than Others

The Turkmen breed Akhal-Teke can go days without food or water.

7. Laying Down is Taxing



Horses consume more energy when they lay down than when they stand up.

8. China Loves Horses



China has the most horses of any country the world. Which makes sense when you consider they have more people too.

9. There is No Horse Statue Code



The leg position of the horses has no universal significance in statues of famous riders with their mounts. Statue makers don’t hold conventions – there are too many cultures that erect equestrian statues for them to follow any code. Check out what Snopes says about it.

10. Horsepower is Scottish



The term ‘horsepower’ was coined by a Scottish engineer named James Watt. He used it in his experiments to define the power of an engine, and based his definition on the power of draft horses.

More Facts

These were fun to research, so I did another post with even more horse facts.