Basic Horse Facts: Horses are measured in hands.A hand is four inches. A horse is generally over 14.2 hh (hands high). Anything under 14.2 hands high is a pony. A horse is considered adult at age four. A female horse over 4 years old is called a mare. A male horse over 4 years old is called a stallion. Horses can drink up to ten gallons of water a day. The average horse's HEAD WEIGHS 11.84 pounds A horse's "HEART WEIGHS" about 10 pounds. The scientific name for the horse is equus caballus. The Clydesdales became the Anheuser-Busch symbol on April 7, 1933. Adult male horses generally have 40 teeth while the females only have 36. Horses cannot breathe through their mouths. Horses can see color. Horses have two blind spots. One is directly behind them,the other is directly in front of them. Horses expend more energy lying down than they do when they are standing up. Horses can communicate how they are feeling by their facial expressions. They use their ears, nostrils, and eyes to show their moods. Beware of a horse that has flared nostrils and their ears back. That means it might attack. You can tell how old a horse is by how many teeth it has. A horse gets all of its teeth by the time it is five years old. After that, they just grow longer. With his long limbs and large heart and lungs, the horse is designed for galloping. Jumping is not a natural activity for horses and left to their own devices most will go around obstructions. When spoken to, horses distinguish tones rather than particular words.
