Fun Facts

Thanks to Tahoemedows.com I have these fun facts for you.

• There are about 75 million horses in the world.
• Horses' hooves grow approximately 0.25 in a month, and take nearly a year to grow from the coronet band to the ground.
• In the state of Arizona, it is illegal for cowboys to walk through a hotel lobby wearing their spurs
• Cross-country jumps are marked with a red flag on the right side and a white flag on the left side; the horse has to jump through these two flags or it is considered out of bounds and you are disqualified.
• A healthy adult horse should have a pulse of between 36 and 40 beats per minute while at rest
• Arabians have one less rib, one less lumbar bone, and one or two fewer tail vertebrae than other horses.
• Mr. Ed, the talking equine star of the 1960s television series, was a golden palomino. He learned an enormous amount of tricks for his role, including answering a telephone, opening doors, writing notes with a pencil, and unplugging a light. Apparently, Mr. Ed would occasionally have a fit of temper, as befitting his star status, and would stand stock still, wheezing and refusing to move.  
• 7.1 million Americans are involved in the industry as horse owners, service providers, employees and volunteers. 3.6 million and 4.3 million of those participated in showing and recreation, respectively, with some overlap in cases of people who participate in both activities. 941,000 people participated in racing in either a professional or volunteer capacity. 1.9 million people own horses. In addition to the people actually involved in the industry, tens of millions more Americans participate as spectators.
• The horse industry directly produces goods and services of $25.3 billion and has a total impact of $112.1 billion on U.S. gross domestic product. Racing, showing and recreation each contribute more than 25% to the total value of goods and services produced by the industry.                                                                                        
• The industry's contribution to the U.S. GDP is greater than the motion picture services, railroad transportation, furniture and fixtures manufacturing and tobacco product manufacturing industries. It is only slightly smaller than the apparel and other textile products manufacturing industry.                                                                                      .
• “If you want a kitten, start out by asking for a horse” -  Anon
• “The horse is God's gift to man”. - Old Arab Proverb
• “Show me your horse, and I will tell you who you are”. - Old English saying
• "The one great precept and practice in using a horse is this, never deal with him when you are in a fit of passion." Xenophon, The Art Of Horsemanship, 400 BC
• Adult respiratory rate is 8-16 breaths per minute
• A horse typically sleeps two and half to three hours a day
• Horses younger than 4 years can concentrate for a maximum of 10-15 minutes
• Horses lie down only about 43.5 minutes a day
• Horses sleep longer in the summer than in the winter
• A horse’s heart weighs nine pounds
• The horse is a herbivorous mammal
• All horses (including zebras) belong to the genus equus
• Horses began to evolve on the American continent over 3,000 years ago, they later died out and were reintroduced by Spanish settlers
• A zedonk is the offspring of a zebra and a donkey
• No two horses are identical
• The left side of a horse is called the “near side” and the right side is the “off side”
• A horse has approximately 205 bones
• A horse is described as a ‘foal’ for its first year of life
• Foals have milk teeth, which are replaced by permanent teeth around 3-5 years old
• A horse’s teeth can be used to estimate its age
• Horses generally dislike the smell of pigs
• A female horse is called a ‘filly’
• Horses are traditionally measured in ‘hands’, this was originally the width of a man’s hand and has been set at 4 inches