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Horse behavior is best understood from the view that horses are prey animals with a well-developed fight-or-flight response. Their first reaction to a threat is often to flee, although sometimes they stand their ground and defend themselves or their offspring in cases where flight is untenable, such as when a foal would be threatened.
The trot is the working gait for a horse. Horses can only canter and gallop for short periods at a time, after which they need time to rest and recover. Horses in good condition can maintain a working trot for hours. The trot is the main way horses travel quickly from one place to the next. [citation needed]
Horse breeds are groups of horses with distinctive characteristics that are transmitted consistently to their offspring, such as conformation, color, performance ability, or disposition. These inherited traits result from a combination of natural crosses and artificial selection methods. Horses have been selectively bred since their domestication.
A horse being trained on the longe line. Horse training refers to a variety of practices that teach horses to perform certain behaviors when commanded to do so by humans. . Horses are trained to be manageable by humans for everyday care as well as for equestrian activities, ranging anywhere from equine sports such as horse racing, dressage, or jumping, to therapeutic horseback riding for ...
An adult horse has an average rate of respiration at rest of 12 to 24 breaths per minute. [3] Young foals have higher resting respiratory rates than adult horses, usually 36 to 40 breaths per minute. [3] Heat and humidity can raise the respiration rate considerably, especially if the horse has a dark coat and is in the sun.
This is especially true if the horse jumps, gallops, or performs sudden turns or changes of pace, as can be seen in racehorses, show jumpers, eventers, polo ponies, reiners, and western performance horses. A high percentage of performance horses develop arthritis, especially if they are worked intensely when young or are worked on poor footing.
Horses use a group of ligaments, tendons and muscles known as the stay apparatus to "lock" major joints in the limbs, allowing them to remain standing while relaxed or asleep. The lower part of the stay apparatus consists of the suspensory apparatus, which is the same in both sets of limbs, while the upper portion differs between the fore and ...
Extinct equids restored to scale. Left to right: Mesohippus, Neohipparion, Eohippus, Equus scotti and Hypohippus. Wild horses have been known since prehistory from central Asia to Europe, with domestic horses and other equids being distributed more widely in the Old World, but no horses or equids of any type were found in the New World when European explorers reached the Americas.