EQS 101 Intro to Horses

Tallest Horse

Big Jake

• 20.3hh or 6’11.

• Belgian

Shortest Horse

Thumbelina

• 17.5’ tall

• 4.1.5hh

Heaviest Dynometer

4,820lbs or 2.2 tons (from standstill)

Heaviest Sled

13,400lbs 14ft (2.5x body weight)

Highest Jump

8’1 1/4’’ in Chile by Faithful or Huaso (OTTTB) in 1949

Fastest horse by speed

43.97mph by Winning Brew 2yrold Filly

Fastest horse by avg

Hawkster 37.82mph over 1.5 miles (3yr TB)

Eyes of Dawn

QH 3yrld ran 41.15mph, 300yds in 14.909 sec

Secretariat

Fastest Ky Derby, 1:59 1 ¼ mi

fastest Belmont on unimproved dirt, 2:24

~37mph

Endurance Horses

check notes

Horses in War

not considered war veterans, most died or were slaughtered

• Sgt. Reckless was a failed racehorse, hauled artillery, carried wounded back, considered mascot, came back to U.S. post Korean War

Modern Police Horses

• Stable presence for humans on foot

• Line of sight for officers/gives them height and authority

• Hold back the tide of out of control humans

White Horse

• the hero is riding the white horse → super old symbolism

• Neapoleon rode piebald pony less than 14.2hh

Four Horseman of the Apocalypse

Death rides a dark/pale horse

Chinese horses are always super fat

valued the horse more, ppl starve, they thrive. One guy used entire country of China to get breeding stock from india.

55 Million years ago

Hyracotherium existed

27.5 million years ago

Miohippus

5 million years ago

Equus

35,000 years ago

evidence of humans eating horses

~6,000 years ago

humans use horses for transport (evidence is movement of humans and horses being buried w/them)

5 million years ago

Dinohippus

2.5 million years ago

first evidence of stone tools

130,000 years ago

Equus extinct in the Americas

Homo sapiens are prevalent

40,000 years ago

Art with horses appears

Vogelherd Horse

• One of the most famous early works of art by humans

• ~33,000 BCE

• Came from a cave in Germany

• Made from mammoth ivory

• 4.8cm x 2.5cm

• Hatching details for mane, tail, eyes, ears

• Curved neck, artist paid attention to horse behavior

Kikkuli

1345 BCE, first published horse training program

• five cuneiform clay tablets

• features different training methods; ponying, swimming, riding, hand walking

• Found in Turkey

Xenophon

Greek Cavalry Officer

• 360 BCE

• “what a horse does under compulsion he does blindly, and his performance is no more beautiful than would be that of a ballet dancer taught by whip and goad” -→natural horsemanship

Bucephalus

Alexander rode him in 300s BCE to conquer everyone

• Never injured

• said that he was afraid of his own shadow and acted out, Alex rode him off into the sun and his dad let him have him

China 200 BCE

First emperor’s tomb has clay horses and grooms

Huns 1-700 BCE

Attila to Genghis Khan

• “The vanquishers out rode the vanquished”

Knights (500-1000)

• Armoured horses only famous for 100 years

• Mostly ponies, got bigger later so they could carry more armor but then the pikeman killed them easier and they went back to the fast ponies

Conquistadors, 1500s

Equus returns to the Americas

Mohammad 600 CE

Allah created the Arabians

• “The wind of heaven that which blows between a horse’s ears”

1700s horses spread across the continent

• Farming gets more productive

• Horses connect communities w/speedy transportation

• Horses provide communication

Now

horses move out of the agriculture and power spotlight

Future

• horses are not going away

• ranching

• entertainment

• therapy