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Horses

An average life span for a horse is around 20-25 years, but depending on the horse they can live up to 30 years. There are over 350 different breeds of horses and ponies. They all fall into four main groups… One group is “Light” horses that have small bones, thin legs and weighing less than 1300 pounds. Some of these horses are Thoroughbreds, Quarter Horses, Morgan Horses and Arabians. The 2nd group is “Heavy” or draft horses which can weigh up to 2000 pounds and they are strong and have large bones and sturdy legs. Some of these are percherons, Draft, Clydesdale, and shire horses. The 3rd group is Ponies which are usually less than 58 inches tall, making them smaller than a horse. Some of these are Shetland, Hafinger, and Caspian Horses. The 4th group is Feral horses, which are wild or semi-wild horses, such as a Mustang.

Horses like to eat short,juicy grass. They also like eating hay, which is dried grass. There are many high-energy foods for many horses and good working horses, such as barley, maize, chaff, oats. Horses can either be all the same color or they can be a mixture of colors. There are thousands of different color combinations for horses. The most common recognized whole colors are- bay, black, brown, chestnut, dun, cream, palomino, or grey. There are many different horses that have broken colors such as Pintos, Paints, and Appaloosas. Horses are measured by the width of a human hand- 4 inches or 10 centimeters. Measurements are taken from the ground up to the withers, the highest point on the horse’s shoulder. A light horse usually measures between 15.1 and 16.2hh while a heavy horse usually measures between 16.2 and 17.2hh. Ponies are under 14hh.