Horse (redirected from Equus caballus)

horse, hoofed, herbivorous mammal now represented by a single extant genus, Equus. The term horse commonly refers only to the domestic Equus caballus and to the wild Przewalski's horse. (Other so-called wild horses are feral domestic horses or their descendants.) Adapted to plains environments, all Equus species, including the ass and the zebra, have lengthened foot bones ending in a single toe covered by a hoof, for fast running; teeth shaped for grinding grass; and intestinal protozoa for digesting cellulose. All species have tufts of hair on the tail, used against insects, and manes on the neck. Horses, zebras, and asses can interbreed, but the offspring are usually sterile. The offspring of a horse and a donkey (domestic ass) is called a mule.

A male horse is called a stallion, or if castrated, a gelding; a female is a mare; her offspring are foals—males are colts, females are fillies. A male parent is a sire, a female parent is a dam. A single foal is born after a gestation of about 11 months. Horses reach sexual maturity in about two years, but are not fully grown for about five years. The average life span is 18 years, but 30-year-old horses are common. The standard unit of height is a hand, equal to 4 in. (10 cm).

See horse racing; equestrianism.

History and Breeds

The earliest known direct ancestor of Equus, the eohippus [Gr.,=dawn horse], 10 to 20 in. (25–50 cm) tall, lived approximately 50 million years ago in both the Old and New Worlds. Equus originally evolved in North America by the late Pliocene epoch, about three million years ago, spreading to all continents except Australia. Horses disappeared from the Americas for unknown reasons about 10,000 years ago, to be reintroduced by Europeans, c.A.D. 1500.

Many species of Equus arose in the Old World. Horses were probably first domesticated by central Asian nomads in the 3d millennium B.C. Horses were recorded in Mesopotamia and China (c.2000 B.C.), Greece (c.1700 B.C.), Egypt (c.1600 B.C.), and India (c.1500 B.C.). Horses were domesticated in W Europe no later than 1000 B.C. It is not known whether these early domesticated horses developed from a single wild race or from many local races.

Largely superseding the slower, less manageable ass, which had been domesticated much earlier, the horse's first known use was for drawing Mesopotamian war chariots. It was long reserved primarily for warfare and for transportation for the rich and well-born, while cheaper animals (e.g., oxen, mules, and donkeys) were used for lowlier work. Horses figured importantly in war and conquest in Europe, central Asia, and the Middle East for over 3,000 years. Early warriors rode bareback or with saddle cloths. The saddle and the stirrup were probably developed in China in the early Christian era, spread by Asian horsemen (such as the Huns), and adopted by Arabs and Europeans in the early Middle Ages. Arab cavalry conquered the Middle East and N Africa in the 7th cent. A.D. In the same period, armored knights were riding to battles in Europe. With highly developed cavalry tactics, the Mongols extended their 13th cent. empire from China to E Europe.

The Spanish conquistadors brought horses to the New World, where Native Americans soon acquired them from ranches and missions. The Plains Indians of North America quickly developed a horse culture that led to their ascendancy in numbers and power. Horses were used for hunting buffalo and other game, for warfare, and for pulling loads on a travois. Escaped Indian horses were ancestral to the mustang, the so-called wild horse of the W United States.

The two major groups of modern horses—the light, swift southern breeds, called light horses, and the heavy, powerful northern breeds, called draft horses—are believed to have arisen independently. The small breeds called ponies may derive from a southern, light horse or from a wild race.

Draft Horses

During Roman times the Gauls and other Europeans used horses of the heavy, northern type for pulling loads and other work. In the Middle Ages huge draft animals, over 16 hands (64 in./160 cm) high, were bred to carry armored knights as well as their own armor. As cavalry warfare declined, such medieval inventions as the horseshoe and the rigid horse-collar (see harness) made draft horses more useful for work. By the 19th cent. the draft horse had replaced the ox in N Europe and North America. Draft breeds common in the United States were the Belgian, the Clydesdale, the Percheron; and the Shire, also the most common draft horse in England.

Light Horses

Modern light horses, all descended in part from the Arabian horse, the oldest surviving breed of known lineage, include the Thoroughbred, celebrated as a racehorse; the American saddlebred horse, known for its easy gaits; the Morgan and the quarter horse, favored for riding and cow herding; and the Standardbred, or trotter, developed for light harness racing. The Appaloosa and the Pinto, much used in cow herding, are distinguished by their patterned colors. The palomino is not a breed but a color type. Among the small horses are the Shetland pony and Welsh pony. The terms cow pony and polo pony refer to the animal's use rather than its size or breed. Although little used for work today, horses are widely owned for recreational riding and show activities.

Classification

Horses are classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Mammalia, order Perissodactyla, family Equidae.

Bibliography

See A. Hyland, Equus (1990); E. H. Edwards and C. Geddes, ed., The Complete Horse Book (1991); K. R. Ward, The American Horse (1991); J. Clutton-Brock, Horse Power (1992); J. Holderness-Roddam, The New Complete Book of the Horse (1992).

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horse

External features of a horse.

(credit: © Merriam-Webster Inc.)

Equine species (Equus caballus) long used by humans as a means of transport and as a draft animal. Its earliest ancestor was the dawn horse (see Eohippus). The only living horse not descended from the domestic horse is Przewalski's horse. The horse was apparently first domesticated by nomadic peoples of Central Asia in the 3rd millennium BC. For many centuries horses were primarily used in warfare. The saddle was introduced in China in the first centuries AD. Horses were reintroduced to the New World, after wild horses had become extinct there some 10,000 years earlier, by the Spanish in the 16th century. A mature male is called a stallion or, if used for breeding, a stud; mature females are called mares. A castrated stallion is called a gelding. Young horses (foals) are also known as colts (males) and fillies (females). A horse's height is measured in 4-in. (10.2-cm) units, or hands, from the highest point of the back (withers) to the ground. Breeds are classified by size and build: draft (heavy) horses (e.g., Belgian, Percheron) are heavy-limbed and up to 20 hands high; ponies (e.g., Shetland, Iceland) are less than 14.2 hands high; and light horses (e.g., Arabian, Thoroughbred) are intermediate, rarely taller than 17 hands.

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horse

symbol of agents of destruction. [Christian Tradition: N.T.: Revelation 6; Mercatante, 65]

See : Death

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horse

symbolizes fecundity. [Bengali Folklore: Binder, 67]

See : Fertility

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Horse

Al Borak

white horse Muhammad rode to the seven heavens. [Islam: Leach, 172]

Arion

fabulous winged horse; offspring of Demeter and Poseidon. [Gk. Myth.: Zimmerman, 31]

Arundel Bevis’s

incomparable steed. [Br. Lit.: Bevis of Hampton]

Assault

famous horse in history of thoroughbred racing. [Am. Hist.: NCE, 1273]

Balius

immortal steed of Achilles. [Gk. Myth.: Kravitz, 44]

Bavieca

the Cid’s horse. [Sp. Legend: Brewer Dictionary, 80]

Black Beauty

story of a horse has become a children’s classic. [Br. Lit.: Black Beauty, Payton, 80]

Black Bess

belonged to the notorious highwayman, Dick Turpin. [Br. Hist.: Benét, 103]

Bucephalus

wild steed, broken by Alexander to be his mount. [Gk. Hist.: Leach, 167]

centaur

beast that is half-horse, half-man. [Gk. Myth.: Mercatante, 201–202]

Citation

famous horse in history of thoroughbred racing. [Am. Hist.: NCE, 1273]

Clavileño

legendary wooden horse on which Don Quixote and Sancho Panza think they are taking a journey through the air. [Span. Lit.: Bella, 205]

Flicka

a paragon of horses. [TV: “My Friend Flicka” in Terrace, II, 125]

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The

ride white, red, black, and pale horses, symbolizing, respectively, invasion, civil strife, scarcity and famine, and pestilence and death. [N.T.: Revelation 6:1-8]

Gallant Fox

famous horse in history of thoroughbred racing. [Am. Hist.: NCE, 1273]

Gilpin, John

his borrowed horse carries him at a mad pace for miles to its owner’s home, then turns and runs back. [Br. Poetry: John Gilpin’s Ride]

Grane Brünnhilde’s

war horse, presented to Siegfried. [Ger. Opera: Wagner, Gotterdammerung, Westerman, 244]

Gringalet Gawain’s

steed. [Br. Lit.: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight]

Gunpowder

Ichabod Crane’s favorite steed. [Am. Lit.: Washington Irving “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”]

Hambletonian

famous trotting horse after which race for threeyear-old trotters is named. [Am. Culture; Mathews, 769]

Harum, David

would rather trade horses than eat or sleep. [Am. Lit.: David Harum in Magill I, 192]

Hippolytus, St.

patron saint of horses. [Christian Hagiog.: Brewster, 367]

Houyhnhnms

race of horses that represent nobility, virtue, and reason. [Br. Lit.: Gulliver ’s Travels]

Man

o’ War (“Big Red”) famous racehorse foaled at Belmont Stables. [Am. Hist.: Payton, 421]

Meg

(Maggie) Tam O’Shanter’s gray mare that lost her tail to the witch. [Scot. Poetry: Burns “Tam O’Shanter”]

Mr. Ed

the talking horse. [TV: Terrace, II, 116–117]

Native Dancer

famous horse in history of thoroughbred racing. [Am. Hist.: NCE, 1273]

Pegasus

winged mount of Bellerophon. [Gk. Myth.: Hall, 238]

roan stallion

tramples its owner to death and is shot by his wife, though she had been seduced by the stallion’s beauty. [Am. Poetry: Robinson Jeffers The Roan Stallion in Magill I, 835]

Rosinante

Don Quixote’s mount. [Span. Lit.: Don Quixote]

Scout

Tonto’s horse. [TV: “The Lone Ranger” in Terrace, II, 34; Radio: “The Lone Ranger” in Buxton, 143]

Seabiscuit

famous horse in history of thoroughbred racing. [Am. Hist.: NCE, 1273]

Seattle Slew

famous horse in history of thoroughbred racing. [Am. Hist.: NCE, 1273]

Secretariat

famous horse in history of thoroughbred racing. [Am. Hist.: NCE, 1273]

Shadowfax

great horse of the wizard Gandalf. [Br. Lit.: J. R. R. Tolkien Lord of the Rings]

Silver

the Lone Ranger’s trusty steed. [Radio: “The Lone Ranger” in Buxton, 143–144; TV: Terrace, II, 34–35]

Sleipnir

Odin’s eight-legged gray horse. [Norse Myth.: Benét, 937]

Tony

Tom Mix’s “Wonder Horse.” [Radio: “Tom Mix” in Buxton, 241–242]

Topper

Hopalong Cassidy’s faithful horse. [Cinema and TV: “Hopalong Cassidy” in Terrace, I, 369]

Trigger

Roy Roger’s horse. [TV: “The Roy Rogers Show” in Terrace, II, 260]

Whirlaway

famous horse in history of thoroughbred racing. [Am. Hist.: NCE, 1273]