| Did You Know? |
| Most breeds can have 'paint' like patterns without actually being bred to a Paint horse? These patterns include, bird cactcher spots, overo, tobiano, rabicano, sabino, bendor spots, etc. Some of these breeds include Thoroughbreds, Arabians and Clydesdales. Fell ponies are NOT directly related to Friesians nor are they 'miniature Friesians'. It is thought that around 2000 years ago, Romans brought mercenaries to help guard the walls which seperated Scotland and England. When these mercenaries left, they also left behind their mounts. Some of these stallions may have been Friesian horses. It is then believed that these horses mated with the native ponies developing some of the British pony breeds including the Fell pony. Arabians have one less rib, one less lumbar bone, and one or two fewer tail vertebrae than the other horse breeds. All horses' birthdays are on January 1st. The world record for log pulling was set in 1893. Two Clydesdale stallions hauled a sledge stacked with timber weighing 128 tonnes. The equivalent of pulling 22 African elephants. There are over 350 different breeds of horses and ponies. A homozygous grey horse (two grey genes) will always foal grey (even if the colour can not be truly seen until the horse is older). Same goes with homozygous chestnuts, bays and blacks. The world speed record for a horse is 43.2 mph, it was set by a four year old race horse named Big Racket. The only horse to defeat the great Man'O War was named Upset. The Britsh racehorse Humorist, who won the English derby in the early 20's, should have never been able to race. When he died shortly after the derby, an autopsy was made, and it was found out that he had been born with only one lung. There is no such thing as a white horse. They are called grey horses because they have little black and white hairs that combine to make them look white. A horse that looks white without any black what-so-ever is usually an extreme case of sabino. A foal's colour that is born white is called "lethal white" because it is usually dead when foaled. These foals are born without fully developed intestines. Cross country jumps are marked with a red flag on the right side and white flag on the left side. Horses must jump through these flags or else it is considered out of bounds and you will be disqualified. Arabian horses are known for their beauty, stamina, and strength. They are the oldest purebred breed of horses in the world, and no other horse has had such a great influence on so many other breeds. King Solomon housed over forty THOUSAND Arabians. Clydesdales can only be black, chestnut (sorrel), and bay. Even if a Clydesdale appears to be white, grey or roan, that is not the case. Most, if not all, Clydesdales carry the sabino gene. A white, grey or roan Clydesdale will only be the result of the sabino gene and possibly the rabicano gene, but the base colours will never be any of the three. The Clydesdale breed was made famous by Anheuser-Busch and is now a widely recognized symbol of the company. Clydesdales are not Shires even though they are both draft or 'heavey' horses; they are a completely different breed altogether. Fell ponies are not always black. They can be bay, brown or grey as well. Historians believe that they used to carry the cream and dun genes and could come in buckskin, dun, palomino, cremello, perlino and roan, but the colours seem to have vanished throughout the years with selective breeding. |