Jenny Kellett - Horse Books: The Ultimate Horse Book for Kids

The Ultimate Horse Book

for Kids

100+ Horse & Pony Facts, Photos, and Quiz

Jenny Kellett

Introduction

I ts hard not to love horses! But how much do you really know about your favourite hooved friend?

In this book, you will learn over 100 amazing new things about horses and ponies from the elegant Arab to the shaggy Shetland. And then youll have a chance to test your newfound knowledge! Youll be a horse expert in no time.

Are you ready? Lets go!

Amazing Horse Facts

Horses can sleep lying down or standing up!

Horses can see nearly 360 thanks to the position of their eyes on the side of their heads.

Horses have the largest eyes in relation to their heads of all land animals.

Horses can run soon after being born.

There are lots of names for horses! A female horse is a mare; a male horse is a stallion; a young male horse is called a colt, and a young female horse is a filly.

Horses are herbivores, meaning they only eat plants.

Horses have been used by humans for over 5000 years.

A horse has around 205 bones in its body. Thats one less than in the human body.

Horses often make a facial expression that looks like theyre smiling or laughing, but actually, they move their mouths this way to help them smell better.

There are around 60 million horses in the world.

Although some people think that horses are colourblind, they are not. However, they can see yellows and greens better than purples and violets.

Horse hooves are made from the same protein that human hair and fingernails are made from.

A working Shire horse

When a horse gallops, all four hooves are off the ground, meaning theyre almost floating!

There are over 300 different breeds of horses.

The oldest breed of horse is the Arab.

Horses have great memories. Some scientists say that its even better than an elephant.

How tall is that horse? When measuring a horse, you do it in hands rather than feet. One hand is 4 inches. Horses that are under 14.2 hands in height are ponies.

Horses are famous for their large teeth! In fact, their teeth take up more space in their heads than their brains do.

Male and female horses have different amounts of teeth. Male horses have 40 teeth, while females have only 36.

The average lifespan of a domestic horse is around 25 years; however, in the 19th century, a horse called Old Billy is said to have lived to the ripe old age of 62! In more recent times, Sugar Puff lived to 56 and died in 2007.

A young foal in Serbia.

There is only one genuinely wild breed of horse in the world: the Przewalskis horse. The only wild population lives in Mongolia.