Upon the completion of my three-part chicken series, as absurd as that sounds, I found myself considering what other sorts of critters I could dedicate a post to. I’ve covered a number of creatures at this point, but I was a little disappointed with myself when I realized I hadn’t yet offered up the tremendous spotlight and reach (yes, that is sarcasm) of my blog to the topic of horses.
Horses and horseback riding were central components of my childhood. My parents were kind and generous enough to introduce both my older sister and me to the equestrian realm, with my sister taking up Western riding, and me, English. We have both been out of the circuit for a long while, although my sister rode for many years.
Horses are incredible animals, and I encourage you to learn more about them via the following information from spca.bc.ca.
“1. Horses can’t breathe through their mouth. Horses are obligate nasal breathers. This means that they are unable to breathe through their mouth as humans can. Horses can only breathe through their nose.
“2. Horses can sleep standing up. Horses have a ‘stay-apparatus’ which is a system of tendons and ligaments that allows the horse to lock their legs in position so they can relax without falling over. When not sleeping, horses also use this apparatus to rest while standing for long periods of time. This allows them to conserve energy while standing so they are ready to take flight if needed. It is a myth that horses never lay down – they do spend a short amount of time each day laying down for deeper sleep. On average, horses sleep two and a half hours per day.
“3. Horses have excellent hearing. As a prey animal, horses need to have sensitive hearing to survive. Humans have only three muscles to control their ears, whereas horses have 10! This allows horses to rotate their ears nearly 180 degrees and move them independently of one another. Being able to rotate their ears lets horses hear sounds all around them without having to turn their head,” the web page states.
Check back tomorrow for part two.
Photo by Helena Lopes on Unsplash
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