Horses may seem like simple herbivores, but here are a few things that you might not have known about these animals:

Horse lovers pay 732 million a year on their hobby every year in tuition. With over 1,790 livery yards and riding schools, there’s no wonder horse riders are clocking up 35 million paid riding lessons per year.

The horses of Australia are not native to their land. Australia never had horses until 1788 with the arrival of the first fleet of British and Irish settlers. The Australian “Brumby” came about through these tame horses escaping and becoming feral and not a truly “wild” breed of horse.

Horses sleep standing up. They lock their legs into place and are able to lightly sleep upright. Horses will sleep laying down for around 45 minutes a day and experience REM sleep, this is important because without REM sleep horses can become sleep deprived.

Horses and ponies are able to survive harsher climates than what they are built to survive with modern horse rugs and blankets. They do not feel the harsh drops in temperature, even if they are clipped or have thin coats.

Horses are believed to have evolved from dog-like creatures called Hyracotherium. They are related in evolutionary terms to the tapir. Horses were believed to once have had toes, the remnants of which are the splint bones.

It is dangerous to overfeed a horse because their stomachs are only the size of a rugby ball. This is small compared to their overall body size. The main reason being that if a horse is overfed it can’t be sick. There is a ring of muscle at the top of the stomach called the cardiac sphincter that stops anything passing back up the oesophagus.

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