Portal:Horses

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Portal topics
Activities
Culture
Geography
Health
History
Mathematics
Nature
People
Philosophy
Religion
Society
Technology
Random portal
edit 

The Horses Portal

Horse and foal

The horse (Equus ferus caballus) is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature, close to Eohippus, into the large, single-toed animal of today. Humans began domesticating horses around 4000 BCE, and their domestication is believed to have been widespread by 3000 BCE. Horses in the subspecies caballus are domesticated, although some domesticated populations live in the wild as feral horses. These feral populations are not true wild horses, which are horses that never have been domesticated and historically linked to the megafauna category of species. There is an extensive, specialized vocabulary used to describe equine-related concepts, covering everything from anatomy to life stages, size, colors, markings, breeds, locomotion, and behavior.

Horses are adapted to run, allowing them to quickly escape predators, and possess a good sense of balance and a strong fight-or-flight response. Related to this need to flee from predators in the wild is an unusual trait: horses are able to sleep both standing up and lying down, with younger horses tending to sleep significantly more than adults. Female horses, called mares, carry their young for approximately 11 months and a young horse, called a foal, can stand and run shortly following birth. Most domesticated horses begin training under a saddle or in a harness between the ages of two and four. They reach full adult development by age five, and have an average lifespan of between 25 and 30 years.

Horse breeds are loosely divided into three categories based on general temperament: spirited "hot bloods" with speed and endurance; "cold bloods", such as draft horses and some ponies, suitable for slow, heavy work; and "warmbloods", developed from crosses between hot bloods and cold bloods, often focusing on creating breeds for specific riding purposes, particularly in Europe. There are more than 300 breeds of horse in the world today, developed for many different uses. (Full article...)

Selected article - show another

Entries here consist of Good and Featured articles, which meet a core set of high editorial standards.
Emerson "Bud" Dunn (May 15, 1918 – January 11, 2001) was a Tennessee Walking Horse trainer from Kentucky who spent most of his career in northern Alabama. He trained horses for over forty years and won his first Tennessee Walking Horse World Grand Championship at age 74 with Dark Spirit's Rebel; at the time, he was the oldest rider to win the honor. He was inducted into the Tennessee Walking Horse Hall of Fame in 1987 and named trainer of the year in 1980 and 1991. In 1999 at age 81, Dunn surpassed his own record for the oldest winning rider by winning his second World Grand Championship, riding RPM. He died of a heart attack in January 2001. (Full article...)
edit 

Selected image

Credit: User:Richard Bartz

Horses are able to sleep both standing up and lying down. Horses sleep better when in groups because some animals will sleep while others stand guard to watch for predators. A horse kept alone will not sleep well because its instincts are to keep a constant eye out for danger.

Gallery
edit 

Latest updates

Article alerts for WikiProject Equine

Articles for deletion

Redirects for discussion

Articles to be merged

Updated daily by bot
edit 

More did you know?

edit 

Related portals

Selected breed - show another

Entries here consist of Good and Featured articles, which meet a core set of high editorial standards.
Brumbies near the Sandover Highway in the Northern Territory, 2006

A brumby is a free-roaming feral horse in Australia. Although found in many areas around the country, the best-known brumbies are found in the Australian Alps region. Today, most of them are found in the Northern Territory, with the second largest population in Queensland. A group of brumbies is known as a "mob" or "band".

Brumbies are the descendants of escaped or lost horses, dating back in some cases to those belonging to the early European settlers. Today they live in many places, including some National Parks, notably Alpine National Park in Victoria, Barrington Tops National Park and Kosciuszko National Park in NSW, and Carnarvon National Park in Queensland. Occasionally they are mustered and domesticated for use as campdrafters, working stock horses on farms or stations, but also as trail horses, show horses, Pony Club mounts and pleasure horses. They are the subject of some controversy – regarded as a pest and threat to native ecosystems by environmentalists and the government, but also valued by others as part of Australia's heritage, with supporters working to prevent inhumane treatment or extermination, and rehoming brumbies who have been captured. (Full article...)

Did you know (auto-generated)

General images

The following are images from various horse-related articles on Wikipedia.
edit 

Topics

edit 

Subcategories

Category puzzle
Category puzzle
Select [►] to view subcategories
Horses
Horses by country
Horse behavior
Horse breeds
Horse coat colors
Equine genetics
Equine therapies
Equine welfare
Horse history and evolution
Horse gaits
Horse health
Horses and humans
Individual horses
Lists of horses
Ponies
Horse subspecies
Types of horse
Horse stubs

New articles

This list was generated from these rules. Questions and feedback are always welcome! The search is being run daily with the most recent ~14 days of results. Note: Some articles may not be relevant to this project.

Rules | Match log | Results page (for watching) | Last updated: 2024-05-10 20:15 (UTC)

Note: The list display can now be customized by each user. See List display personalization for details.

edit 

WikiProjects

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

Discover Wikipedia using portals
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Portal:Horses&oldid=1142107224"