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Post by Pocono Pariah on Apr 12, 2013 12:14:24 GMT -5
Wild horses live year round in bands composed of many family members. One stallion leads a band of mares and provides it with protection. He is usually more than 6 years old and has established his dominance though numerous battles with other stallions. The stallion breeds with the mares in his band to establish his bloodline through the foals.
Mares: The band usually has a dominate mare who leads the group to select grazing land, water and shelter. When viewing a herd of wild horses in motion, the dominate female will usually be leading the group. The stallion often brings up the rear to provide protection from predatory attack. Most mares drive their female offspring away when they reach their first estrus to avoid inbreeding in the group. The young females join a new band led by another stallion, which helps ensure genetic diversity and maintain the health of the horses. Stallions rarely breed with their own offspring, even if females are allowed to remain in the group.
Stallions: Lead stallions generally allow immature males to remain within the band until they reach approximately two or three years old, at which point they are driven away. A young stallion driven from the herd will usually join a group of bachelor stallions until he can establish his own band. The adolescent bachelor stallions spend their time fighting with each other to learn combat skills, and roaming around looking for unattached mares to claim. Also young stallions occasionally manage to breed with mares in an established band behind the lead stallion's back, according to the Journal of Animal Science. Young males may challenge an older dominate stallion in an attempt to steal his entire band, or they may focus on one female only and to try to entice her away from the group.
Breeding: A mare will usually allow a knowledgeable stallion to mount her at approximately 2 or 3 years old. Wild horses can breed year round but the prime breeding season occurs from April to May. During estrus the mare will exhibit loving behavior towards the stallion by nuzzling or licking him. She may also stand in front of the stallion and raise her tail in invitation. The stallion will raise his head, sniff the air and often curl his upper lip back as he gauges her estrus. The libido of the stallion differs between individual males. Some males have an exceptionally high sex drive and others appear uninterested in mating excessively, according to the Oregon State University.
Foals : The mare's gestation period averages 340 days after breeding. Foals often perish during their first year of life. Mortality in first year foals can average 40 to 50 percent depending on the region the wild horse herd inhabits. The Mojave Desert Gazette states that in areas with ample grazing land a band of 100 females will average approximately 40 foals in a season but in depleted areas a band of 100 mares may only produce 20 foals.
Breeding Season: April, and May, sometimes june.
Season of dropping Foals: Early March to late May.
This information has been provided by: www.ehow.com/info_8489722_wild-horses-mating-habits.html
Note:
Humans began to domesticate horses around 4000 BC, and their domestication is believed to have been widespread by 3000 BC.
There are over 300 breeds of horses in the world today, developed for many different uses.
You can pick your breed here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_horse_breeds
The information provided below has been referenced/reworded from Wiki.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse
Body Types, Colors Width, Height and Breeds:
Horses have the largest eyes of any land mammal, and are lateral-eyed, meaning that their eyes are positioned on the sides of their heads. Horses have excellent day and night vision, but they have two-color, or dichromatic vision; their color vision is somewhat like red-green color blindness in humans, where certain colors, especially red and related colors, appear as a shade of green.
The height of horses is measured at the highest point of the withers, where the neck meets the back.
The English-speaking world measures the height of horses in hands and inches. One hand is equal to 4 inches (101.6 mm).
The largest horse in recorded history was probably a Shire horse named Mammoth, who was born in 1848. He stood 21.2½ hands high (86.5 in/220 cm), and his peak weight was estimated at 1,500 kilograms (3,300 lb).
The current record holder for the world's smallest horse is Thumbelina, a fully mature miniature horse affected by dwarfism.
She is 17 inches (43 cm) tall and weighs 57 pounds (26 kg).
The general rule for height distinguishing between a horse and a pony at maturity is 14.2 hands (58 inches, 147 cm).
An animal 14.2 h or over is usually considered to be a horse and one less than 14.2 h a pony
Horse colors and markings can be found here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equine_coat_color .
Note: Horses which have a white coat color are often mislabeled; a horse that looks "white" is usually a middle-aged or older gray. Grays are born a darker shade, get lighter as they age, and usually have black skin underneath their white hair coat (with the exception of pink skin under white markings). The only horses properly called white are born with a white hair coat and have predominantly pink skin, a fairly rare occurrence. Different and unrelated genetic factors can produce white coat colors in horses, including several different alleles of dominant white and the sabino-1 gene. However, there are no "albino" horses, defined as having both pink skin and red eyes.
Blood and Age:
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.
It is uncommon, but a few animals live into their 40s and, occasionally, beyond. They reach full adult development by age five, and have an average lifespan of between 25 and 30 years. The oldest verifiable record was "Old Billy", a 19th-century horse that lived to the age of 62. In modern times, Sugar Puff, who had been listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's oldest living pony, died in 2007 at age 56.
Regardless of a horse's actual birth date, for most competition purposes an animal is considered a year older on January 1 of each year in the northern hemisphere and August 1 in the southern hemisphere.
Horse Titles:
Foal: a horse of either sex less than one year old. A nursing foal is sometimes called a suckling and a foal that has been weaned is called a weanling. Most domesticated foals are weaned at 5 to 7 months of age, although foals can be weaned at 4 months with no adverse physical effects.
Yearling: a horse of either sex that is between one and two years old.
Colt: a male horse under the age of four.
Filly: a female horse under the age of four.
Mare: a female horse four years old and older.
Stallion: a non-castrated male horse four years old and older.
Gelding: a castrated male horse of any age.
Breeding, Reproduction:
Gestation lasts for approximately 335–340 days and usually results in one foal. Twins are rare.
Horses are a precocial species, and foals are capable of standing and running within a short time following birth.
Horses four years old are considered mature, although the skeleton normally continues to develop until the age of six; maturation also depends on the horse's size, breed, sex, and quality of care.
Body Language:
All horses move naturally with four basic gaits:
The four-beat walk, which averages 6.4 kilometres per hour (4.0 mph)
The two-beat trot or jog at 13 to 19 kilometres per hour (8.1 to 12 mph) (faster for harness racing horses)
The canter or lope, a three-beat gait that is 19 to 24 kilometres per hour (12 to 15 mph); and the gallop.
The gallop averages 40 to 48 kilometres per hour (25 to 30 mph), but the world record for a horse galloping over a short, sprint distance is 88 kilometres per hour (55 mph).
Note: Besides these basic gaits, some horses perform a two-beat pace, instead of the trot. There also are several four-beat "ambling" gaits that are approximately the speed of a trot or pace, though smoother to ride. These include the lateral rack, running walk, and tölt as well as the diagonal fox trot. Ambling gaits are often genetic in some breeds, known collectively as gaited horses. Often, gaited horses replace the trot with one of the ambling gaits.
Horses are prey animals with a strong fight-or-flight response.
Their first reaction to threat is to startle and usually flee, although they will stand their ground and defend themselves when flight is not possible or if their young are threatened.
Horses are herd animals, with a clear hierarchy of rank, led by a dominant individual, usually a mare. They are also social creatures who are able to form companionship attachments to their own species and to other animals, including humans. They communicate in various ways, including vocalizations such as nickering or whinnying, mutual grooming, and body language.
NOTE: In an adaptation from life in the wild, horses are able to enter light sleep by using a "stay apparatus" in their legs, allowing them to doze without collapsing. Total sleep time in a 24-hour period may range from several minutes to a couple of hours, mostly in short intervals of about 15 minutes each. The average sleep time in a 24-hour period of a domestic horse is said to be 2.9 hours. Horses must lie down to reach REM sleep. They only have to lie down for an hour or two every few days to meet their minimum REM sleep requirements. Meaning? Don't rp your horse over sleeping or lying down a lot!
A truly wild horse is a species or subspecies with no ancestors that were ever domesticated. Therefore, most "wild" horses today are actually feral horses, animals that escaped or were turned loose from domestic herds and the descendants of those animals. Only two never-domesticated subspecies, the Tarpan and the Przewalski's Horse, survived into recorded history.
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