Its not just the Arabian look and attitude that sets it apart from other horses...
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Doesn't have to be mini specific as long as its equine :)
 
~ While most horse breeds have 18 ribs - arabians have only 17.
~ Most horses have 6 lumbar bones, arabs have 5.
~ Most horses have 18 tail vertebra, arabs have 16.
 

Horses make 8 basic sounds:
 
  • snort, 
  • squeal,
  • greeting nicker,
  • courtship nicker,
  • maternal nicker,
  • neigh,
  • roar,
  • blow.

Newborn foal's legs are already 90% of the length they will be when full grown.

Worlds tallest horse???
 
unoffically: a Shire gelding named Samson, bred by Thomas Cleaver of Toddington Mills, England. Foaled in 1846, this horse measured 21.2 1/2 hand high in 1850, and weighed 3,360 pounds.

officially: the world record goes to: Purebred Belgian stallion by the name of Brooklyn Supreme. He stood 19.2 hands (6'6") at his withers.
He weighed over 3,200 pounds and is entered in the Guinness Book of World Records. He was foaled in 1928 and died in 1948. "Brookie" wore a 40-inch collar and boasted a girth measurement of 10 feet, 2 inches around. It took 30 inches of iron for each of his horseshoes.
 

Scientific Classification of the Horse:
 
  • Kingdom: Animalia
  • Phylum: Chordata
  • Subphylum: Vertebrata
  • Class: Mammalia
  • Subclass: Theria
  • Infraclass:Eutheria
  • Order:Perissodactyla
  • Family: Equidae

A spot of luck...
 
  • We all know that Horseshoes are supposed to be lucky, but did you know that the luckiest horse shoe of all is one off the hind leg of a gray mare?
  • If you hang a horseshoe upside down, the luck runs out.Gray horses are supposed to be lucky, while piebalds are unlucky.
  • According to superstition in Lincolnshire, England, if you see a white dog, you should stay silent until you see a white horse.

Horses like classical music.
A pair of Draught Horses, believed to be Shires, pulled the HEAVIEST LOAD of 55 tonnes in 1893.
   

ALL TBs originate from 3 Arabian stallions... 
 
The history of the Thoroughbred began in about 1700 in England, with the importation of the three great Arabian stallions who would form the foundation for the breed.   
These horses would become the cornerstone of  the English Thoroughbred, and the ancestors of the American Thoroughbred. They were:
  • the Byerley Turk,
  • the Godolphin Arabian and
  • the Darley Arabian.

With the establishment of the American Stud Book, it was determined that every thoroughbred in America traces to either the Byerley Turk son, KING HEROD; the Godolphin son,  MATCHEN; or the Darley Arabian son,  ECLIPSE.

Heres an interesting little tidbit - from DNA tests it has been found that 95% of the Y chromosomes (females) in TBs are a result of the Darley Arabian...
 

Horses can sleep standing up... 
 
because of a remarkable stay apparatus in their patella or kneecap.

A hook situated on the inside and bottom end of the thigh bone, on its hind leg, cups the patella and the medial patella ligament, so preventing the leg from bending.
 

Why  do we always mount from the nearside of a horse?
 
Well, in olden days men used to wear scabbards for their swords on their left hip (so they could draw  the  sword quickly with their right hand.  If they had got on from the other side of the horse the sword would have got in the way!    
Because  of the position of horse's eyes on either side of their head they cannot see objects directly in front of their noses.  
This means they cannot see the food that they eat!  It also means that they cannot see a jump once they are about a 110 cm (or 4 feet) from it, and have to rely on memory as to its height and shape!

Przewalski's horse facts...
 
The Przewalski's horse is extinct in the wild.
These horses once lived in western Mongolia and northern China. Programs in Asia have reintroduced horses into Mongolia.

Przewalski's horses have 66 chromosomes, two more than domestic horses.

The Mongolian name for these horses is "takhi," which means "spirit". Horses are central to Mongolian culture, and takhi are a symbol of their national heritage.

Przewalski's horses' relationship to domestic horses is up for debate, some mammalogists believe that Przewalski's horses are a separate species from domestic horses (E. caballus), and use the name E. ferus przewalskii. Others think Pzewalski's horses should be classified as a subspecies of the domestic horse, and dub them E. caballus przewalskii. Scientists are now attempting to determine whether takhi and domestic horses descended from a single common ancestor, and their findings may one day tip the scales in favour of one scientific name over another.
 
Horses cannot vomit. This means that whatever a horse eats - whether it be oats, molasses, moldy hay, or rusty nails - it must go all the way through his digestive system. This inability to vomit is the most common reason colic is a big problem with horses.
How many years can a horse live?

- Unproven
in 1970 there was a Welsh Pony, in Gower Peninsula, South Wales, and they say he was 66 years old.

- Proven
The oldest recorded horse was "Old Billy," an English barge horse, who lived to be 62 years old.

54 year old pony... In 1919 there was living in Central French a Pony stallion, 54 years old. This was documented.

53 year old horse... In 1969 on November 1st, in a farm near Danville, Missouri (USA),
"Nellie", a mare that they say born in March 1916, died from a heart attack.

52 year old horse... In 1970 on January 25th, in Albury, New South Wales (Australia),
"Monty" died, a draft horse, 5 foot 8 inches high, that belonged to Mrs. Marjorie Cooper. Monty was born in 1917 at Wodonga, New South Wales (Australia). His jaws are kept by the Veterinary Science Institute at Melbourne University.

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