General Horses Info

Horse info provides some interesting facts about horses in general. Horses being herd animals are known to follow their herd leader for food and safety. This capability of a horse allows a human rider to act like a herd leader and make the horse learn and follow instructions. It takes a good amount of training with proper positive and negative inducements to make a horse compliant and easy to ride.

Since ancient times horse has always been a domestic animal. Being of domestic help, the training methods also date back to ancient times. This applies to horse breeding as well.

A herd of horses consists of a number of female horses (mares) and immature horses with just a few males (stallions.) The leader mare is called alpha mare.

Horse Gaits

In general, a horse can walk with four different types of gaits: walk, trot, canter, and gallop.

A horse walk is very simple. He flags on one of his four legs in the air at any give time. Horses are trained to walk on subtle cues like squeezing the sides or releasing and pulling up the reins.

A horse trot or jog results when his foreleg and the opposite hind leg simultaneously touch the ground. There are different ways a horse might trot. Example: sitting or a posting trot.

Canter or lope is a three beat gait in which his foreleg and the opposite hind leg simultaneously hit the ground, but the other two legs work in isolation with each other.

A galloping horse uses two paired legs to propel itself with full speed. Example: the way a horse runs in races.

Thoroughbred Horses

The thoroughbred horse breed came into existence in the 18th century in England. It was the time when mares were crossbred with imported Arabian stallions. The breed that came into existence with this experiment is well known for its distance running abilities and used in races.

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Jason J Mathews is a freelance journalist. Jason writes for http://www.horses-directory.com/, offering the latest information on horse riding. Visit today: http://www.horses-directory.com/ for more information.