New and weird things you learn about horses

Gusbear

Gusbear

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I feel like a bit of a numpty.
A couple of days ago I found out something and thought, how on earth did I not know that after owning 5 horses in 30 odd years.
Dare I admit it but I had no idea that horses have tear ducts in their nostrils. :confused: Never noticed them before. How on earth did I not know they were there? Does this make me a bad owner? :(. Do I need to be re-educated in the finer points of horse biology? What other mysteries are out there waiting for me to haplessly discover?
Pointless post but hoping others out there are brave enough to own up to learning about basic things that it seems every other horse owner already seems to know.
Going now to sit in the stupid corner to be ridiculed and punished for my gaping lack of equine knowledge.
 
Do you know that the skeleton of the front legs is not joined to the rest of the skeleton by any joints, just by soft tissue?

That horses have no muscles below their knees and hocks, all the movement is done by leverage and pulleys?

That the nerve for the left hand side of the larynx leaves the brain, travels all the way down the neck loops around the heart and goes all the way back up the neck again to the throat?

I was fascinated by those when I found them out.


ps I never knew about the tear ducts!
 
Horses do not have a gall bladder. They therefore cannot produce large amount of bile (used to emulsify and digest fats) quickly and therefore should not be fed more than a small mug full of oil in one go.

P.s all animals tear ducts open out into their nostrils. That's why your nose runs when you cry.
 
I only knew the second thing cptrayes said, all the rest is new, must... retain... information...

I used to know a lot of that kind of thing when I read endless horse books as a young girl, alas some of it has had to be replaced by things such as what do the symbols on the washing machine mean? Why is the boiler flashing lights again? What type of bank account will generate the best interest? You know all that stupid stuff you'd really rather replace with horse facts!
 
Oh, praise the heavens! I'm not alone. Never knew about all the other bits either as per your posts, except for the no muscles, etc below the knees and hocks (and only found out about that after watching the horse one of Inside Natures Giants!). Great and fascinating programme, if a little gory for my fragile self.
Looking forward to more posts so I can learn heaps and no longer feel like the special kid at school!
Bring on the info overload. I'm here to learn!!!
 
The anatomy and physiology of horses is fascinating when you really start to pull them apart.

In my first year at uni we did a leg dissection, and it was really strange but interesting way to learn. Their tendons and ligaments are actually really tough, so the forces exerted on them to damage them is huge. Heavy duty scissors and a scalpel struggled to get through the DDFT.. Also dissected a head and brain, that was a bit more stomach churning...

Did you know...
Not all of the horses ribs are attached to bone, some are in place by soft tissue and the intercostal muscles.

There are 16 muscles in each ear.

There are seven different common types of horse blood.
 
Kallibear said:
Horses do not have a gall bladder. They therefore cannot produce large amount of bile (used to emulsify and digest fats) quickly and therefore should not be fed more than a small mug full of oil in one go.

P.s all animals tear ducts open out into their nostrils. That's why your nose runs when you cry.
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Actually bile is produced from the horse's liver which secretes around 10 litres a day! ;)

I didnt know wbout the tear ducts. That might explain why their noses run if they suffer choke.
 
Yes, bile is produced by the liver (I can give you the chemical pathway and how it can go wrong to if you like) That's why the gall bladder (where it collects and stores in most animals) is in the liver. In horses it trickles out constantly but since they have no storage they cannot release larger volumes of it if given a fatty or oily meal.
 
I knew about the tear ducts. Because we got a vet out to the pony when we thought there was something seriously wrong with him. Yep, that's completely normal, all horses have them, that'll be £45 call out please! Numpty alert!
 
cptrayes said:
That the nerve for the left hand side of the larynx leaves the brain, travels all the way down the neck loops around the heart and goes all the way back up the neck again to the throat?

I was fascinated by those when I found them out.


ps I never knew about the tear ducts!
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1stclassalan said:
I think mine must be too - my old mare had my heart in my mouth a few times!
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Is that the recurrent laryngeal... if it is it is very similar to use Alan :)

Fascinating stuff what fascinates me is how different we are to our equine friends and yet on an anatomical level somethings are very similar.
 
mandwhy said:
I only knew the second thing cptrayes said, all the rest is new, must... retain... information...

I used to know a lot of that kind of thing when I read endless horse books as a young girl, alas some of it has had to be replaced by things such as what do the symbols on the washing machine mean? Why is the boiler flashing lights again? What type of bank account will generate the best interest? You know all that stupid stuff you'd really rather replace with horse facts!
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Oh how I relate to that! Unfortunately, with me it's down mostly to age I think - my mind is still quite active and I seem to be able to relate and keep up with my young staff but it is with considerable stress in the recall department - I'm often sitting in front of Uni Challenge or Mastermind with a smug smile on me face, inwardly saying "oh, that's simple" but can I remember it??? The hell I can - I just see a blinking message on the inside of my eyes - CAUTION DEFECTS DETECTED - SEARCHING DAMAGED AREAS.
 
Cloball said:
Is that the recurrent laryngeal... if it is it is very similar to use Alan :)
Click to expand...

Haha!

Fascinating stuff what fascinates me is how different we are to our equine friends and yet on an anatomical level somethings are very similar.
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Well, you could go on with that one till long passed bringing-in time. There's often a big debate going on here in FirstClassIndustries - you know the normal sort of teabreak stuff - nuclear physics or existentialism - and the general concensus is - we are all aliens!

There's a couple of young chaps over here that truly believe that the Royal Family are lizards and the entire world is in the grips of the Illuminatii - so my case rests!

Physics and chemistry are marvels - then one discovers biology and you enter dimensions beyond one's comprehension - I love to conjure a picture of a virus landing on some cells like a space ship - only not one manmade but a fabulous construction that has continually evolving exterior compounds which detect the defence mechanisms of the cells it's about to attack and thereby over come them - and most of it is fact!

You might know that fungii operate similarly and when landing on a leaf will grow a probing filament that searches for a natural opening and then enters it and follows the respiratory fractions of the leaf that will eventually infect the whole plant - does the plant "feel" that? Are there any newshounds down at that level to ask "how do you feel"?
 
I love this thread :)

It's the herd instinct that fascinates me. How they can go from being scattered three sheets to the wind to coming together as one when something startles them, moving and thinking as one, like borg. The fact that they even let us into their world is amazing really.
 
My TB taught me that a horse can literally cut it's leg open on thin air. Not even joking!

At uni I was told that horses can't burp, I found that fascinating but since then I've heard people say their horse DOES burp, so now I feel I've been lied to :(
 
They don't have a collar bone, which is how they can do extended trot ;)

Arabs have 17 pairs of ribs, as opposed to 18 in all other breeds. This is why the rib cage is wider and more barrel shaped, to leave room for extra heart and lung expansion... hence why they are so good at endurance.

When a horse smells something it likes and pulls that face where it curls it's top lip back it is called flehmen. What they are doing is trapping the smell in their nostril so the 'smell analysing' gland can have a good analyse!!


One I was told when I was younger was that every horse has one front leg shorter than the other, and the mane always falls to the shorter side.... not entirely convinced on this one... anyone like to confirm? :p
 
heebiejeebies said:
Arabs have 17 pairs of ribs, as opposed to 18 in all other breeds. This is why the rib cage is wider and more barrel shaped, to leave room for extra heart and lung expansion...
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That's how is works out but it's untrue to say "that is why" - the real reason is - somewhere in the breeding of the Arab a gene or coding for the 18th pair of ribs was dropped or mutated into insignificance. There is conscious design in any animal - otherwise we'd be born without an appendix and horses wouldn't get colic or sick through eating grass!

when a horse smells something it likes and pulls that face where it curls it's top lip back...........
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Oh ho ho - I learned not to turn my back on my mare when she did that near me! I think she was hoping for rather more than I can offer.............
 
From doing the first week of an online equine nutrition course I have only just learned that horses can't salivate without chewing action. I had never thought about it before (ashamed to admit) and assumed they could salivate purely in expectation of food like us and dogs for eg. It seems pressure/physical stimulation has to be applied to the glands in horses.
 
I was sort of ignorant about the no muscles in the lower leg thing too - well, it was one of those things that's obvious when it's pointed out to you.

I only found out about the ergot in the past five years. I've never had a horse who grew long ergots, and I thought there was something wrong with my friend's pony when I found his ergot when I picked his feet up to pick them out.

I also only learned last year about foals' hairy feet - imagine how I'd have felt if I had a mare foal on me without knowing that little nugget!
 
That is a good point amandap - it is why I don't like the stop a horse cribbing. If they are doing it to produce saliva then I don't see that that would be a bad thing, especially when eating, it wouldn't be very nice not to produce enough saliva to swallow comfortably!

A horse's teeth take up more space in its head than its brain :-)

The names Phillip and Philippa mean 'lover of horses'
 
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