ZoOLogy > What Do You Know About Horses?

ANSWER: rhinoceros

Horses belong to a group of mammals with an odd number of toes. That rules out mammals with two toes, or "cloven hooves," like cows and antelopes. Rhinoceroses and tapirs, which also have odd numbers of toes, are the closest living relatives to horses.

ANSWER: small dog

Dog-sized Hyracotherium lived about 55 million years ago. This mammal was one of the earliest members of the horse family, Equidae. Horse species generally became larger over millions of years of evolution.

ANSWER: humans ate horses

Fossils and artifacts from Ice Age Europe show that long before humans rode horses or used them as helpers, they hunted wild horses for food.

ANSWER: Spanish invaders brought horses to the continent in the 1500s

For millions of years, the majority of horses evolved in North America. From there, they occasionally walked to other continents. But about 10,000 years ago, horses went extinct in North America because of environmental change, disease, and overhunting by early humans. In the 1500s, Spanish soldiers invaded the Americas on horseback, bringing the animals back to the land of their origins.

ANSWER: hipposandals

"Hipposandals" were horseshoes used in the Roman empire. Made of metal and leather, they were strapped on like sandals. "Hippos" is the Greek word for horse.

ANSWER: horses will naturally follow a group leader

In the wild, horses live in groups with clear followers and leaders. When humans use ropes or fences to control where horses move, they are showing the animals "who's boss."

ANSWER: the Przewalski horses of Mongolia

There are some groups of horses, like American mustangs and the Assateague ponies, that roam freely. But they are actually feral horses—they descended from tamed horses that escaped their owners. The only truly wild horses live in plains and deserts of Mongolia . They have never been domesticated by humans.

ANSWER: telegraph

From 1860-1861, the Pony Express helped deliver letters across the country in just ten days. It went out of business a few days after the first telegraph began sending messages coast to coast in an instant.

ANSWER: breeds of horses

The over 200 breeds of horses living today vary in shape, size, color, and other traits. All horses belong to the same species, Equus caballus.