Horse (Equus ferus caballus) ,Quotes, Image,

Hello Friends Today we are talk about on Horse in Nature(Forest).

The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus. It is an odd-toed ungulate mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae.

Scientific name: Equus caballus

Higher classification: Equus

Family: Equidae

Kingdom: Animalia

Class: Mammalia

Lifespan: 25 – 30 years

History

The horse has been present in the Indian subcontinent from at least the middle of the second millennium BC,more than two millennia after its domestication in Central Asia. The earliest uncontroversial evidence of horse remains on the Indian Subcontinent date to the early Swat culture (around 1600 BCE).

Ashva (a Sanskrit word for a horse) is one of the significant animals finding references in several Hindu scriptures.

In later periods, the difficulty of breeding large numbers of horses in the Indian climate meant they needed to be imported in large numbers, usually from Central Asia, but also elsewhere.

Forest Horse

All the world’s wild horses have gone extinct, according to a study that unexpectedly rewrites the horse family tree based on a new DNA analysis of their ancestry.

What most people thought were the last remaining wild horses on Earth — known as Przewalski’s horses — were actually domesticated horses that escaped their owners, said the report in the journal Science.

“This was a big surprise,” said co-author Sandra Olsen, curator-in-charge of the archaeology division of the Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum at the University of Kansas.The study is based on archaeological work at two sites in northern Kazakhstan, called Botai and Krasnyi Yar, where scientists have found the earliest proof of horse domestication, going back more than 5,000 years.

Horse Breed

Four Indian horse breeds Bhutia, Manipuri, Spiti and Zaniskari are belong to separate group, while Marwari and Kathiawari are crossed with Arabian horses and influenced by the Mongolian horse.Thoroughbreds and Arabian horses were crossed with native Indian ponies with some Mongolian influence. Polo ponies horses are used for the game of polo and crossed with Manipur ponies and mountain ponies.Marwari horse is a rare breed from the Marwar region Rajasthan state and very easy to recognize by inward turning ear tips. Marwari Horse and Kathiawari Horse are quite similar in

appearance and used by Indian military in the Jodhpur and Jaipur areas of Rajasthan.

Kathiawari horse from the Kathiawar peninsula of the Saurashtra region in Gujarat are desert war horse and closely related to the Marwari horses of Rajasthan. They are now used as a police horse in India, by the Indian Army and also used as a war horse and cavalry mount.

Life Cycle of Horse

The horse has a life cycle that can be broken down into four very distinct phases. After conception and birth, the horse evolves into adolescence, adulthood and finally old age.

Mares, or female horses, typically experience seasonal estrous cycles, going into heat in late spring or early summer. If breeding is successful, the mare carries her baby for about 11 months, or an average of 335 days. The foal develops a heartbeat around day 23. After about 150 days of pregnancy, the placenta is fully formed around the baby. A mare spends about an hour in labor, on average, then lies down to deliver the foal. The foal begins to stand and walk within minutes of birth.

Horses are born after a gestation period of 11 months, and for the next year are called foals. In the first year, horses grow rapidly and will reach 90 percent of their adult height and 80 percent of their adult weight. Male foals are called colts, and females are called fillies.

The yearling has almost grown into its long legs, and its body frame has filled out. With each growth spurt, its hind is often 2 to 3 inches taller than its withers (the upward-curved part right below the neck).Most 2-year-old horses have reached their adult height and weight. In most cases, growth plates -- epiphyses -- located in the bones of the legs have closed and the horse can now be ridden

A horse finally reached adulthood at the age of 4. Females are now referred to as mares, and males as stallions if they can still breed or geldings if they've been castrated.By their late teens or early 20s, horses begin to show the signs of aging. Their backs begin to sag, and many develop age-related disorders such as kidney and liver disease. In the wild, these conditions contribute to rapid deterioration and death, but with proper care, horses can live into their mid 30s.

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