At rest, a healthy adult horse should have a pulse of between 38 and 40 beats per minute
An adult horse respiratory rate is 8 to 15 breaths per minute
Normal body temperature is 99 to 100°F (37 to 38°C)
Healthy adult horses should drink a minimum of 5 gallons (20L) of water per day
A horse typically sleeps 2½ to 3 hours a day
Horses sleep longer in the summer than in the winter
Horses younger than 4 years can only concentrate for a maximum of 10 to 15 minutes
Horses lie down about 43.5 minutes every day
A horse's heart weighs 9 pounds
A horse has approximately 205 bones
A horse's average life span is about 20 to 25 years; however they can live for up to 30 years
At birth, a foal's legs are almost as long as they will be as an adult
A foal can stand up an hour after birth, although they do find it difficult to eat grass because of their long legs
A horse's teeth can be used to estimate its age
A foal's first set of teeth are called milk teeth, which are replaced by their permanent teeth when they are around 3 to 5 years old
A foal usually inherits its father's looks, but its mother's constitution and personality
Horses have keen senses of smell, hearing and direction
Horses have a wide range of vision. They can see completely around their entire body, with the exception of small blind spots directly in front of their face, underneath their head and directly behind them
Horses can see better at night than humans—however, it takes a horse's eyes longer to adjust from light to dark and from dark to light than it does for a human
The oldest pure breed horse known to man is the Arab horse—almost every horse that is alive has some Arab blood
Horses are traditionally measured in "hands," the unit of length measurement based on the width of a man's hand, which has been set to 4 inches
There are 4.6 million* Americans involved in the horse industry, including owners, service providers, employees and volunteers
Two million* Americans are horse owners
It's estimated there are 9.2 million* horses in the U.S.
The horse industry has a total impact of $102 billion* on the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
A horse is referred to as a 'foal' for its first year of life
A male horse is a stallion
A female horse is a mare
A young female horse is a filly
A young male horse is a colt
After its first birthday, a foal is a yearling
A father of a horse is called a sire
A mother of a horse is referred to as a dam
To keep racing, breeding and showing records easy—every horse in the USA has the birthday of January 1
