On July 15, “National I Love Horses Day,” we express our love and gratitude for that marvelous and magnificent creature — the horse. With over 200 breeds, these spirited animals give humans much to love. Their loyalty and devotion throughout history is a fraction of the many reasons we love them.
Their contribution to mankind has been incalculable. Thus began the horse’s unrivalled historical influence across millennia to the present day. “Civilization was built on the back of a horse.” (Podcast).
Did you know . . . ?
• In the course of 55 million years, the horse has developed from a small animal the size of a cat, into the many varieties of horses we have today.
• The use of horses by humans began roughly 5,500 years ago on the windswept grasslands of the Pontic-Caspian Steppe.
• Today there are more than 600 horse breeds.
• Horses come in all shapes and sizes, and hundreds of different horse breeds exist today. Before being domesticated, horses ran wild. Over time, humans caught and trained horses, and then they started to strategically breed them to refine certain desirable traits.
• Horses “lock” their legs to avoid collapsing while sleeping standing up.
• Horses have a “stay apparatus” in their hind legs that allows them to lock their legs without having to use their muscles to support themselves.
• According to Equus, horses have a 350-degree view of the world, compared to a human’s view of about 90 degrees. Since a horse’s eyes are positioned on the sides of their head, they can see almost everything around them without turning their head. Horses can’t see a very narrow area directly in front of and behind them.
• Horses use several different types of communication. They use body language to communicate with other herd members, and everything from the twitch of an ear to the position of a horse’s tail can carry a message.
• Horses can use their eyes together in a form of binocular vision, but they can also use their eyes independently in monocular vision. Essentially, a horse can look at an object using their right eye while also looking behind themselves with their left eye. Each eye delivers information to a different half of the horse’s brain, and those brain halves work independently.
A hatful of smiles
Hattingdon was created to raise money to provide for the protection of horses. We are retired now, but we thought you might enjoy seeing “the hatted one” here from time to time. We hope it gives you “a hatful of smiles”.
Updated 25 July 2025.
HATTINGDON HORSES 