Horse Adaptations

Horse Adaptations

1. Behavioural

   • Flighty when i danger
     • except when cornered and protecting a foal
   • Herd
     • safety in numbers

2. Anotomical

   • long neck to reach grass while standing
   • large ears that pivot
     • can hear far away and a lot of frequencies
   • large eyes on the side of their head to be able to see everywhere
   • only place where they cannot sense in above them
     • no predators from above
   • depending on mood
     • tail in air, snorting, ears pricked forward,head high, prancing = excited
     • ears back, stomping, tail between legs = moody
     • ears twitching around head streched out, tail swishing= laid back
   • small intestine
     • horses eat a lot of fibre and so need a lot of bile to digest it
       • 15-22m long
       • Horses do not have a gall bladder, so bile flows constantly.
       • Most food is digested and absorbed into the bloodstream from the small intestine, including proteins, simple carbohydrate, fats, and vitamines A, D, and E
   • The trachea is the tube which carries air into the lungs, and is about 75–80 cm in length in the adult.
     • It is held permanently open by 50-60 "C"-shaped rings of cartilage, 5–6 cm in diameter
   • heart
     • 4 chambers and average of 3.9kg with vessels
       • heart rate range from 20 – 240 beats per minute and a splenic red cell reserve able to double packed cell volume and oxygen delivery during maximal exercise
         • THIS IS WHY YOU MUST COOL DOWN PROPERLY OTHERWHISE YOUR HORSES HEART LITERALLY EXPLODES WITH THE PRESSURE!!!
   • The circulatory system
     • the hoof
       • . As the horse puts weight onto the hoof, the hoof wall is pushed outwards and the frog compressed, driving blood out of the frog, the digital pad, and the laminae of the hoof
         • When weight is removed from the hoof, the release of pressure pulls blood back down into the foot again. This effectively creates an auxiliary blood-pumping system at the end of each leg

3. Physiological

   • horses have teeth that continually grow so that they can grind their teeth together on short grass
     • horses have two sets of teeth for this. they can eat very short grass. cows, however only have one set of teeth and a hard gum but can only eat long grass.
   • the ability to prduce loads of RBC and run fast for a long period of time
     • event horses 570m/min (21.25miles/h) for 11.5 minutes