facts and info

Facts and Information

Ever wonder how tall is a hand or what horses eat?

Ever wanted to know what the difference between a Paint and a pinto was?

Have you ever seen a horse and wandered what color it was?

Did you ever wonder how old horses can get?

Or how we know the weight of our horses?

Well, we've got the answers.

For great information on colors choose the horse colors page.

To learn how much it costs to care for a horse see the horse costs page.

Feeding the horses:

Horses are vegetarians.

They like grasses, fruits and vegetables.

Green is their favorite color. Especially if it will fit in their mouth.

What our horses eat: Horses Feeding and Caring Schedule

We feed our horses a combination of bermuda grass and alfalfa hay.

They love Alfalfa because it's "sweet" and "fresh". They'll eat the Bermuda because they "have to".

Below are pictures for those who occasionally ask which is which.

Bermuda Grass Hay:
Low calories, small amount of proteins.
Falls apart easily and gets everywhere.

Alfalfa Hay:
High calories, large amount of proteins.
Packed tightly. Horses love to eat it.

Hay 003.jpg (25617 bytes)

We feed some of the horses rice bran. It helps to keep their coat shiny and
gives the draft horses the fat content they need.

The horses also get carrots and apple slices occassionally.

The height of a horse:

Horses are measured in hands.
A "Hand" equals 4 inches.
To measure how tall a horse is, measure from the ground up to where the neck ties into the back (known as the withers).
Thus, a horse that is 62 inches tall would be 15.2 hands. (62/4)

The tallest horse recorded was a shire at 21.2 hands.

Below is a picture showing where to measure.

Horse Schematic 001.jpg (19692 bytes)

The age of a horse:

Horses live a long time. The oldest horse that ever lived was over 40 years old..

Horses that are well taken care of usually live to around 25 to 30 years old.

Because horses need well developed bones, most horses begin their riding careers at 3 to 5 years old.

They are usually full grown by then. and their bodies can handle the work.

A lot of ground work and minimal riding is performed prior to 3 years of age.

Horses who become familiar with people, routines, and strange objects, at a young age

are much easier to train when older.

Cori's Grandfather's horse, Zell, lived to be 29 years old.

Zell 001.jpg (41986 bytes)

Cori and Zell, taken near the ranch in Utah.

The Weight of a horse:

Knowing a horses weight is important.

We measure our horses at least once a year.

How much weight a horse can carry is based upon it's own weight.

Tracking weight also tells us if the horse is being fed too much or too little.

To calculate how much a horse weighs we have to first measure the horse.

We measure around the chest in inches.

Weight 001.jpg (35329 bytes)

Then we measure from "point of shoulder" to "point of rear end" in inches.

Weight 002.jpg (35166 bytes)

Once we have the measurements we use the

weight formula: (Around x Around x Length)/330.

So, if baby Cinnamon is 39 inches around and

35 inches long. Then she weighs around 161 pounds.

( 39 x 39 x 35 = 53235 / 330 = 161 )

Not bad for a one month old baby.