1.
Bay (horse)
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Bay is a hair coat color of horses, characterized by a reddish-brown body color with a black mane, tail, ear edges, and lower legs. Bay is one of the most common colors in many horse breeds. The black areas of a bay horses hair coat are called points, and without them. Black points may sometimes be covered by white markings, however such markings do not alter a horses classification as bay, bay horses have dark skin, except under white markings - where the skin is pink. Genetically, bay occurs when a horse carries both the Agouti gene and a base coat. The addition of genes creates many additional coat colors. While the basic concepts behind bay coloring are fairly simple, the genes themselves, the genetics of dark shades of bay are still under study. A DNA test said to detect the seal brown allele was developed, sooty genetics also appear to darken some horse bay coats, and that genetic mechanism is yet to be fully understood. Bay horses range in color from a copper red, to a rich red blood bay to a very dark red or brown called dark bay, mahogany bay, black-bay. The dark, brown shades of bay are referred to in other languages by words meaning black-and-tan. Dark bays/browns may be so dark as to have black coats, with brownish-red hairs visible only under the eyes, around the muzzle, behind the elbow. Dark bay should not be confused with Liver chestnut, which is also a dark brown color, but a liver chestnut has a brown mane, tail and legs. The pigment in a bay coat, regardless of shade, is rich. This makes bays particularly lustrous in the sun if properly cared for, some bay horses exhibit dappling, which is caused by textured, concentric rings within the coat. Dapples on a bay horse suggest good condition and care, though many well-cared for horses never dapple, the tendency to dapple may also be, to some extent, genetic. Bays often have a hair shaft, which, if shaved too closely, may cause the horse to appear several shades lighter. However, as the hair out, it will darken again to the proper shade. This phenomenon is part of bay color genetics, but usually not seen in shades of bay because there is less red in the hair shaft
2.
Horse markings
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Markings on horses usually are distinctive white areas on an otherwise dark base coat color. Most horses have some markings, and they help to identify the horse as a unique individual, Markings are present at birth and do not change over the course of the horses life. Most markings have pink skin underneath most of the white hairs, Markings may appear to change slightly when a horse grows or sheds its winter coat, however the difference is simply a factor of hair coat length, the underlying design does not change. Recent studies have examined the genetics behind white markings and have located certain genetic loci that influence their expression, facial markings are usually described by shape and location. There may be more than one distinct facial marking and if so, occasionally, when a white marking extends over an eye, that eye may be blue instead of brown, though this is not consistently seen in all cases. Common facial markings are, Blaze, a white stripe down the middle of the face. Strip, stripe, or race, a white stripe down the middle of the face. Bald Face, a wide blaze, extending to or past the eyes. Some, but not all, bald faced horses also have blue eyes, star, a white marking between or above the eyes. If a stripe or blaze is present, a star must be wider than the vertical marking to be designated separately. Snip, a marking on the muzzle, between the nostrils. Additional terms used to describe facial markings include the following, Faint, A small, interrupted, A marking, usually a strip or blaze, that is broken and not solid for the entire length of the face. Lip markings, have no specialized names, usually are described by location, such as lower lip, chin, lip markings may indicate presence of the sabino color pattern. Leg markings are described by the highest point of the horses leg that is covered by white. As a general rule, the horses hoof beneath a white marking at the line will also be light-colored. If a horse has a marking or ermine spots at the coronary band. Where the Leopard gene is present, the hoof may be striped even if markings are not visible at the coronary band. From tallest to shortest, common leg markings are, Stocking, white marking that extends at least to the bottom of the knee or hock, Sock, white marking that extends higher than the fetlock but not as high as the knee or hock
3.
Horse
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The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus. It is an ungulate mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature, Eohippus, into the large, humans began to domesticate horses around 4000 BC, and their domestication is believed to have been widespread by 3000 BC. Horses in the subspecies caballus are domesticated, although some domesticated populations live in the wild as feral horses. There is an extensive, specialized vocabulary used to describe equine-related concepts, covering everything from anatomy to life stages, size, colors, markings, breeds, locomotion, and behavior. Horses anatomy enables them to use of speed to escape predators and they have a well-developed sense of balance. Related to this need to flee from predators in the wild is an unusual trait, female horses, called mares, carry their young for approximately 11 months, and a young horse, called a foal, can stand and run shortly following birth. Most domesticated horses begin training under saddle or in harness between the ages of two and four and they reach full adult development by age five, and have an average lifespan of between 25 and 30 years. There are more than 300 breeds of horse in the world today, horses were historically used in warfare, from which a wide variety of riding and driving techniques developed, using many different styles of equipment and methods of control. Many products are derived from horses, including meat, milk, hide, hair, bone, humans provide domesticated horses with food, water and shelter, as well as attention from specialists such as veterinarians and farriers. Specific terms and specialized language are used to describe equine anatomy, different life stages, colors, depending on breed, management and environment, the modern domestic horse has a life expectancy of 25 to 30 years. Uncommonly, a few animals live into their 40s and, occasionally, the oldest verifiable record was Old Billy, a 19th-century horse that lived to the age of 62. In modern times, Sugar Puff, who had listed in Guinness World Records as the worlds oldest living pony. The exception is in endurance riding, where the age to compete is based on the animals actual calendar age. The following terminology is used to describe horses of various ages, Colt, a common terminology error is to call any young horse a colt, when the term actually only refers to young male horses. Filly, A female horse under the age of four, foal, A horse of either sex less than one year old. A nursing foal is sometimes called a suckling and a foal that has been weaned is called a weanling, most domesticated foals are weaned at five to seven months of age, although foals can be weaned at four months with no adverse physical effects. Gelding, A castrated male horse of any age, mare, A female horse four years old and older
4.
Draft horse
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Draft horses and draft crossbreds are versatile breeds used today for a multitude of purposes, including farming, draft horse showing, logging, recreation, and other uses. They are also used for crossbreeding, especially to light riding breeds such as the Thoroughbred. While most draft horses are used for driving, they can be ridden, Draft horses are recognizable by their tall stature and extremely muscular build. In general, they tend to have an upright shoulder, producing more upright movement. They tend to have broad, short backs with powerful hindquarters, additionally, the draft breeds usually have heavy bone, and a good deal of feathering on their lower legs. Many have a profile or Roman nose. Draft breeds range from approximately 16 to 19 hands high and from 1,400 to 2,000 lb, Draft horses crossbred on light riding horses adds height and weight to the ensuing offspring, and may increase the power and scope of the animals movement. The largest horse in recorded history was probably a Shire named Mammoth and he stood 21.2 hands high, and his peak weight was estimated at 1,524 kilograms. At over 19 hands, a Shire gelding named Goliath was the Guinness Book of World Records record holder for the worlds tallest horse until his death in 2001, humans domesticated horses and needed them to perform a variety of duties. One type of horse-powered work was the hauling of heavy loads, plowing fields, a heavy, calm, patient, well-muscled animal was desired for this work. Conversely, a light, more energetic horse was needed for riding, thus, to the extent possible, a certain amount of selective breeding was used to develop different types of horse for different types of work. The reality was that the high-spirited, quick-moving Destrier was closer to the size, build, there also were working farm horses of more phlegmatic temperaments used for pulling military wagons or performing ordinary farm work also provided bloodlines of the modern draft horse. Records indicate that even medieval drafts were not as large as those today, of the modern draft breeds, the Percheron probably has the closest ties to the medieval war horse. By the 19th century, horses weighing more than 1,600 pounds that also moved at a quick pace were in demand. Even in the 20th century, draft horses were used for practical work, in the late 19th century and early 20th century, thousands of draft horses were imported from Western Europe into the United States. Percherons came from France, Belgians from Belgium, Shires from England, many American draft registries were founded in the late 19th century. The Percheron, with 40,000 broodmares registered as of 1915, was America’s most numerous draft breed at the turn of the 20th century. A breed developed exclusively in the U. S. was the American Cream Draft, many were sold to slaughter for horsemeat and a number of breeds went into significant decline
5.
Clydesdale
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Clydesdale is an archaic name for Lanarkshire, a county in Scotland. From 1975 to 1996 it was also the given to one of the nineteen districts of the Strathclyde region. The district was formed by the Local Government Act 1973 and was roughly conterminous to Lanarkshire, in 1996 it was abolished by the Local Government etc. Act 1994 and replaced by the areas of South and North Lanarkshire
6.
Scotland
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Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and covers the northern third of the island of Great Britain. It shares a border with England to the south, and is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east. In addition to the mainland, the country is made up of more than 790 islands, including the Northern Isles, the Kingdom of Scotland emerged as an independent sovereign state in the Early Middle Ages and continued to exist until 1707. By inheritance in 1603, James VI, King of Scots, became King of England and King of Ireland, Scotland subsequently entered into a political union with the Kingdom of England on 1 May 1707 to create the new Kingdom of Great Britain. The union also created a new Parliament of Great Britain, which succeeded both the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England. Within Scotland, the monarchy of the United Kingdom has continued to use a variety of styles, titles, the legal system within Scotland has also remained separate from those of England and Wales and Northern Ireland, Scotland constitutes a distinct jurisdiction in both public and private law. Glasgow, Scotlands largest city, was one of the worlds leading industrial cities. Other major urban areas are Aberdeen and Dundee, Scottish waters consist of a large sector of the North Atlantic and the North Sea, containing the largest oil reserves in the European Union. This has given Aberdeen, the third-largest city in Scotland, the title of Europes oil capital, following a referendum in 1997, a Scottish Parliament was re-established, in the form of a devolved unicameral legislature comprising 129 members, having authority over many areas of domestic policy. Scotland is represented in the UK Parliament by 59 MPs and in the European Parliament by 6 MEPs, Scotland is also a member nation of the British–Irish Council, and the British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly. Scotland comes from Scoti, the Latin name for the Gaels, the Late Latin word Scotia was initially used to refer to Ireland. By the 11th century at the latest, Scotia was being used to refer to Scotland north of the River Forth, alongside Albania or Albany, the use of the words Scots and Scotland to encompass all of what is now Scotland became common in the Late Middle Ages. Repeated glaciations, which covered the land mass of modern Scotland. It is believed the first post-glacial groups of hunter-gatherers arrived in Scotland around 12,800 years ago, the groups of settlers began building the first known permanent houses on Scottish soil around 9,500 years ago, and the first villages around 6,000 years ago. The well-preserved village of Skara Brae on the mainland of Orkney dates from this period and it contains the remains of an early Bronze Age ruler laid out on white quartz pebbles and birch bark. It was also discovered for the first time that early Bronze Age people placed flowers in their graves, in the winter of 1850, a severe storm hit Scotland, causing widespread damage and over 200 deaths. In the Bay of Skaill, the storm stripped the earth from a large irregular knoll, when the storm cleared, local villagers found the outline of a village, consisting of a number of small houses without roofs. William Watt of Skaill, the laird, began an amateur excavation of the site, but after uncovering four houses
7.
Sabino horse
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Sabino is a group of white spotting patterns in horses that affect the skin and hair. A wide variety of color patterns are accepted as sabino. In the strictest sense, sabino refers to the patterns produced by the Sabino 1 gene. However, other horse enthusiasts also refer to patterns that are similar to SB1 as sabino. Use of the term to describe non-SB1 sabino patterns in breeds that apparently do not carry the gene is hotly debated by researchers and horse breeders. Some sabinos have patches of roan patterning on part of the body, especially the barrel, some sabinos may have a dark leg or two, but many have four white legs. Both blue and brown eyes are seen, at one end of the sabino spectrum, the SB1 gene, when homozygous, can produce a horse that is almost completely white with pink or only partially pigmented skin. The most generous definition of sabino can include horses with as little white as a chin or lower lip spot, even though horses with the Sabino 1 gene can be completely white, no forms of sabino are linked to lethal white syndrome. Sabino 1 was identified in 2005 by researchers at the University of Kentucky, SB1 is notably absent from the Arabian horse, Thoroughbred, Standardbred horse, Shire horse and Clydesdale. There are many proposed genes responsible for the white spotting in these. Researchers gave the allele they discovered the name Sabino 1 with the expectation of finding genes yet to be named Sabino 2, Sabino 3, and so on. Even though horses with the Sabino 1 gene can be completely white, foals afflicted with LWS are born white or near-white, but have a defective colon and invariably die within 72 hours of birth. A DNA test exists for Lethal White Syndrome to identify carriers, Horses with one copy of the Sabino 1 gene are said to be heterozygous for that gene, and have a distinctive white spotting pattern. The areas of white hair are rooted in pigmentless pink skin. Horses with the Sabino 1 pattern typically have irregular, rough-edged white patches on the extremities and these white patches also often include the midsection as belly spots. Interspersed white hairs around the white markings or on the body, typically, Sabino 1 horses have two or more white feet or legs, a blaze, spots or roaning on the belly or flanks, and jagged margins to white markings. Modest Sabino 1 markings are often difficult to tell apart from other white markings, blue eyes are not associated with Sabino 1, though horses with Sabino 1 may have blue eyes from an unrelated genetic factor. Horses with two copies of the Sabino 1 gene - one from each parent - are said to be homozygous for that gene, homozygous Sabino 1 horses are typically at least 90% pink-skinned and white-coated at birth
8.
Budweiser Clydesdales
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The Budweiser Clydesdales are a group of Clydesdale horses used for promotions and commercials by the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Company. Louis, Missouri, or at Merrimack, New Hampshire, at St. Louis, they are housed in a historic brick and stained-glass stable built in 1885. There are eight horses driven at any one time, but ten horses are on each team to provide alternates for the hitch when needed, assorted Clydesdales are also used as animal actors in television commercials for Budweiser beer, particularly in Super Bowl ads. Many of the Clydesdales owned by Anheuser-Busch are raised at Grants Farm near St. Louis, the Budweiser Clydesdale Stables at Grants Farm house approximately 35 mares, stallions and foals, with an average of 15 foals produced each year. Anheuser-Busch owns a total of about 250 Clydesdales, kept at locations throughout the United States. The largest breeding facility is at Warm Springs Ranch near Boonville, InBev consolidated operations there in 2008. More than half of the herd is kept there. The Ranch offers tours of its facilities, another breeding ranch was near Romoland, California, about 60 miles southeast of Los Angeles, but it was closed. The three Clydesdale teams that tour the world are based near the companys brewing facilities in St. Louis, Fort Collins, Colorado, the company also buys high-quality Clydesdales from other sources on occasion. The Clydesdales were fixtures at Busch Gardens, however, after InBev sold the amusement parks, the link to the Budweiser Clydesdales ended in 2009. The new owners have brought back Clydesdales but they are not the Budweiser Clydesdales, the Budweiser Clydesdales were first introduced to the public on April 7,1933, to celebrate the repeal of Prohibition. The hitch proceeded to carry the first case of beer from the St. Louis brewery in a special journey down Pestalozzi Street in St. Louis. Recognizing the advertising and promotional potential of a beer wagon, Busch. In addition, each horse must be bay in color, have four white stocking feet, originally the Clydesdales were transported by train. Cross-country truck transport was introduced in 1940, today, the traveling hitches are on the road at least 10 months every year, based out of St. Louis, Missouri, Merrimack, New Hampshire and Fort Collins, Colorado. And Fort Collins is the home to the Clydesdales West Coast Team, when the horses are not touring, they can be seen as part of a tour and visitors can have a picture taken with them. There are ten horses that travel on each team, eight are in harness when performing at any one time and the other two horses provide alternates for the hitch as needed. Several professional handlers accompany each team, often, one handler has night duty to provide round-the-clock care for the horses
9.
Household Cavalry
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The Household Cavalry is made up of the two most senior regiments of the British Army, the Life Guards and the Blues and Royals. The Household Cavalry is part of the Household Division and is the Queens official bodyguard, the British Household Cavalry is classed as a corps in its own right, and consists of two regiments, the Life Guards and the Blues and Royals. They are the regular regiments in the British Army, with traditions dating from 1660. They are guards regiments and, with the five foot guard regiments, the Household Cavalry as a whole is split into two different units that fulfil very distinct roles. These are both joint units, consisting of personnel from both regiments, like other Cavalry formations, the Household Cavalry is divided into regiments and squadrons. The whole corps is under the command of the Commander Household Cavalry and he is a Colonel, and is assisted by a retired lieutenant colonel as Regimental Adjutant. The current Commander is Colonel S H Cowen RHG/D, the first unit is the Household Cavalry Regiment. It has an operational role as a Formation Reconnaissance Regiment, serving in armoured fighting vehicles. The regiment serves as part of the Royal Armoured Corps, one of HCRs squadrons is assigned to the airborne role with 16 Air Assault Brigade as of 2003. The Regiment is based at Combermere Barracks, Windsor, one mile from Windsor Castle, the men of the Household Division have sometimes been required to undertake special tasks as the Sovereign’s personal troops. The Household Cavalry were called to Windsor Castle on 20 November 1992 to assist with salvage operations following the Great Fire, the second unit is the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment, which is horsed and carries out mounted ceremonial duties on State and Royal occasions. These include the provision of a Sovereigns Escort, most commonly seen on The Queens Birthday Parade in June each year, other occasions include state visits by visiting heads of state, or whenever required by the British monarch. The regiment also mounts the guard at Horse Guards, the Regiment has been based at Hyde Park Barracks, Knightsbridge, since 1795. This is three-quarters of a mile from Buckingham Palace, new troopers and officers are generally first assigned to London upon completion of horsemanship training and remain there for up to three years. Like the five Foot Guards regiments they rotate between the unit and ceremonial duties. However, this origin may be apocryphal, since serjeant was a used by some offices of comparative seniority, such as Serjeants at Arms. Uniquely, non-commissioned officers and warrant officers of the Household Cavalry do not wear insignia on their full dress uniforms. Rank is indicated by a system of aiguillettes, Second Lieutenants in The Blues and Royals are known as Cornets
10.
Flemish
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The term Flemish is used in at least five ways. These are, in order of increasing order, as an informal term meaning Dutch language in Belgium. Linguists tend to avoid the use of the term Flemish in this context, as a synonym for the so-called intermediate speech known as tussentaal. to denote any of the local Dutch dialects anywhere in the Flanders region. There are four principal Dutch dialects in the Flemish region, Brabantian, East Flemish, the latter two are sometimes considered separate languages. Despite its name, Brabantian is the dominant contributor to the Flemish Dutch tussentaal, the combined region, culture, and people of Dutch-speaking Belgium has come to be known as Flemish. Flemish is also used to refer to one of the languages spoken in the former County of Flanders. Linguistically and formally, Flemish refers to the region, culture, Flemish people speak Dutch in Flanders, the Flemish part of Belgium. Belgian Dutch is slightly different from Dutch spoken in The Netherlands, mainly in pronunciation, lexicon, similar differences exist within other languages, such as English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. The differences are not significant enough to constitute an individual language, Dutch is the majority language in northern Belgium, being spoken natively by three-fifths of the population. It is one of the three languages of Belgium, together with French and German, and is the only official language of the Flemish Region. The various Dutch dialects spoken in Belgium contain a number of lexical, as in the Netherlands, the pronunciation of Standard Dutch is affected by the native dialect of the speaker. All Dutch dialect groups spoken in Belgium are spoken in adjacent areas of the Netherlands as well, East Flemish forms a continuum with both Brabantic and West Flemish. Standard Dutch is primarily based on the Hollandic dialect and to an extent on Brabantian. Among vowels is the diphthong ou / au, ou as in bout and au as in fauna is realized as in formal situations. In informal situations, the sound tends to be pronounced as or as a monophthong, depending on the dialect, in contrast, these are generally pronounced as in the north and middle parts of the Netherlands. Among consonants, the northern Dutch pronunciation of w is, in some southern Dutch dialects it is or, probably the most obvious difference between northern and southern Dutch is in the sounds spelled ⟨ch⟩ and ⟨g⟩. The sound spelled ⟨ch⟩ is a velar fricative in northern Dutch. ⟨w⟩ realised as ⟨ch⟩ and ⟨g⟩ pronounced as front-velars, not as palatals, Belgian Dutch includes different French loanwords in its vocabulary compared to Netherlands Dutch
11.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
12.
Rare Breeds Survival Trust
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The Rare Breeds Survival Trust is a conservation charity whose purpose is to secure the continued existence and viability of the native farm animal genetic resources of the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1973 by Joe Henson to preserve native breeds, since then and it maintains a watch list of rare native breeds of cattle, sheep, pigs, horses, goats and poultry, and an approved list of farm parks. Projects have included the collection of material to ensure the future of rare breeds in a farm animal gene bank. This project received publicity in the wake of the foot-and-mouth disease crisis in the UK and was supported by the Prince of Wales, RBST supports the marketing of meat from rare breeds through the Traditional Breeds Meat Marketing Company, founded in 2003. Rare Breeds Survival Trust, registered charity no.269442
13.
Equine conformation
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Equine conformation evaluates the degree of correctness of a horses bone structure, musculature, and its body proportions in relation to each other. Undesirable conformation can limit the ability to perform a specific task, Although there are several universal faults, a horses conformation is usually judged by what its intended use may be. Thus form to function is one of the first set of traits considered in judging conformation, a horse with poor form for a Grand Prix show jumper could have excellent conformation for a World Champion cutting horse, or to be a champion draft horse. Every horse has good and bad points of its conformation and many horses excel even with conformation faults. The standard of the head varies dramatically from breed to breed based on a mixture of the role the horse is bred for and what breeders, owners. Breed standards frequently cite large eyes, a broad forehead and a dry head-to-neck connection as important to correctness about the head, traditionally, the length of head as measured from poll to upper lip should be two-thirds the length of the neck topline. Presumably, the construction of the horses head influences its breathing, historically, a width of 4 fingers or 7.2 cm was associated with an unrestricted airflow and greater endurance. However, a study in 2000 which compared the intermandibular width-to-size ratio of Thoroughbreds with their racing success showed this to be untrue, the relationship between head conformation and performance are not well-understood, and an appealing head may be more a matter of marketability than performance. Among mammals, morphology of the head often plays a role in temperature regulation, Many ungulates have a specialized network of blood vessels called the carotid rete, which keeps the brain cool while the body temperature rises during exercise. Horses lack a carotid rete and instead use their sinuses to cool blood around the brain and these factors suggest that the conformation of a horses head influences its ability to regulate temperature. A horse with a face or dished head has a muzzle with a concave profile on top. Dished heads are associated with Arabians and Arabian-influenced breeds, which excel at Endurance riding and were bred in the arid Arabian desert. There are several theories regarding the role of the dished head. It may be an adaptation to reduce resistance and increase aerobic endurance. Dished head is not considered a deformity, a Roman nose is a muzzle with a convex profile. Convex heads are associated with Draft horses, Baroque horse breeds and this trait likely plays a role in warming air as it is inhaled, but may also influence aerobic capacity. Roman nose is not considered a deformity, a horse with small nostrils or small nares can be found in any breed and often accompanies a narrow jaw and muzzle. Small nostrils limit the ability to breathe hard while exerting itself
14.
Shire horse
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The Shire is a British breed of draught horse. It is usually black, bay, or grey and it is a tall breed, and Shires have at various times held world records both for the largest horse and for the tallest horse. The Shire has a capacity for weight-pulling, and has been popular throughout its history for pulling brewers drays delivering ale to customers. The horses may also be used for forestry, for riding, in 1878, the British organisation now known as the Shire Horse Society was created, with the American Shire Horse Association beginning in 1885. Popularity began to again in the 1970s and after. However, population numbers are considered to be at critical levels by both the UK-based Rare Breeds Survival Trust and the US-based American Livestock Breeds Conservancy. Shire stallions may be black, bay or grey and they may not be roan or have large amounts of white markings. Mares and geldings may be black, bay, grey or roan, in the UK stallions may not be chestnut, but the colour is allowed by the US association. The Shire Horse Society of the UK specifies that stallions must stand at least 17 hands high when mature, geldings are required to be at least 16.2 hands high and mares at least 16 hands. Their average weight ranges from 850 to 1,100 kg for geldings and stallions, the head of a Shire is long and lean, with large eyes, set on a neck that is slightly arched and long in proportion to the body. The shoulder is deep and wide, the chest wide, the muscular and short. Not too much feathering is to occur on the legs, and the hair is fine, straight, and silky. Smaller Shires, under 17 hands, are preferred for working horses, while taller horses, especially those over 18.2 hands, are used for show. The breed is known for its easy-going temperament, the disease is similar to chronic lymphedema in humans. The Shire has a capacity for pulling weight. Working in slippery footing, the pair of horses pulled 16.5 tons at a later exhibition. The largest horse in recorded history was probably a Shire named Mammoth and he stood 21.2 1⁄4 hands high, and his peak weight was estimated at 1,524 kilograms. At over 19 hands, a Shire gelding named Goliath was the Guinness Book of World Records record holder for the worlds tallest horse until his death in 2001
15.
Percheron
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The Percheron is a breed of draft horse that originated in the Huisne river valley in western France, part of the former Perche province from which the breed takes its name. Usually gray or black in color, Percherons are well muscled, although their exact origins are unknown, the ancestors of the breed were present in the valley by the 17th century. They were originally bred for use as war horses, over time, they began to be used for pulling stagecoaches and later for agriculture and hauling heavy goods. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Arabian blood was added to the breed, exports of Percherons from France to the United States and other countries rose exponentially in the late 19th century, and the first purely Percheron stud book was created in France in 1883. Before World War I, thousands of Percherons were shipped from France to the United States, but after the war began, the breed was used extensively in Europe during the war, with some horses being shipped from the US back to France to help in the war effort. Beginning in 1918, Percherons began to be bred in Great Britain, after a series of name and studbook ownership changes, the current US Percheron registry was created in 1934. In the 1930s, Percherons accounted for 70 percent of the horse population in the United States. However, the population began to recover and as of 2009, the breed is still used extensively for draft work, and in France they are used for food. They have been crossed with light horse breeds to produce horses for range work. Purebred Percherons are used for work and pulling carriages, as well as work under saddle. The size considered ideal for the Percheron varies between countries, in France, height ranges from 15.1 to 18.1 hands and weight from 1,100 to 2,600 pounds. Percherons in the United States generally stand between 16.2 and 17.3 hands, with a range of 15–19 hands, American Percherons average 1,900 pounds, and their top weight is around 2,600 pounds. They are generally gray or black in coloring, although the American registry also allows the registration of roan, bay, only gray or black horses may be registered in France and Britain. Many horses have white markings on their heads and legs, the head has a straight profile, broad forehead, large eyes and small ears. The chest is deep and wide and the long and level. The feet and legs are clean and heavily muscled, the overall impression of the Percheron is one of power and ruggedness. Enthusiasts describe the temperament as proud and alert, and members of the breed are considered intelligent and they are considered easy keepers and adapt well to many conditions and climates. In the 19th century, they were known to travel up to 60 kilometres a day at a trot, Horses in the French registry are branded on the neck with the intertwined letters SP, the initials of the Société Hippique Percheronne
16.
Belgian horse
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It is one of the strongest of the heavy breeds. The Belgian Heavy Draft horse stands between 16.2 and 17 hands, on average the Belgian grows to weigh slightly over 900 kilograms. Most American Belgians are a chestnut with a flaxen mane. The head is small and well-shaped. American Belgians in North America are not as large as the European Brabant but is of a similar build, currently, the worlds tallest horse is a Belgian Draft horse named Big Jake, a gelding born in 2000. He stands 20.2 3⁄4 hands tall, the worlds largest Belgian Draft was named Brooklyn Supreme. He weighed 3,200 lb and stood at 19.2 hands, a study conducted in 2001–2003 found that 17. 1% of tested Belgians in the US and Canada were carriers, including 13. 5% of stallions and 28. 9% of mares. If carriers are not mated, JEB can be avoided, the US Belgian breed registry requires JEB testing. The disease is similar to chronic lymphedema in humans, historically, it is theoretically possible the Belgian may have had ancestors that were destriers in the Middle Ages, although no independent evidence supports this claim. The foundation stock for the Belgian was originally known as the Brabant, other names for essentially the same breed include the Cheval de trait Belge, Brabançon, and Belgisch Trekpaard. Until the 1940s, the Belgian and the Brabant were essentially the same breed, following World War II, the Brabant in Europe was selectively bred to be thicker bodied and heavier, while in the United States, the Belgian was bred to be somewhat taller and lighter bodied. The main use was as a farm horse, closely related breeds include the Trait du Nord and Nederlands Trekpaard. In 1887, the American Association of Importers and Breeders of Belgian Draft Horses was founded in Wabash, Indiana, to register, today, the Belgian is the most numerous breed of draft horse in the United States. Importation of Belgians to the United States ended in bulk after the beginning of the Second World War with Erwin F. Dygert transporting the last Belgians out of Europe as the war was beginning. Belgians are still used as working animals, but have become popular as show horses. The Brabant and related breeds remaining in Belgium today are also desirable for horse meat, Belgian horses are able to pull tremendous weights. At the National Western Stock Show in Denver, Colorado, a team of two horses in the Heavyweight class pulled 17,000 pounds a distance of 7 ft 2 in, the team of Belgians weighed 4,800 pounds. At the Iowa State fair, the champions in the pulling contest pulled 14,600 pounds the complete distance of 15 ft
17.
Selective breeding
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Domesticated animals are known as breeds, normally bred by a professional breeder, while domesticated plants are known as varieties, cultigens, or cultivars. Two purebred animals of different breeds produce a crossbreed, and crossbred plants are called hybrids, flowers, vegetables and fruit-trees may be bred by amateurs and commercial or non-commercial professionals, major crops are usually the provenance of the professionals. There are two approaches or types of selection, or selective breeding. The second is called controlled natural selection, which is natural selection in a controlled environment. In this, the breeder does not choose which individuals being tested survive or reproduce, there are also selection experiments, which is a third approach and these are conducted in order to determine the strength of natural selection in the wild. However, this is often an observational approach as opposed to an experimental approach. In animal breeding, techniques such as inbreeding, linebreeding, in plant breeding, similar methods are used. Charles Darwin discussed how selective breeding had been successful in producing change over time in his 1859 book and its first chapter discusses selective breeding and domestication of such animals as pigeons, cats, cattle, and dogs. Darwin used artificial selection as a springboard to introduce and support the theory of natural selection, the deliberate exploitation of selective breeding to produce desired results has become very common in agriculture and experimental biology. Selective breeding can be unintentional, e. g. resulting from the process of human cultivation, for example, in some grains, an increase in seed size may have resulted from certain ploughing practices rather than from the intentional selection of larger seeds. Most likely, there has been an interdependence between natural and artificial factors that have resulted in plant domestication, Selective breeding was practiced by the Romans. Treatises as much as 2,000 years old give advice on selecting animals for different purposes, the notion of selective breeding was later expressed by the Persian Muslim polymath Abu Rayhan Biruni in the 11th century. He noted the idea in his book titled India, which included various examples, the agriculturist selects his corn, letting grow as much as he requires, and tearing out the remainder. The forester leaves those branches which he perceives to be excellent, the bees kill those of their kind who only eat, but do not work in their beehive. Selective breeding was established as a practice by Robert Bakewell during the British Agricultural Revolution in the 18th century. Arguably, his most important breeding program was with sheep, using native stock, he was able to quickly select for large, yet fine-boned sheep, with long, lustrous wool. The Lincoln Longwool was improved by Bakewell, and in turn the Lincoln was used to develop the subsequent breed, named the New Leicester and it was hornless and had a square, meaty body with straight top lines. Bloodlines of these original New Leicesters survive today as the English Leicester, Bakewell was also the first to breed cattle to be used primarily for beef
18.
Hand (unit)
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The hand is a non-SI unit of measurement of length standardized to 4 inches. It is used to measure the height of horses in some English-speaking countries, including Australia, Canada, the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom and it was originally based on the breadth of a human hand. The adoption of the inch in 1959 allowed for a standardized imperial form. It may be abbreviated to h or hh, thus,62 inches is fifteen and a half hands, or 15.2 hh. Hands may be abbreviated to h, or hh, the hh form is sometimes interpreted as standing for hands high. When spoken aloud, hands are stated by numbers,15.0 is fifteen hands,15.2 is alternately fifteen-two or fifteen hands, to convert inches to hands, the number in inches is divided by four, then the remainder is added after the radix point. A designation of 15.5 hands is not halfway between 15 and 16 hands, but rather reads 15 hands and five inches, an impossibility in a base 4 radix numbering system, where a hand is four inches. On surviving Ancient Egyptian cubit-rods, the royal cubit is divided into seven palms of four digits or fingers each, five digits are equal to a hand, with thumb, and six to a closed fist. The royal cubit measured approximately 525 mm, so the length of the ancient Egyptian hand was about 94 mm. The hand is a unit in the UK. is four-fingers breadth, being the fist clenched, whereby the height of a horse is measured. Today the hand is used to measure the height of horses, ponies and it is used in the U. S. and also in some other nations that use the metric system, such as Canada, Ireland and the UK. In other parts of the world, including continental Europe, and in FEI-regulated international competition, horses are measured in metric units, usually metres or centimetres. In South Africa, measurements may be given in both hands and centimetres, while in Australia, the equestrian regulations stipulate that both measurements are to be given, a horse is measured from the ground to the top of the highest non-variable point of the skeleton, the withers. For official measurement, the process of the fifth thoracic vertebra may be identified by palpation. Miniature horses, but not miniature ponies, are measured at the base of the last true hairs of the rather than at the withers. For international competition regulated by the Fédération Équestre Internationale and for USEF competition in the US, in the United Kingdom, official measurement of horses is overseen by the Joint Measurement Board. For JMB purposes, the shoes must be removed and the hooves correctly prepared for shoeing prior to measurement, anthropic units List of horse breeds List of unusual units of measurement Pony Span
19.
Withers
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The withers is the ridge between the shoulder blades of an animal, typically a quadruped. In many species it is the tallest point of the body, the withers in horses are formed by the dorsal spinal processes of roughly the 3rd through 11th thoracic vertebrae, which are unusually long in this area. The processes at the withers can be more than 12 inches long, since they do not move relative to the ground, the withers are used as the measuring point for the height of a horse. Horses are commonly measured in hands – one hand is 4 inches, horse heights are extremely variable, from small pony breeds to large draft breeds. The height at the withers of an average Thoroughbred is 16 hands, the withers of the horse are considered in evaluating conformation. Generally, a horse should have well-defined withers, as they are considered an important attachment point for the muscles of the torso, more importantly, the dorsal spinal processes provide an attachment for the muscles that support the shoulder and neck. Horses do not have a clavicle, so the shoulder can freely rotate backwards, if the vertebrae of the withers are long, the shoulder is more free to move backwards. This allows for an increase of stride length, therefore, the withers have a direct impact on one of the most important points of conformation, the shoulder. In dogs, the height of the withers is often used to determine the dogs jump height in various dog sports and it is also often a determining factor in whether the dog conforms to the show-quality standards for its breed. Zebras have very low withers, making it far more difficult for a saddle to stay in place, inflammation of the bursae in this region is called fistulous withers
20.
Hoof
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A hoof, plural hooves or hoofs /ˈhʊfs/, is the tip of a toe of an ungulate mammal, strengthened by a thick, horny, keratin covering. Artiodactyls are even-toed ungulates, meaning that species have an even number of digits on each foot. Ruminants, with two digits, are the largest group. Examples include deer, bison, cattle, goats and sheep, perissodactyls have an odd number of toes. Examples of perissodactyl mammals are horses, rhinoceroses and tapirs, hooves are generally cited as limb structures restricted to placental mammals, which unlike other mammal groups undergo prolonged pregnancies. However, the marsupial Chaeropus had hooves, the hoof surrounds the distal end of the second phalanx, the distal phalanx, and the navicular bone. The hoof consists of the wall, the bars of the hoof. The weight of the animal is normally borne by both the sole and the edge of the hoof wall, numerous factors can affect hoof structure and health, including genetics, hoof conformation, environmental influences, and athletic performance of the animal. The ideal hoof has a parallel hoof-pastern axis, a hoof wall, adequate sole depth. There are four layers within the wall of the hoof. From the outside, a hoof is made up of the stratum externum, the medium, the stratum internum. The stratum externum and the medium are difficult to distinguish, the stratum externum is thin. Inside the hoof wall is a junction, a soft tissue structure that allows the hoof to withstand the demands of force transmission it undergoes. This tissue structure binds the surface of the hoof wall, the dermis parietis. Most even-toed ungulates have two main hooves on each foot, together called a cloven hoof, in the mountain goat, the dewclaw serves to provide extra traction when descending rocky slopes as well as additional drag on loose or slippery surfaces made of ice, dirt, or snow. Other cloven-hooved animals have no dewclaws, some odd-toed ungulates have one hoof on each foot, others have three distinct hooved or heavily nailed toes, or one hoof and two dewclaws. The tapir is a case, having three toes on each hind foot and four toes on each front foot. In nature, wild animals are capable of wearing down the hoof as it continuously grows, proper care improves biomechanical efficiency and prevents lameness
21.
Horse gaits
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Horse gaits are the various ways in which a horse can move, either naturally or as a result of specialized training by humans. Special training is required before a horse will perform an ambling gait in respond to a riders command. Another system of classification that applies to quadrupeds uses three categories, walking and ambling gaits, running or trotting gaits, and leaping gaits. The British Horse Society Dressage Rules require competitors to perform four variations of the walk, six forms of the trot, five leaping gaits, halt, and rein back, the British Horse Society Equitation examinations also require proficiency in the gallop as distinct from the canter. The so-called natural gaits, in increasing order of speed, are the walk, trot, canter, and gallop. Some consider these as three gaits, with the canter a variation of the gallop, even though the canter is distinguished by having three beats, whereas the gallop has four beats, all four gaits are seen in wild horse populations. While other intermediate speed gaits may occur naturally to some horses, in some animals the trot is replaced by the pace or an ambling gait. Horses who possess an ambling gait are usually able to trot. The walk is a gait that averages about 4 miles per hour. When walking, a horses legs follow this sequence, left leg, left front leg, right hind leg, right front leg. At the walk, the horse will alternate between having three or two feet on the ground, a horse moves its head and neck in a slight up and down motion that helps maintain balance. In detail, suppose the horse starts by lifting its left front leg and it then lifts its right hind leg. Next, the front foot touches the ground, then the horse lifts its right front leg. Then it lifts its rear leg, puts down the front right, lifts the left front, puts down the rear left. Ideally, the rear hoof oversteps the spot where the previously advancing front hoof touched the ground. The more the rear hoof oversteps, the smoother and more comfortable the walk becomes, individual horses and different breeds vary in the smoothness of their walk. However, a rider will almost always some degree of gentle side-to-side motion in the horses hips as each hind leg reaches forward. The fastest walks with a footfall pattern are actually the lateral forms of ambling gaits such as the running walk, singlefoot
22.
Anatomical terms of location
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Standard anatomical terms of location deal unambiguously with the anatomy of animals, including humans. All vertebrates have the basic body plan – they are strictly bilaterally symmetrical in early embryonic stages. That is, they have left and right halves if divided down the centre. For these reasons, the directional terms can be considered to be those used in vertebrates. By extension, the terms are used for many other organisms as well. While these terms are standardized within specific fields of biology, there are unavoidable, sometimes dramatic, for example, differences in terminology remain a problem that, to some extent, still separates the terminology of human anatomy from that used in the study of various other zoological categories. The vertebrates and Craniata share a heritage and common structure. To avoid ambiguities this terminology is based on the anatomy of each animal in a standard way, for humans, one type of vertebrate, anatomical terms may differ from other forms of vertebrates. Thus what is on top of a human is the head, whereas the top of a dog may be its back, for example, many species are not even bilaterally symmetrical. In these species, terminology depends on their type of symmetry, all descriptions are with respect to the organism in its standard anatomical position, even when the organism in question has appendages in another position. This helps avoid confusion in terminology when referring to the organism in different postures. In humans, this refers to the body in a position with arms at the side. While the universal vertebrate terminology used in medicine would work in human medicine. Many anatomical terms can be combined, either to indicate a position in two axes simultaneously or to indicate the direction of a movement relative to the body, for example, anterolateral indicates a position that is both anterior and lateral to the body axis. There is no limit to the contexts in which terms may be modified to qualify each other in such combinations. Generally the modifier term is truncated and an o or an i is added in prefixing it to the qualified term, where desirable three or more terms may be agglutinated or concatenated, as in anteriodorsolateral. Such terms sometimes used to be hyphenated, but the tendency is to omit the hyphen. There is however little basis for any rule to interfere with choice of convenience in such usage
23.
Roan (horse)
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Roan is a horse coat color pattern characterized by an even mixture of colored and white hairs on the body, while the head and points—lower legs, mane and tail—are mostly solid-colored. Horses with roan coats have white hairs evenly intermingled throughout any other color, the head, legs, mane and tail have fewer scattered white hairs or none at all. The roan pattern is dominantly-inherited, and is found in horse breeds. While the specific mutation responsible for roan has not been exactly identified, true roan is always present at birth, though it may be hard to see until after the foal coat sheds out. The silvering effect of mixed white and colored hairs can create coats that look bluish or pinkish, horses with the roan pattern have an even mixture of white and colored hairs in the coat. These interspersed white hairs are scattered or absent on the horses head, mane, tail. The unaffected color on the legs often forms a sharp, inverted V above the knee and hock, the non-white background coat may be any color, as determined by unrelated genetic factors. Often, the coat color is used in combination with the word roan to describe the shade of a roan horses coat. However, there are colloquial terms used for some colors. The most common terms for various colors are the following. But in the strictest sense, blue roan is a synonym for a roan with a black background coat. Red roan used to include both chestnut and bay roans, in 1999, the American Paint Horse Association changed its coat color descriptions, roans with a chestnut background coat are registered red roan, while bay roan is its own category. The American Quarter Horse Association followed suit in 2003, previously, the term Strawberry roan described the pinkish color of a light chestnut or sorrel roan. While less common, the term lilac roan may be applied to a dark chestnut roan, bay roan replaced red roan as the term for a roan with a bay background coat. Some roan horses have white hair than others, and even individual horses may look lighter or darker based on the season. While roan is always present at birth, the soft first coat of newborn foals may not show the white hairs well, some roan horses get darker with age. Generally, roans appear to have white hair when they have their short summer coats. These peculiar tendencies of roans led to the Icelandic word for roan, if the skin is damaged by even a very minor scrape, cut or brand, the coat grows back in solid-colored without any white hairs
24.
Black (horse)
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Black is a hair coat color of horses in which the entire hair coat is black. Black is a relatively uncommon coat color, and it is not uncommon to mistake dark chestnuts or bays for black, true black horses have dark brown eyes, black skin, and wholly black hair coats without any areas of permanently reddish or brownish hair. They may have pink skin beneath any white markings under the areas of white hair, black horses that do not sun bleach are called non-fading or sheer blacks. Some breeds of horses, such as the Friesian horse, Murgese, black is also common in the Fell pony, Dales pony, Ostfriesen and Alt-Oldenburger, Kladruber, and Groningen. When identifying the color of a horse, it is important to disregard all pink-skinned white markings. White markings and patterns such as pinto and leopard have no bearing on the base coat color of the animal. Black foals are born a mousy gray but can be darker shades. Black foals have dark skin and eyes at birth, an adult-like black foal coat often indicates that the foal will gray, if the foal has at least one gray parent. Graying can be confirmed by the presence of hairs around the eyes. Gray Lipizzaner horses are born black. Black adult horses are easier to identify, as the coat must be entirely black, a sun bleached black may be confused with a dark bay, but a trained eye can distinguish between them, particularly by examining the fine hairs around the eyes and muzzle. When a black horse is sun-bleached, the mane and tail often sun bleach most prominently, a sun-bleached black may also be mistaken for the less common smoky black, but can be distinguished by pedigree analysis or DNA testing. Dark bay or seal brown, The darkest shades of bay are commonly confused with black, however, a dark bay will always show some rich red character in its coat. Horses with a dark coat that may appear black, but have tan or reddish hairs around the eyes, muzzle, armpits. Both colors are genetically distinct from black and can be confirmed with a DNA test, liver chestnut, Some red horses are so dark that they appear black, and are often called black chestnuts as a consequence. However, even the darkest liver chestnuts will show some red character in their coats, even dark liver chestnuts do not have any true black pigment in their coats. This can be verified with DNA testing, liver chestnut is very common in the Morgan horse. Smoky black, The action of the gene in the heterozygous condition has a minimal effect on black pigment
25.
Gray (horse)
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Gray or grey is a coat color of horses characterized by progressive silvering of the colored hairs of the coat. Most gray horses have black skin and dark eyes, unlike many depigmentation genes and their adult hair coat is white, dappled, or white intermingled with hairs of other colors. Gray horses may be any base color, depending on other color genes present. White hairs begin to appear at or shortly after birth and become lighter as the horse ages. Graying can occur at different rates—very quickly on one horse and very slowly on another, gray horses appear in many breeds, though the color is most commonly seen in breeds descended from Arabian ancestors. People who are unfamiliar with horses may refer to horses as white. However, a horse whose hair coat is completely white will still have black skin. This is how to discern a gray horse from a white horse, white horses usually have pink skin and sometimes even have blue eyes. Young horses with hair coats consisting of a mixture of colored, Some horses that carry dilution genes may also be confused with white or gray. While gray is commonly called a color by breed registries. It is a dominant allele, and thus a horse only one copy of the gray allele. A homozygous gray horse, one carrying two gray alleles, will always produce gray foals, gray is common in many breeds. Today, about one horse in 10 carries the mutation for graying with age, the vast majority of Lipizzaners are gray, as are the majority of Andalusian horses. Many breeds of French draft horse such as the Percheron and Boulonnais are often gray as well, gray is also found among Welsh Ponies, Thoroughbreds, and American Quarter Horses. All of these breeds have common ancestry in the Arabian horse, in particular, all gray Thoroughbreds descend from a horse named Alcocks Arabian, a gray born in 1700. The gray coat color makes up about 3% of Thoroughbreds, gray also occurs in spotted horses such as pintos or Appaloosas, but its effects wash out the contrast of the markings of these patterns. For this reason, some breed registries refuse or cancel registration of gray horses. A gray foal may be any color
26.
Chestnut (coat)
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Chestnut is a hair coat color of horses consisting of a reddish-to-brown coat with a mane and tail the same or lighter in color than the coat. Genetically and visually, chestnut is characterized by the absence of true black hairs. It is one of the most common coat colors, seen in almost every breed of horse. Chestnut is a common coat color but the wide range of shades can cause confusion. The lightest chestnuts may be mistaken for palominos, while the darkest shades can be so dark as to resemble a black coat, chestnuts have dark brown eyes, black skin, and a coat that is entirely devoid of true black hairs. Typical chestnuts are some shade of red or reddish brown, the mane, tail, and legs may be lighter or darker than the body coat, but are never truly black. They may have pink skin beneath any white markings under the areas of white hair, Chestnut is produced by a recessive gene. Unlike many coat colors, chestnut can be true-breeding, that is, some breeds, such as the Budyonny, Suffolk Punch, and Haflinger are exclusively chestnut. Other breeds, such as the Belgian are predominantly chestnut, however, a chestnut horse need not have two chestnut parents. For example, Friesian horses have been selected for many years to be uniformly black, the Ariegeois pony is another example. Chestnuts can vary widely in shade and different terms are used to describe these shades. Collectively, these colors are usually called red by geneticists. A basic chestnut or red horse has a solid coat, with a mane. Sorrel is a used by American stock horse registries to describe red horses with manes. In these registries, chestnut describes the darker shades of red-based coats, colloquially, in the American west, almost all copper-red chestnuts are called sorrel. In other parts of the English-speaking world, some consider a sorrel to be a light chestnut with a flaxen mane, liver chestnut or dark chestnut are not a separate genetic color, but a descriptive term. The genetic controls for the depth of shade are not presently understood, liver chestnuts are a very dark-reddish brown. Liver chestnuts are included in the dark chestnut
27.
Lameness (equine)
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Lameness is an abnormal gait or stance of an animal that is the result of dysfunction of the locomotor system. In the horse, it is most commonly caused by pain, Lameness is a common veterinary problem in racehorses, sport horses, and pleasure horses. It is one of the most costly health problems for the equine industry, Lameness is most commonly caused by pain, but may also be the result of neuromuscular disease or mechanical restriction. Lameness itself is a sign, and not a diagnosis. Pain is the most common cause of lameness in the horse and it is usually the result of trauma or orthopedic disease, but other causes such as metabolic dysfunction, circulatory disease, and infection can also cause pain and subsequent lameness. Orthopedic causes of lameness are very common and may be the result of damage to the hoof, bone, joints, metabolic causes of lameness include hyperkalemic periodic paralysis and polysaccharide storage myopathy, which directly affect muscular function. Circulatory causes of lameness occur when blood flow to an area is compromised and this may be due to abnormal blood clotting, as in the case of aortic-iliac thrombosis, or decreased blood flow to an area, such as is sometimes seen in laminitis. Infectious causes of lameness are the result of inflammation and damage to tissue and these include problems such as cellulitis, hoof abscesses, and septic arthritis. Mechanical lameness is caused by an abnormality, such as scar tissue. Mechanical lameness does not cause pain, classic examples of mechanical lameness include upward fixation of the patella and fibrotic myopathy, but any type of adhesion or fibrosis can cause mechanical lameness. It results in an inability to flex the stifle, so the horse must walk with a hind leg. It is associated with straight hind limb conformation, poor muscling of the limb, stifle trauma. Fibrotic myopathy is caused by damage to the muscles, usually from trauma or intramuscular injection. It results in the formation of scar tissue and produces a characteristic gait where the horse prematurely slaps the ground with its hind foot, neurologic lameness may be the result of infection, trauma, toxicities, or congenital disease. Neurological evaluation of a horse may be warranted if the cause of the lameness is not obvious. Signs more commonly associated with a neurologic cause include unilateral muscle atrophy, paresis, paralysis, stringhalt, caused by damage to the long digital extensor muscle, or from eating the weed Hypochaeris radicata, it produces a gait characterized by rapid, spasmodic hyperflexion of the hind limbs. Normal athletic function is often maintained, at least initially, cerebellar abiotrophy, a rare genetic disorder that occurs in Arabian horses, producing ataxia, a base-wide stance, proprioceptive deficits, and high-stepping gait. Damage to individual nerves will affect the muscles they innervate and subsequently alter gait, radial nerve paralysis will cause a dropped elbow and make it difficult to extend the affected limb
28.
Lanarkshire
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Lanarkshire, also called the County of Lanark is a historic county in the central Lowlands of Scotland. Historically, Lanarkshire was the most populous county in Scotland and, in times, had considerably greater boundaries. Lanarkshire was historically divided between two administrative areas, other significant settlements include Coatbridge, East Kilbride, Motherwell, Airdrie, Blantyre, Cambuslang, Rutherglen, Wishaw and Carluke. In 1975, the county council was abolished and the area absorbed into the larger Strathclyde region, there is also a joint health board, which does not cover Rutherglen and the surrounding area in South Lanarkshire. Without the northern portion of North Lanarkshire, this is also a Lieutenancy area, from the mid-eighteenth century to the early twentieth century Lanarkshire profited from its rich seams of coal in places such as Glenboig. Unfortunately, as the industry developed around Glasgow in the 1700s the price of coal to the city rose under the control of a cartel of coal owners. The solution was to out a canal to take advantage of the good coal deposits of the Monklands area. By 1793, the Monklands canal was completed and the Lanarkshire coal industry thrived, the resulting boom lasted for over 100 years but reached its peak by the second decade of the twentieth century and even two world wars failed to halt the contraction. Output in the county continued to fall and the National Coal Board concentrated investment in Ayrshire, Fife, by 1970 there were only four collieries left in Lanarkshire and the closure of Cardowan in 1983 brought the long decline to an end. Lanarkshire hosted the International Childrens Games in August 2011, a total of 1,300 competitors and coaches, along with administrators and delegates, representing 77 cities from 33 countries worldwide attended
29.
River Clyde
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The River Clyde is a river, that flows into the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. It is the eighth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the second-longest in Scotland, flowing through the major city of Glasgow, it was an important river for shipbuilding and trade in the British Empire. In the early medieval Cumbric language it was known as Clud or Clut, the Clyde is formed by the confluence of two streams, the Daer Water and the Potrail Water. The Southern Upland Way crosses both streams before they meet at Watermeetings to form the River Clyde proper. At this point the Clyde is only 10 kilometres from Tweeds Well, the source of the River Tweed, and 13 kilometres from the Devils Beef Tub, the source of the River Annan. From there it meanders northeastward before turning to the west, its flood plain used for major roads in the area. On the banks of the Clyde, the industrialists David Dale and Robert Owen, built their mills, the mills harness the power of the Falls of Clyde, the most spectacular of which is Cora Linn. A hydroelectric power station generates electricity here, although the mills are now a museum. Between the towns of Motherwell and Hamilton the course of the river has altered to create an artificial loch within Strathclyde Park. Part of the course can still be seen, and lies between the island and the east shore of the loch. The river then flows through Blantyre and Bothwell, where the ruined Bothwell Castle stands on a defensible promontory, past Uddingston and into the southeast of Glasgow the river begins to widen, meandering a course through Rutherglen and Dalmarnock. From there, it flows past the shipbuilding heartlands, through Govan, Partick, Whiteinch, Scotstoun and Clydebank, all of which housed major shipyards, of which only two remain. The river flows out west of Glasgow, past Renfrew, opposite, on the south shore, the river continues past the last Lower Clyde shipyard at Port Glasgow to Greenock where it reaches the Tail of the Bank as the river merges into the Firth of Clyde. At the mouth of the River Clyde there has been a significant issue of oxygen depletion in the water column, the valley of the Clyde was the focus for the G-BASE project from the British Geological Survey in the summer of 2010. The success of the Clyde at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution was driven by the location of Glasgow, tobacco and cotton trade began the drive in the early 18th century. However, the shallow Clyde was not navigable for the largest ocean-going ships, in 1768 John Golborne advised the narrowing of the river and the increasing of the scour by the construction of rubble jetties and the dredging of sandbanks and shoals. A particular problem was the division of the river into two channels by the Dumbuck shoal near Dumbarton. After James Watts report on this in 1769, a jetty was constructed at Longhaugh Point to block off the southern channel and this being insufficient, a training wall called the Lang Dyke was built in 1773 on the Dumbuck shoal to stop water flowing over into the southern channel
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Stallion
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A stallion is a male horse that has not been gelded. Stallion is also used to refer to males of other equids, including zebras, contrary to popular myths, many stallions do not live with a harem of mares. Nor, in natural settings, do they fight each other to the death in competition for mares, being social animals, stallions who are not able to find or win a harem of mares usually band together in stallions-only bachelor groups which are composed of stallions of all ages. Even with a band of mares, the stallion is not the leader of a herd, the leadership role in a herd is held by a mare, known colloquially as the lead mare or boss mare. The mare determines the movement of the herd as it travels to obtain food, water and she also determines the route the herd takes when fleeing from danger. When the herd is in motion, the dominant stallion herds the straggling members closer to the group, when the herd is at rest, all members share the responsibility of keeping watch for danger. The stallion is usually on the edge of the group, to defend the herd if needed, there is usually one dominant mature stallion for every mixed-sex herd of horses. In some cases, a single mature male may be tolerated on the fringes of the herd. One theory is that young male is considered a potential successor. Fillies usually soon join a different band with a dominant stallion different from the one that sired them, colts or young stallions without mares of their own usually form small, all-male, bachelor bands in the wild. Living in a group gives these stallions the social and protective benefits of living in a herd, a bachelor herd may also contain older stallions who have lost their herd in a challenge. Other stallions may directly challenge a herd stallion, or may attempt to steal mares and form a new. In either case, if the two meet, there rarely is a true fight, more often there will be bluffing behavior. Even if a fight for dominance occurs, rarely do opponents hurt each other in the wild because the weaker combatant has a chance to flee. Fights between stallions in captivity may result in injuries, fences and other forms of confinement make it more difficult for the losing animal to safely escape. In the wild, feral stallions have been known to steal or mate with domesticated mares, the stallions reproductive system is responsible for his sexual behavior and secondary sex characteristics. The external genitalia comprise, the testes, which are suspended horizontally within the scrotum. The testes of a stallion are ovoids 8 to 12 cm long,6 to 7 cm high by 5 cm wide
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Mare
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A mare is an adult female horse or other equine. In most cases, a mare is a horse over the age of three, and a filly is a female horse three and younger. In Thoroughbred horse racing, a mare is defined as a horse more than four years old. The word can also be used for other female equine animals, particularly mules and zebras, a broodmare is a mare used for breeding. A horses female parent is known as its dam, an uncastrated adult male horse is called a stallion and a castrated male is a gelding. Occasionally, the horse is used to designate only a male horse. Mares carry their young for approximately 11 months from conception to birth, usually just one young is born, twins are rare. When a domesticated mare foals, she nurses the foal for at least four to six months before it is weaned, the estrous cycle, also known as season or heat of a mare occurs roughly every 19–22 days and occurs from early spring into autumn. As the days shorten, most mares enter a period during the winter. The reproductive cycle in a mare is controlled by the photoperiod, as the days shorten, the mare returns to the anestrus period when she is not sexually receptive. However, for most competitive purposes, foals are given a birthday of January 1. Therefore, many breeding farms begin to put mares under lights in late winter in order to bring out of anestrus early. One exception to this rule is the field of endurance riding. Fillies are sexually mature by age two and are bred at that age, but generally should not be bred until they themselves have stopped growing. A healthy, well-managed mare can produce a foal every year into her twenties, in addition, some mares become anxious when separated from their foals, even temporarily, and thus are difficult to manage under saddle until their foals are weaned. Mares are considered easier to handle than stallions, however, geldings have little to no hormone-driven behavior patterns at all, thus sometimes they are preferred to both mares and stallions. Mares have a notorious, if generally undeserved, reputation for being marish, however, there is considerable evidence that much marish behavior is mostly the result of humans expecting or allowing the mare to misbehave. Because horses in general are very attuned to the state of their riders, expectation by a rider of difficult manners during estrus can create a self-fulfilling prophecy
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Foal
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A foal is an equine up to one year old, the term is used mainly for horses. More specific terms are colt for a foal and filly for a female foal. When the foal is nursing from its dam, it may also be called a suckling, after it has been weaned from its dam, it may be called a weanling. When a mare is pregnant, she is said to be in foal, when the mare gives birth, she is foaling, and the impending birth is usually stated as to foal. After a horse is one old, it is no longer a foal. There are no special age-related terms for young horses older than yearlings, when young horses reach breeding maturity, the terms change, a filly over three is called a mare, and a colt over three is called a stallion. A castrated male horse is called a gelding regardless of age, however, colloquially, horses that mature at a small size are called ponies and occasionally confused with foals. However, body proportions are very different, an adult pony can be ridden and put to work, but a foal, regardless of size, is too young to be ridden or used as a working animal. Foals, whether they grow up to be horse or pony-sized, can be distinguished from adult horses by their long legs and small. Their heads and eyes also exhibit juvenile characteristics, although ponies exhibit some neoteny with the wide foreheads and small size, their body proportions are similar to that of an adult horse. Pony foals are proportionally smaller than adults, but like horse foals, foals are born after a gestation period of approximately 11 months. Birth takes place quickly, consistent with the status of a horse as a prey animal, a newborn foals legs are almost as long as those of an adult horse. Healthy foals grow quickly and can put on up to three pounds or over a kilo a day, a sound diet improves growth and leads to a healthier adult animal, although genetics also plays a part. In the first weeks of life the foal gets everything it needs from the mares milk, like a human infant, it receives nourishment and antibodies from the colostrum in milk that is produced within the first few hours or days following parturition. The mare needs additional water to help her produce milk for the foal, a foal may start to eat solids from ten days of age, after eight to ten weeks it will need more nutrition than the mares milk can supply, supplementary feeding is required by then. It is important when adding solid food to the diet to not feed the foal excessively or feed an improperly balanced diet. This can trigger one of several possible growth disorders that can cause lifelong soundness problems, on the other hand, insufficient nutrition to mare or foal can cause stunted growth and other health problems for the foal as it gets older. A foal that has been weaned but is less one year old is called a weanling
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James Hamilton, 6th Duke of Hamilton
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James George Hamilton, 6th Duke of Hamilton and 3rd Duke of Brandon, KT was a Scottish peer. Hamilton was the son of the 5th Duke of Hamilton and was styled as Marquess of Clydesdale from his birth until his fathers death and he was educated at Winchester College from 1734 to 1740 and graduated from St Mary Hall, Oxford on 14 April 1743. On 14 February 1752, Hamilton met the society beauty Elizabeth Gunning at Bedford House in London, according to Robert Walpole, the duke wished to marry her that night and he called for a local parson to perform the ceremony. However, without a licence, calling of banns and a ring and he died on 17 January 1758, aged 33, at Great Tew, Oxfordshire from a cold caught whilst out hunting. He was buried in February 1758 at the mausoleum at Hamilton. The Duke of Hamilton was a member of the local Masonic Lodge, Elizabeth Gunning Lodge Hamilton Kilwinning No.7 Pedigree at Genealogics
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Driving (horse)
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It encompasses a wide range of activities from pleasure driving, to harness racing, to farm work, horse shows, and even International combined driving competition sanctioned by the FEI. The term in harness often is used to describe a horse being driven, for horse training purposes, driving may also include the practice of long-lining, wherein a horse is driven without a cart by a handler walking behind or behind and to the side of the animal. This technique is used in the stages of training horses for riding as well as for driving. Horses, mules and donkeys are driven in harness in many different ways, for working purposes, they can pull a plow or other farm equipment designed to be pulled by animals. In many parts of the world they still pull carts, wagons, horse-drawn boats or logs for basic hauling and they may draw carriages at ceremonies, such as when the British monarch is Trooping the Colour, as well as in parades or for tourist rides. Horses can race in harness, pulling a very lightweight cart known as a sulky. Draft horse showing, Most draft horse performance competition is done in harness, draft horses compete in both single and multiple hitches, judged on manners and performance. Carriage driving, using somewhat larger two or four wheeled carriages, often restored antiques, pulled by a horse, a tandem or four-in-hand team. Pleasure competitions are judged on the turnout/neatness or suitability of horse, nearly any breed of horse can be trained for pleasure driving. Fine harness, Also called formal driving, horses are hitched to a light four-wheeled cart and shown in a manner that emphasizes flashy action and dramatic performance. Refined pony breeds and certain light saddle horse breeds noted for their action are most often seen in fine harness, roadsters are shown at two types of trot, known as road gait and at speed. A team is more than one animal used together for draft, the animals may be arranged in various ways. While a single animal is placed between two shafts, a pair is usually hitched side by side with a single pole between them. A troika is a team hitched in a row of three, the center horse in shafts and each of the other two hitched on either side. A tandem hitch has one animal in shafts, then one or more others hitched ahead of the first in single file. Larger teams are usually in pairs, with four, six or even more animals overall, sometimes other arrangements are used, such as the unicorn, and the pickaxe. Teams larger than six are generally limited to situations where large loads must be hauled over difficult ground, for example, eight-ox plowing teams were once common on the heavy soils of southern England, as were very large ox teams used in 19th century South Africa. Twenty-mule teams were used in the century for hauling ore in California
35.
Filly
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A filly is a female horse that is too young to be called a mare. There are two definitions in use, In most cases, a filly is a female horse under four years old. In some nations, such as the United Kingdom and the United States, fillies are sexually mature by two and are sometimes bred at that age, but generally, they should not be bred until they themselves have stopped growing, usually by four or five. Some fillies may exhibit estrus as yearlings, the equivalent term for a male is a colt. When horses of either sex are less than one year, they are referred to as foals, horses of either sex between one and two years old may be called yearlings
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Glasgow
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Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland, and third largest in the United Kingdom. Historically part of Lanarkshire, it is now one of the 32 council areas of Scotland and it is situated on the River Clyde in the countrys West Central Lowlands. Inhabitants of the city are referred to as Glaswegians, Glasgow grew from a small rural settlement on the River Clyde to become the largest seaport in Britain. From the 18th century the city grew as one of Great Britains main hubs of transatlantic trade with North America. Glasgow was the Second City of the British Empire for much of the Victorian era and Edwardian period, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries Glasgow grew in population, reaching a peak of 1,128,473 in 1939. The entire region surrounding the conurbation covers about 2.3 million people, at the 2011 census, Glasgow had a population density of 8, 790/sq mi, the highest of any Scottish city. Glasgow hosted the 2014 Commonwealth Games and is well known in the sporting world for the football rivalry of the Old Firm between Celtic and Rangers. Glasgow is also known for Glasgow patter, a dialect that is noted for being difficult to understand by those from outside the city. Glasgow is the form of the ancient Cumbric name Glas Cau. Possibly referring to the area of Molendinar Burn where Glasgow Cathedral now stands, the later Gaelic name Baile Glas Chu, town of the grey dog, is purely a folk-etymology. The present site of Glasgow has been settled since prehistoric times, it is for settlement, being the furthest downstream fording point of the River Clyde, the origins of Glasgow as an established city derive ultimately from its medieval position as Scotlands second largest bishopric. Glasgow increased in importance during the 10th and 11th centuries as the site of this bishopric, reorganised by King David I of Scotland and John, there had been an earlier religious site established by Saint Mungo in the 6th century. The bishopric became one of the largest and wealthiest in the Kingdom of Scotland, bringing wealth, sometime between 1189 and 1195 this status was supplemented by an annual fair, which survives as the Glasgow Fair. Glasgow grew over the following centuries, the first bridge over the River Clyde at Glasgow was recorded from around 1285, giving its name to the Briggait area of the city, forming the main North-South route over the river via Glasgow Cross. The founding of the University of Glasgow in 1451 and elevation of the bishopric to become the Archdiocese of Glasgow in 1492 increased the towns religious and educational status and landed wealth. Its early trade was in agriculture, brewing and fishing, with cured salmon and herring being exported to Europe, Glasgow was subsequently raised to the status of Royal Burgh in 1611. The citys Tobacco Lords created a water port at Port Glasgow on the Firth of Clyde. By the late 18th century more than half of the British tobacco trade was concentrated on Glasgows River Clyde, at the time, Glasgow held a commercial importance as the city participated in the trade of sugar, tobacco and later cotton
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Crossbreed
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A crossbreed or crossbred usually refers to an organism with purebred parents of two different breeds, varieties, or populations. The term outcross is used to describe a type of crossbreeding used within a breed to increase the genetic diversity within the breed. In animal breeding, crossbreed describes crosses within a single species, in plant breeding terminology, the term crossbreed is uncommon. No universal term is used to distinguish hybridization or crossing within a population from those between populations, or even those between species, however, some nascent breeds such as the Aegean cat are developed entirely from a local landrace population. Most experimental cat breeds are crossbreeds, in cattle, there are systems of crossbreeding. In many crossbreeds, one is larger than the other, the large number of breeds of sheep, which vary greatly, creates an opportunity for crossbreeding to be used to tailor production of lambs to the goal of the individual stockman. Results of crossbreeding classic and woolly breeds of llama are unpredictable, the resulting offspring displays physical characteristics of either parent, or a mix of characteristics from both, periodically producing a fleeced llama. The results are increasingly unpredictable when both parents are crossbreeds, with possibility of the offspring displaying characteristics of a grandparent, not obvious in either parent. A crossbred dog is a cross between two known breeds, and is distinguished from a mixed-breed dog, which has ancestry from many sources. Crossbreeds are popular, due to the belief that they have increased vigor without loss of attractiveness of the dog, certain planned crossbreeding between purebred dogs of different breeds can produce puppies worth more than their purebred parents, due to a high demand. Crossbreeding in horses is often done with the intent of creating a new breed of horse. One type of modern crossbreeding in horses is used to create many of the warmblood breeds, a hybrid animal is one with parentage of two separate species, differentiating it from crossbred animals, which have parentage of the same species. Hybrids are usually, but not always, sterile, one of the most ancient types of hybrid animal is the mule, a cross between a female horse and a male donkey. The liger is a cross between a male lion and female tiger. The yattle is a cross between a cow and a yak, other crosses include the tigon and yakalo. The Incas recognized that hybrids of Lama glama and Lama pacos resulted in a hybrid with none of the advantages of either parent, at one time it was thought that dogs and wolves were separate species, and the crosses between dogs and wolves were called wolf hybrids. Today wolves and dogs are both recognized as Canis lupus, but the old term wolf hybrid is still used, a mixed-breed animal is defined as having undocumented or unknown parentage, while a crossbreed generally has known, usually purebred parents of two distinct breeds or varieties. A dog of unknown parentage is often called a mixed-breed dog, a cat of unknown parentage is often referred to as domestic short-haired or domestic long-haired cat generically, and in some dialects is often called a moggy
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British Empire
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The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It originated with the possessions and trading posts established by England between the late 16th and early 18th centuries. At its height, it was the largest empire in history and, for over a century, was the foremost global power. By 1913, the British Empire held sway over 412 million people, 23% of the population at the time. As a result, its political, legal, linguistic and cultural legacy is widespread, during the Age of Discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal and Spain pioneered European exploration of the globe, and in the process established large overseas empires. Envious of the great wealth these empires generated, England, France, the independence of the Thirteen Colonies in North America in 1783 after the American War of Independence caused Britain to lose some of its oldest and most populous colonies. British attention soon turned towards Asia, Africa, and the Pacific, after the defeat of France in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, Britain emerged as the principal naval and imperial power of the 19th century. In the early 19th century, the Industrial Revolution began to transform Britain, the British Empire expanded to include India, large parts of Africa and many other territories throughout the world. In Britain, political attitudes favoured free trade and laissez-faire policies, during the 19th Century, Britains population increased at a dramatic rate, accompanied by rapid urbanisation, which caused significant social and economic stresses. To seek new markets and sources of raw materials, the Conservative Party under Benjamin Disraeli launched a period of imperialist expansion in Egypt, South Africa, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand became self-governing dominions. By the start of the 20th century, Germany and the United States had begun to challenge Britains economic lead, subsequent military and economic tensions between Britain and Germany were major causes of the First World War, during which Britain relied heavily upon its empire. The conflict placed enormous strain on the military, financial and manpower resources of Britain, although the British Empire achieved its largest territorial extent immediately after World War I, Britain was no longer the worlds pre-eminent industrial or military power. In the Second World War, Britains colonies in Southeast Asia were occupied by Imperial Japan, despite the final victory of Britain and its allies, the damage to British prestige helped to accelerate the decline of the empire. India, Britains most valuable and populous possession, achieved independence as part of a larger movement in which Britain granted independence to most territories of the empire. The transfer of Hong Kong to China in 1997 marked for many the end of the British Empire, fourteen overseas territories remain under British sovereignty. After independence, many former British colonies joined the Commonwealth of Nations, the United Kingdom is now one of 16 Commonwealth nations, a grouping known informally as the Commonwealth realms, that share a monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. The foundations of the British Empire were laid when England and Scotland were separate kingdoms. In 1496, King Henry VII of England, following the successes of Spain and Portugal in overseas exploration, Cabot led another voyage to the Americas the following year but nothing was ever heard of his ships again
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Horses in World War I
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The use of horses in World War I marked a transitional period in the evolution of armed conflict. This paralleled the development of tanks, which would ultimately replace cavalry in shock tactics, while the perceived value of the horse in war changed dramatically, horses still played a significant role throughout the war. All of the combatants in World War I began the conflict with cavalry forces. Germany stopped using them on the Western Front soon after the war began, the Ottoman Empire used cavalry extensively during the war. On the Allied side, the United Kingdom used mounted infantry and cavalry charges throughout the war, although not particularly successful on the Western Front, Allied cavalry did have some success in the Middle Eastern theatre, against a weaker and less technologically advanced enemy. Russia used cavalry forces on the Eastern Front, but with limited success, the military mainly used horses for logistical support, they were better than mechanized vehicles at traveling through deep mud and over rough terrain. Horses were used for reconnaissance and for carrying messengers, as well as pulling artillery, ambulances, the presence of horses often increased morale among the soldiers at the front, but the animals contributed to disease and poor sanitation in camps, caused by their manure and carcasses. Ultimately, the blockade of Germany prevented the Central Powers from importing horses to replace those lost, by the end of the war, even the well-supplied U. S. Army was short of horses. Conditions were severe for horses at the front, they were killed by fire, suffered from skin disorders. Hundreds of thousands of horses died, and many more were treated at veterinary hospitals, procuring fodder was a major issue, and Germany lost many horses to starvation. Several memorials have been erected to commemorate the horses that died, artists, including Alfred Munnings, extensively documented the work of horses in the war, and horses were featured in war poetry. Novels, plays and documentaries have featured the horses of World War I. Many British tacticians outside of the cavalry units realized before the war advances in technology meant that the era of mounted warfare was coming to an end. However, many cavalry officers disagreed, and despite limited usefulness. Scarce wartime resources were used to train and maintain cavalry regiments that were rarely used, the continued tactical use of the cavalry charge resulted in the loss of many troops and horses in fruitless attacks against machine guns. Early in the war, cavalry skirmishes occurred on several fronts, britains cavalry were trained to fight both on foot and mounted, but most other European cavalry still relied on the shock tactic of mounted charges. There were isolated instances of shock combat on the Western Front. This plan never came to fruition due to missed opportunities and the use of guns by German forces
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World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
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The Livestock Conservancy
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It has initiated programs that have saved multiple breeds from extinction, and works closely with similar organizations in other countries, including Rare Breeds Canada. With 3,000 members, a staff of nine and a 19-member board of directors and it has also developed and published several heritage definitions, including parameters for heritage breeds of cattle and poultry. The organization also sustains programs that deal with preserving and promoting endangered cattle and pig breeds, Breeds that the Conservancy has assisted in saving include the Carolina Marsh Tacky horse, Randall cattle, Red Wattle hogs and the American rabbit. This awareness was partially due to difficulties encountered in obtaining heritage breeds for living history sites, as a result, these historians and others decided to attempt preservation of other rare breeds facing extinction. On March 16,1977, the American Minor Breeds Conservancy was incorporated in Vermont, a similar organization in Great Britain, the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, had been formed in 1973. The organization conducted its first comprehensive survey of American livestock breeds in 1985, since then, the survey has been repeated every five years, with the status of endangered breeds being monitored in between. The initial survey was called the most comprehensive assessment of livestock genetic resources ever conducted in the United States. In 1986, an organization, Rare Breeds Canada, was formed. In 1993, the changed its name to the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy. In 2013, the organization shortened its name to The Livestock Conservancy. The Livestock Conservancy is headquartered in Pittsboro, North Carolina and its mission is to protect genetic diversity in livestock and poultry species through the conservation and promotion of endangered breeds. According to its literature, the Livestock Conservancy is funded by grants, sales of publications and promotional materials, membership dues, publications sold include books on conservation and genetics, livestock husbandry, farming operations and breed guides. By 2009, this amount had jumped to more than US$440,000, mainly from donations, grants and service revenue. In 1998, the organization claimed slightly over US$288,000 in expenses, allocated mainly to program services, the organization claims around 3,000 members as of 2009, a number up from 2,300 in 1989. It operates with a staff of nine, headed by a director. The preservation of various breeds and strains, including some that are rare today, was once undertaken in North America in large part by large agriculture-focused colleges and universities. However, many of these institutions have changed their focus to commercial or crossbred strains, the Livestock Conservancy and Rare Breeds Canada intervened in some of these cases, leading to the survival and preservation of some gene stocks. The United States Department of Agriculture participates in livestock preservation mainly through technology-based approaches such as gene mapping, the Livestock Conservancy has been instrumental in preserving live populations of many rare livestock breeds in the US
