Horse Breeds and Colors

Study Notes

Breed Definition and Color

A breed is a group of animals of the same species that share common traits.
Colors vary based on breeds, including:
- Bay: brown with a black mane and tail, and often black on the legs
- Chestnut: darker brown with a mane and tail of the same color
- Sorrel: lighter brown with a mane and tail of the same color
- Grey: various shades with dark skin, often with dapples or flea-bits
- Black: black coat and skin
- White: rare, with a white coat and skin, often referred to as albino if it has pink eyes
- Palomino: coat is the color of a new-minted penny, with a white mane and tail
- Buckskin: yellow coat with a black mane, tail, and legs
- Dun: various shades of yellow, always with a dorsal stripe
- Roan: can be strawberry (red and white) or blue (black and white)

Health

Normal temperature: 99.5-101.5°F
Normal heart rate: 32-48 beats per minute
Normal respiratory rate: 8-20 breaths per minute
Body condition/weight: normal is a score of 5-6, with variations for performance horses and broodmares
Hair coat: shiny and glossy
Hoof growth: normal rate, smooth and uncracked
Eyes: bright, fully open, clear, and without discharge
Normal hydration: normal feces and urine, with firm fecal balls and wheat-colored clear urine
Healthy pink mucous membranes of gums and lips

Body Condition Score

Most horses should be in a body score of 5-6
Broodmares should be a 5-7 for optimum reproductive efficiency
Horses over a condition score of 7 may be at a greater risk for developing metabolic disorders

Vitamins and Minerals

Vitamins are required for health, development, and metabolic reactions
Divided into two groups: fat-soluble and water-soluble
Micro minerals (or trace minerals) are essential for life and health

Water

The most important nutrient, accounting for 70% or more of the composition of most plants and animals
Functions of water in the body include:
- Controlling body temperature
- Enabling living plants and animals to hold their shape
- Involvement in the transport of nutrients and waste throughout the body
- Helping in the digestion of feeds
- Being a major part of all body fluids

Signs of a Sick Horse

Bowel changes
Cranky behavior with other horses
Unsteady gait
Depression
Head shaking/tossing
Restless behavior
Lying down and getting up repeatedly
Rapid breathing
Unexplained sweating
Excitability

Digestive System

Digestive systems vary according to whether the animals are herbivores, carnivores, or omnivores
Food is swallowed directly into the single compartment stomach, where it is mixed with digestive juices
Monogastrics are unable to digest large quantities of fiber unless they have an enlarged cecum
The cecum acts like a rumen and is involved with microbial digestion (fermentation)
Bacterial breakdown happens in the large intestine and particularly in the cecum of the horse and rabbit

Selecting and Judging Horses

Requires knowledge and information
Breeds
Conformation/structure and parts of a horse
Soundness
Movement

Conformation

The physical structure of a horse's or pony's body
Dictates athletic ability and ability to stay sound
Used when judging horses

Nutrition

All feeds include six basic nutrients: protein, carbohydrates, lipids, minerals, vitamins, and water
Protein:
- Provides essential amino acids
- Are essential in livestock feeding for growth and repair
- Helps to form the greater part of muscles, internal organs, skin, hair, wool, feathers, hoofs, and horns
- Contains carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen
Carbohydrates:
- Used as energy to enhance movement for body functions, growth, fattening, reproduction, etc.
- Represent the largest part of an animal's feed supply
- Usually the fibrous part of the diet
- Include sugars, starch, and cellulose
- Composed of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen
Fats:
- A concentrated source of energy, up to 2.25 times as much energy per unit of weight as carbohydrates
- Form cholesterol, steroids, and other body compounds
- Found in every cell in the body
- When absent from the diet, affects the condition of the skin and hair
- Composed of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, but contain much larger proportions of carbon and hydrogen than carbohydrates
- Other functions:
  - Energy reserves
  - Protection for vital organs
  - Insulate the body
Minerals:
- Needed in nearly all parts of the body, but are found primarily in bones and teeth
- Make up important parts of many organic materials, including blood
- Affect heartbeat, which depends upon mineral balance to maintain its regularity
- Involved in nerve transmission
- Divided into two groups based on amounts needed by the body: macro minerals and micro minerals