Fun Facts about the horse's body!
The horse's body is uniquely constructed. Here are 10 interesting facts: do you know them all?

1. Bones?

The average horse skeleton consists of approximately 205 bones, although this number can vary depending on the breed. Arabians, for example, tend to have fewer vertebrae and ribs than other breeds. Compared to the 206 bones in a human skeleton, this number is not that surprising. Perhaps horses and humans are not so different after all?

2. The collarbone

Did you know that horses do not have a collarbone or clavicle? Their front legs are not connected to their spine by bones, but by muscles and tendons. This has a major advantage: when running, their movement is not restricted by a collarbone that could get in the way. This allows their shoulder blades to move freely. As a result, horses can move much more freely!

Another fun fact: The lack of a functioning clavicle isn’t unique to horses. Dogs and cats for example have a vestigial clavicle.Their collarbone is basically a small piece of bone floating free between all the muscles!

3. Horses have a middle finger?!

It may sound strange, but horses actually walk on “the finger”. The main structure in the leg is known as the “cannon bone”, which corresponds to the human middle finger. During evolution, the other fingers disappeared, although the remains of the second and fourth fingers can still be seen as “splint bones”?

4. Heavy horses.

A horse's skeleton accounts for almost half of its body weight. This means that, depending on the size of the horse, its bones make up about 40 per cent of its total weight. By comparison, in humans this is only about 15 per cent. That's a huge difference!

5. Fairy slippers

When foals are born, they have soft tissue coverings on their hooves, also known as “fairy slippers”. These protective tissues help to protect the mother's birth canal during birth. This ensures that the birth goes as smoothly as possible for both mare and foal!

6. Crazy grandparents.

The ancestors of the horse have some crazy names. If you go back a long way in time, you will come across the Eohippus, the earliest member of the horse family. These ancient horses lived about 50 million years ago and were quite advanced for their time. These horses were much smaller than their family members we know today.

7. Natural air conditioning!

Horses have an amazing thermoregulation system in their bones. Their large nasal cavities help cool the blood that goes to the brain. This keeps the horse a little cooler.

8. Sixth sense...

Horses have a kind of sixth sense in their bones. They are incredibly sensitive to vibrations through the ground. This ability helps them detect danger or changes in their environment. That sounds like a pretty cool superpower, if you ask me!

9. Muscular ears?

Horses have as many as 10 muscles in their ears, while humans only have 3! This allows horses to move their ears in all kinds of different directions, enabling them to pick up sounds better and respond more effectively to their surroundings.

10. Plenty of room for heartbreak.

A horse's heart typically weighs between 4 and 4.5 kilograms and is about the size of a basketball. So horses certainly have enough room to share their love, as long as they don't get their hearts broken…