Thoroughbred Horses

Summary

The Thoroughbred horse is a breed of horse. The Thoroughbred horse is a member of the “hot blooded” group of horses.

Thorough bred horses are outstanding competition horses. Thoroughbred horses are excellent jumpers and are intelligent trainable horses. Thoroughbred horses can often be seen in the show ring and compete at the highest levels of show jumping and dressage. Smaller Thoroughbred horses are in demand as polo ponies due to their agility and great speed. Thoroughbred horses dominate the top levels of eventing as they posses speed, stamina and the ability to jump large obstacles.

The Thoroughbred horse is most famous for being a race horse, and was originally bred to race, but they excel in many equestrian disciplines. They are supreme equine athletes; they are extremely fast, strong and have superb stamina. There is no correlation between the size of the horse and its athletic capabilities, many champion race horses have been under 16 hands.

Characteristics

Thoroughbred horses usually stand from 15.2 to 17 hands, they can be any solid colour, although they are normally bay, black, grey or chestnut. Thoroughbred horses have muscular, lean bodies, they have a defined head, a longer than usual neck, high withers, deep chest, a short back and fine lengthy legs.

History

The Thoroughbred horse was developed in the 17th century in England; three imported Arabian stallions were bred with English mares. All of today’s modern Thoroughbred horses are descendants of the imported Arabian stallions, Darley Arabian, Godolphin Arabian and Byerly Turk.

Thoroughbred horses have artificial birthdays. Horses born in the northern hemisphere all share the 1st of January as their birth date, Thoroughbreds born in the southern hemisphere share the 1st of august , this is to regulate the races for thoroughbreds in age categories.