Horse
Equus caballus

Horses are hooved mammals with barrel-shaped bodies and long legs. Horses are equines, along with zebras and donkeys. The more than 300 domestic horse breeds are descended from wild horses. One wild ancestor, the Asian Wild Horse, can be found on the Zoo’s Northern Trail.

What They Eat
Horses are herbivores, or plant-eaters. With their long necks and specialized teeth, they graze for grasses in pastures or in the wild. Domestic horses generally eat a diet of hay or grass and grain. Horses need plenty of water, about 10-12 gallons per day on average.

Where They Live
Horses live where humans do, except in Antarctica. Small, hairy Icelandic horses survive on arctic tundra, while Arabian horses are adapted to the desert. Wherever they live, horses both domestic and wild require grass and water.

What They Do
If allowed to graze, horses will spend several hours each day foraging for grass. In the wild, these social animals form bands or herds dominated by a powerful stallion. Both wild and domestic horses groom each other and communicate using body language, neighs, and snorts.

How They’re Doing
In general, horses are doing well around the world. But some breeds, including the Zoo’s American Cream draft horses, are rare. The horse’s wild ancestor, the Asian Wild Horse, was nearly extinct and has only recently been reintroduced into the wild.

Horse

Wherever English is spoken, people measure horses in “hands.” One hand equals 4 inches. A horse’s height is measured from the ground to the withers, the point where the neck meets the back.

Horsepower measures the power output of something, such as a car engine. Engineer Thomas Watt came up with the term in the late 1700's as a way of explaining how much power could be derived from a horse, compared to the typical output of new-fangled steam engines.

American Cream draft horses are born with eyes that are practically white. Their eyes darken to an amber color during their first year of life.

Nearly all American Creams can trace their ancestry back to one cream-colored mare, named Old Granny, who lived in Iowa in the early 1900s.

Because they are calm, not skittish in crowds, American Cream draft horses are becoming popular with law enforcement for mounted police patrols.

Helpful hints for viewing the animals

The Farm is open from April through October.

Visitors may also catch a glimpse of American Creams exercising in the pasture on the south side of the Country Road.

A schedule for special events at the Wells Fargo Family Farm is available at the Zoo’s Guest Services desk. Allow plenty of travel time to get to the from the Zoo entrance. Access to the Wells Fargo Family Farm is about halfway around the 1.4 mile Northern Trail Loop.

 

  

Horse

A small group of domestic horses live at the Wells Fargo Family Farm. All are draft horses, bred to pull wagons and plows. On modern American farms, draft horses have largely been replaced by tractors and other motorized equipment.

The horses at the Well Fargo Family Farm are symbols of farming’s past. Because the horses are members of an endangered breed, they also reflect the Zoo’s commitment to preserving rare and endangered breeds.

Meet the Animals

All three of the Zoo’s domestic horses are American Cream draft horses, now are a critically endangered breed. These horses are easily identified by their cream-colored coats and large, powerful bodies.

Two of the horses—brothers Duke and Prince—are recognized by many frequent Zoo visitors. They were born in Michigan: Duke in 1992 and Prince in 1993. The geldings worked for two years on an Amish farm before coming to the Zoo. Duchess, a mare also owned by the Zoo, was born in 2003.

Home on the Farm

Horses at the Zoo pasture at the Wells Fargo Family Farm. They can most commonly be seen on the Country Road, linking the Farm to the Northern Trail.

Care at the Zoo

American Cream draft horses are cared for by Zoo staff at the Horse Barn. When not pulling the farm wagon, these animals enjoy grazing in pastures on the 6-acre Wells Fargo Family Farm.

As working horses, the Zoo’s American Creams need regular grooming and careful shoe maintenance. Shoes are required to protect the hoof from cracking and bruising, to keep the horses evenly balanced, to protect the hoof from the elements, and to improve traction when the horses pull farm equipment.

The Zoo’s horses are shoed every 6 weeks. Farm workers use a “shoeing stock.” This Amish-made device humanely restrains the horse while staff work on the hooves. Horses at the Zoo wear rubber shoes in summer and metal shoes with cleats in winter.

As with all horses, the Zoo’s American Creams are herbivores, or plant-eaters. Their diet consists of grasses, vegetables, and other plants.

 

Horse

What’s a Breed?
A breed is a group of animals or plants sharing common ancestors and many of the same traits. There are more than 300 different breeds of domestic horse worldwide.

The Minnesota Zoo showcases a critically endangered horse breed, the American Cream draft horse. The Zoo is also home to one of the domestic horse’s wild ancestors, the endangered Przewalski’s or Asian Wild Horse.

So Many Kinds
Over time, people have bred different kinds of horses for different purposes. Some breeds have a particular gait, or way of running and walking. Some are especially fast. Others are a particular color. Still more have been bred for their size and strength.

Selective breeding occurs when people select animals with specific traits and breed those animals to enhance those traits. One example is the Friesian.

This very old horse breed comes from a part of the Netherlands. Monks in the Friesland area bred the large and powerful Forest Horse with lighter horses. Through selective breeding, monks and area farmers were able to develop a breed that was lighter than the Forest Horse but still strong and stocky. The Friesian was also pure black. A good trotter, the Friesian has been prized as a carriage-pulling horse.

The Friesian is beautiful to look at. It preserves and enhances many desirable horse traits. In this way, the Friesian and other breeds contribute to the health of horses as a whole.

Below, you’ll find more information about how another breed—the American Cream draft horse found at the Minnesota Zoo—came to be.

Breeds at the Zoo

American Cream Draft Horse

The American Cream draft horse is the only breed of draft horse to have been developed in the United States. Now a critically endangered breed, the American Cream is growing in number. But there are fewer than 400 American Cream draft horses today.

The name “American Cream” comes from the horse’s American origins and its creamy coat color. While once thought to be a color variation among draft horses, the American Cream was revealed to be a distinct draft horse breed after genetic research in the 1990s.

American Creams vary from pure white to a rich gold. They have white markings and white or flaxen manes and tails. These horses also have fringe-like leg hair, called feather.

Along with their distinctive coat color, American Creams are distinguished by their pink skin color. This skin color turns to gray around the muzzle and eyes. But it remains pink under the coat, giving American Creams a rich glow.

American Creams have amber or hazel eyes. In foals, the eyes are nearly white, becoming darker in the first year of life.

As with other draft horses—horses bred to pull heavy loads—American Creams are large, powerfully built animals. Male American Creams can weigh as much as 2,000 pounds, standing 5 ft. 6 inches., or up to 17 hands, at the withers. Females are smaller, weighing about 1,600 pounds and standing 5 feet., or 15 hands, tall.

Compared to some other horse breeds, American Creams are relatively short. But their shoulders and hind quarters are well muscled, allowing them to pull heavy loads easily.

Nearly all American Cream draft horses are thought to be descended from one mare. This horse, named Old Granny, was bred in the early 1900s in Story County, Iowa. Old Granny’s origins are not known, but she was all draft horse and creamy white.

After being bred to other draft horses, including Shires, Percherons, and Belgians, Old Granny’s cream-colored offspring were selected for further breeding. In 1944, the American Cream Horse Association of America was founded.

Strong and powerfully built, American Creams were ideal for pulling plows and harvesting machines. They fit in well to traditional farming before the advent of large, motorized equipment. But powerful draft horses would not always be essential on American farms.

With the rise of mechanized farming, the breed nearly become extinct. By 1984, only 29 American Cream draft horses were left. Because of the interest of breeders in this calm, compliant, and hard-working horse, the American Cream has been making a comeback.

American Creams today live mainly in the farm belt states of the American Midwest. While some are working farm horses, like the Zoo’s American Creams, others are used in law enforcement for mounted police patrols.

 

 

 

 

Horse

If you want to know more about domestic horses, look no farther. This Horse Handbook contains general information on domestic horses and specifics about the horses at the Minnesota Zoo’s Wells Fargo Family Farm.

To help you navigate through the wealth of information, here’s a quick topic finder:
What Are Horses?
Horses & People
Horses at the Zoo

What are Horses?

Horses (Equus callabus) are hooved mammals with barrel-shaped bodies and 4 long, slender legs. They are members of the scientific family Equidae, also known as the horse family.

Horses belong to the genus Equus and are called equines. Other members of the genus Equus include zebras and donkeys.

Although they are descended from multi-toed mammals, equines have a single toe, protected by a hoof, on each foot. They are medium to large mammals with manes along the neck and short tails covered with long, coarse hairs.

Horses are herbivores, or plant-eaters. Their long necks allow them to graze for grasses and other plants without having to lie or kneel down.

Although in the wild horses eat primarily grasses, they do not have the 4-chambered stomachs found in other grass-eating herbivores, such as cows. Instead, horses have single-chambered stomachs (as do humans). To aide in the digestion of plants, horses also have a small pouch in the intestines called the cecum. This pouch is filled with bacteria to break down grasses and extract needed nutrients from food.

Horses are prey animals for large carnivores, such as wolves and wild cats. Much of the horse’s behavior can be explained by this fact. A horse startles easily. It will run quickly, leap, and make sudden turns in order to escape predators.

In the wild, horses live in bands or herds. In a band, horses enjoy greater safety from predators. But horses also live together because they are highly social animals.

Horses are able to communicate about danger and distress through signals and body language. A snort, for example, warns the herd of danger, while neighing is a sign of distress. A horse with ears held back may be threatened or angry.

A horse’s ears will turn to follow the sounds of possible predators. The eyes, set high on either side of the head, give a good range of vision. Horses have excellent distance vision, and each eye can move independently of the other.

Horses do have a blind spot. When holding their heads high, that blind spot is behind them. For this reason, people should not approach horses from behind.

Domestic horses are generally mature enough to be trained for the harness or saddle by the age of 2-4 years. Horses generally will not be bred until they are 3-4 years old.

Horses have one of the longest gestations (pregnancies) of any farm animal. Gestation can last 11-14 months for a mare, compared to 4 months for a sow, or female pig.

Mares are ready to mate every 21 days or so. With each pregnancy, mares typically have only one foal.

Foals are able to stand soon after birth. They stay with their mothers for food and safety. Mares are extremely protective. They will stand between their foal and any danger. They will also bite or kick to defend their young.

Foals nurse for at least 4-5 months, moving gradually to a diet of hay or grass and grains. Because horses have small stomachs, they are typically fed small amounts, more than once per day. Horses must also have access to water and some shelter. With proper care, domestic horses may live 20-30 years, although some live considerably longer.

Before horses were domesticated, or tamed,  people hunted them for meat. In North and South America, the first wild horses became extinct about 10,000 years ago, perhaps due to hunting by humans.

Gradually people in parts of Asia and Europe saw that horses might be raised for their meat, milk, and other purposes. The process of taming the wild horse, or domesticating it, began between 4500 and 2500 B.C. By 1000 B.C., domestic horses were an important part of human life in Asia, North Africa, the Middle East, and Europe.

Scientists know of a number of possible wild ancestors for the domestic horse. But there are probably other ancestors for which no fossil remains or other evidence exist today.

At the Minnesota Zoo, visitors can see the Przewalski’s Horse, one ancestor of the domestic horse, on exhibit on the Northern Trail. The only true wild horse still living, the Przewalski’s Horse once roamed across Europe and Asia.

Today, there are about 300 different breeds, or kinds, of domestic horse. They range in size from Falabella miniature ponies, weighing about 31 pounds, to Belgian draft horses, weighing as much as 2400 pounds.

Horses & People

People first used domestic horses for meat, milk, and as pack animals. Horses trained to pull chariots were particularly useful in warfare. After taming horses enough to ride them, people also rode into battle on horseback. Because early warriors wore armor and because war chariots were heavy, people initially preferred powerful horses that could pull or carry large loads.

These powerful draft (pulling) horses were also helpful to people on farms. Lighter, faster horses proved useful to people who needed to travel quickly for trade, to deliver messages or other information, and to get from one place to another before the advent of trains, automobiles, and airplanes.

In North America, domestic horses—all of Eurasian descent—arrived with the Spanish Conquistadors in the 1600s. After some of these Spanish horses got loose, they quickly spread across the Americas.

These domestic horses went back to their wild roots, becoming feral. But they were discovered and tamed by Native Americans, including the Plains Indians of North America. Indians of the American West prized speed and lightness over strength, using domestic horses for light transport and for warfare.

When Europeans came to the West, they used fast, light horses to herd cattle spread across large grazing areas. Cowboys on horseback watched over large herds of cattle, driving them to market each year.

Today, those same Western states—particularly Nevada and Wyoming—are home to many wild horses. These horses are descended from domestic animals who found their way into the wild.

Small populations of wild horses are also found in North America in Nova Scotia and on islands in Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, and Virginia.

In most of the world today, horses are no longer essential to human transportation, trade, or farming. In America, some small religious communities, including the Amish, rely on horses for transportation and farm work. 

Horses have been used to make a variety of products. In Mongolia, people traditionally use horse milk to make a fermented yogurt-like drink. Over the centuries, horse meat has been eaten by people and added to feed for other carnivorous animals.

Tail hairs are coarse and strong, making them useful as bow strings for violins, cellos, and other instruments. Horses’ hooves may be turned into glue, while their hides have been used for clothing and ball coverings.

Some modern medicines are derived from horses. An estrogen taken from the urine of pregnant females has been used as medication for humans.

While many of these uses continue today, modern domestic horses are most often kept by humans for companionship and for the joy of riding. Horses also entertain through the racing industry, horse shows, and rodeos.

Horses at the Zoo

The Zoo’s American Cream draft horses live in the Horse Barn at the Wells Fargo Family Farm. The Zoo owns one mare, named Duchess, and two geldings, or castrated males. All of these horses are working members of the Wells Fargo Family Farm, giving visitors a glimpse of how horses have helped farmers over the years.

Prince and Duke are the Zoo’s two geldings. These medium-heavy draft horses weigh more than 1,800 pounds each and stand 16.5 hands high. Their size and strength make them ideal for harnessing, hitching, and driving.

The pair are well trained, sharing a good disposition and a willingness to work. Their gentle temperaments and lush cream coats make them stand out when harnessed to the Farm Wagon at the Zoo or when participating in parades at the Minnesota State Fair.

The two geldings also do typical farm work, such as plowing and cultivating fields. As is true with other draft horses, they disrupt the soil less than modern heavy farm equipment—causing less soil compaction and less soil erosion on steep terrain.

Horses at the Zoo eat a diet of hay or grass and grains. The Zoo’s American Creams are generally fed twice per day.

Hay and grass are bulk foods. They make the horses feel full. Most horses will eat half a bale or more of hay each day. Hay contains protein, fiber, calcium, and vitamins. Grains give the horses energy. How much grain they require depends on how hard they work.