Horse Tales Trivia Quiz

Answer: one

In modern horses one toe has become the hoof; the others remain as vestigial bumps higher up the leg.

Answer: True

Horses have developed a kind of "stay apparatus"- a system of tendons and ligaments that holds a horse in the standing position while its muscles relax, more or less as a plant hanger holds up a hanging plant.
Horses also use this stay apparatus when awake. In this way they minimize fatigue due to standing. It is not an exaggeration to say that horses can stay standing up for up to three years without showing signs of fatigue.
Nonetheless horses also may lay down to sleep.

Answer: Percherons

Other examples of draught-horses are Suffolk Punch and Clydesdale horses.
Lippizaner horses got their name after Lippiza, a town near Trieste. They're sturdy, compact horses, born black or dark brown and gradually turning white (actually, light-grey) by the time they are five to eight years of age. They are bred and trained at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna.
Haflingers are chestnuts. They range from honey blond to chocolate. Their manes and tails ranges from pure white to flaxen. It's a very versatile horse breed: riding, driving, working.
Its calm temperament makes it a fine children's horse.

Answer: Cortez

Don Quixote rode on a horse called Rocinante and Sancho Panza accompanied him on a mule.
El Cid's horse was called Babieca.
Another famous horse of Asian descent was Buddha's Kantanka.

Answer: Incitatus

Incitatus was the Roman Emperor Caligula's horse. Xantus belonged to Achilles. Alexander the Great's mount was called Bucephalus. And Pegasus, is of course, the mythical flying animal that takes poets into higher spheres.

Answer: Marengo

It was Copenhagen that 'went to Brussels' at the time of the Battle of Waterloo. Al Borak was the prophet Mohammad's horse and Garibaldi rode on a horse named Marsala.
One of the horses Napoleon rode on on the day of Waterloo was named after his famous victory at Marengo. Alas for him, it did not help him that much, and he had, quite unromantically, to make his getaway in a coach.

Answer: It had eight legs.

Other famous mythological or legendary horses are Achilles' horses; the offspring of the West Wind and a harpy. There is also Arion, born from the union of Poseidon and a goddess. Arion was used for battle by Heracles, but was not really Heracles' property.

Answer: Dick Turpin

Dick Turpin was an English Highwayman. Not to be confused with Dick Whittington who is famous for having had a cat and for becoming Lord Mayor of London.
Queen Elisabeth was herself called Queen Bess.
And Jack Straw..well there is still an inn near London called after him: Jack Straw's Castle. Jack Straw was Wat Tyler's Lieutenant. He was about to attack London when he was captured by the King's Men and
hanged.
There is no reason to believe that the British politician of that name
is in any way related to him.

Answer: horse of La Palouse

The name is supposed to come from French la pelouse: grassy area. The Palouse was an area in Northern Idaho, about 90 miles south of Spokane, Washington and 30 miles North of Lewiston, Idaho. Geologically speaking
the Palouse was a lake of lava about 17 million years ago.Its soil is some of the richest agricultural soil in the world.
The four essential characteristics of the Appaloosa horse are its white-circled eye;its mottled skin, its striped hooves and the specific coat pattern.

There is also a Palouse river. Another etymology links the name to Opelousas in Louisiana.

Answer: It has patches of black and white.

Sandy with black mane is a "dun" horse. Patches of brown and white: skewbald. Brown with black mane and legs is a bay horse.
Piebald is a black and white patched horse. The amount of white and black can vary immensely and the pattern on each horse is unique.
A typical colour pattern of piebald horses is that they tend to have "a blaze past one eye to paste the other eye."