Horse Crazy Bookworm

Yesterday I broke a spoon.

But since I broke it making chocolate, it was worth it.  Whether or not my mother agreed with that, I am unsure.

It was a day of writing, baking, Spanish class, and Roman history.  I sort of forgot about math….it was ruled out by cookie dough, eheh, which I was too tired to bake yesterday.  

Now we have cookie dough in our fridge. If you have any curiosity at all about what I’m making, just click here. 

Cookie dough in the fridge gives you something to look forward the the next day.  After I’ve had my walk, and school…and writing, which, technically, is part of school.  (My mother just didn’t tell me that, sneaky woman! ) But since it’s so awesome and such a big part of me, writing isn’t really school. 

So we learned, that day, about the emperor Vitellius, who was a glutton, and about how he was killed, his successor, Vespasian, and Vespasian’s successor Titus.  And we learned about an evil emperor, Domitian. 

I would never name my child Domitian. 

As for Spanish, Hola! Mi nombre es Illuminada. ¿Cuál es tu nombre? Spanish is fun. 

And so passes another homeschooling day in the Bautista family.  

What I learned:

Spanish words that I can’t name right off.  

How interesting and dense the Romans were, and how dearly excited I am for medieval history.

And how Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, is a good movie, and that when daddy said the title over the phone, he didn’t mean Journey to The Mysterious Island.  

I had no idea it was a sequel. 

Question of the day/hour/week: 

What’s your favorite history subject? 

Today, during school, we had a poetry class, and a homework assignment afterwords.  The assignment was that we had to write a poem about the months, days of the week, seasons, or something like that.  Sequence poems, they were called.

I sat on the couch.  After one half-hearted try, I was discouraged, and complaining rather noticeably about how I couldn’t write that poem.

My mother told me that I could just put it off for a little while, to which I responded that I would never get to it that way. (Yes, I do procrastinate.)

Finally I whipped up a little something that took me less than five minutes.

The poem went like this:

Winter was so very cold

It made my hands look chapped and old.

Spring brought flowers and green trees,

And also sparked my allergies.

Summer brought a scorching heat.

A swimming pool could not be beat.

In autumn it was cool again,

And bears retired to their den.

Then came winter, chill and drear,

And so ended another year.

And that was my homework, besides a ridiculously easy science test (Did you know that the cap and stem are only a small portion of the mushroom?) and an art class.

It was fun enough, but I think I like writing poems for my stuffed animals better.

Most wild horses live in herds with a lead stallion and a lead mare. Most colts and fillies are kicked out of the herd when they’re about two years old. Some colts are loners; others gather together in stallion herds. The fillies that are kicked out usually join other herds. The lead mare is the boss of the herd. She leads the herd to different grazing land and is completely responsible for the herd. The lead stallion protects the herd from other stallions and predators. American wild horses are found in the west, and, naturally, they have to travel to get successful eating. They graze on any type of vegetation that they can find.

American wild horses are not truly wild; they’re feral. Feral means that the horses or their decedents were abandoned or ran away or something and turned wild. The only truly wild horse is the Przewalski’s horse (also known as the Mongolian Wild horse) in Mongolia.

Many wild horses live in the American west, and some live in New Zealand. The wild Brumby lives in Australia and the Chincoteague ponies live on the island of Chincoteague.

Zebras are close relatives of horses. They are in the same family: Equidae. They are typically known for their stripes and each one has a different pattern. Sometimes even zebras are caught and tamed. They are found in Africa.

Donkeys are also in the family of horses. There are wild burros too. Donkeys are found all over the world.

They were often used as pack animals before cars were invented. Donkeys can be bred with horses to create mules and hinneys, neither of which can reproduce. Donkeys are also sometimes bred with zebras, making zonkeys.

Wild horses are very strong and tough. They can survive rough weather and live on poor food. Their hooves aren’t as delicate as domesticated horses. This is because when wild horses reproduce, only the foals born strong can survive. The others will die. So after a while, the horses will keep reproducing and weak foals will keep dying and so, after a while, only tough horses will be left, and they’ll mostly give birth to tough foals. This is called natural selection.

When horses are startled, the first thing they’ll think of is startling and running away. In a herd, if the herd is threatened the stallion will usually stay and fight back. When they need to defend themselves, horses will rear up and use their teeth and powerful legs.

Wild horses are very fast. They are some of the fastest horses in the world for long distances. Wild mustangs can run from 30 to 50 mph long distance! These horses can run for hours and not get tired! (They’re probably in good shape too.)

Some wild horses are caught and tamed. Once tamed, they can make wonderful riding horses! They are spirited, beautiful, and interesting! They can become very trustworthy, and they are strong and tough. They are usually smaller than born domesticated horses because of the poor food they eat, but they still make wonderful horse friends.

Horses are certainly beautiful, amazing, and interesting creatures.

Horses were created by God on the sixth day as beautiful creatures that would be friends and helpers to humans forever.

Horses are very beautiful, but they take a lot of time and care. It also costs a lot of money to have one. They need to be fed, groomed, and, exercised every day. They need a place to run and a shelter. And they need special care when they are foaling, old, or sick. Horses are fun to own though. They are fun to ride and make good companions.

People use horses for many things. They used to be the only source of transportation. Now people use them for riding, companions, work horses, competition, and more. Horses are very intelligent and can be trained for different purposes.

There are many jobs that have to do with horses. Trainers, breeders, stable owners, vets, and ranchers are only a few of these. Though most horse jobs take a lot of work, they are very interesting and requirea lot of horse contact.

Most horses can run anywhere from twenty-five to thirty mph. But some Arabians can run about forty to forty-five mph and a quarter horse can run up to fifty-five mph!

As well as being fast, horses are very strong. One of the strongest breeds of horse is the Belgian. Two Belgians can easily pull up to 4,500 pounds. The Shetland pony is also very strong for its size.

Horses are over 14.2 hands high. Any horse under that size is a pony or a miniature horse. The tallest breed of horse is the shire and the smallest is the fallabella miniature horse.

Horses are herbivores, meaning that they never eat meat. They eat plants, but most domesticated horses are fed grain and hay and a bunch of stuff. Western grazing horses (of course) eat things like sagebrush. Horses also enjoy treats such as apples and carrots.

It’s said that horses were first brought to America by Spanish explorers. Because of this, many American horses have Spanish blood. In fact, many of the most popular breeds have Spanish blood, such as Quarter Horses and Mustangs. Horse breeds are split into three groups: hot blooded, warm blooded, and cold blooded. But these are just names and all horses are really warm blooded mammals. Cold blooded horses are strong draft horses bred for pulling heavy loads, such as the Percheron or the Clydesdale. Hot blooded horses are smaller and built for speed, such as the Arabian. And warm blooded horses are in between in size and are both strong and good for riding, such as the Quarter horse.

There are four basic gaits in a horses movements. Most horses know these gaits naturally from birth and don’t need to have it taught to them. Some horses, like the Tennessee walker, have others gaits too.

• The walk is the slowest gait. Its a four beat gait. First the hind right hoof goes forward, then the front right hoof, then the hind left leg, and, last, the front left leg. Each of these gaits can start with any leg.
• The trot is a gait faster than the walk and more bouncy. It is a two beat gait. First the hind right leg and the front left leg move forward at the same time, then the hind left leg and the front right leg move in the same way. It is best to post while trotting. Posting means that you should rise in the saddle on one beat and sit down again on the next.
• The canter is faster than the trot and is a three beat gait. First the hind left leg moves forward, the the hind right leg and front left leg move together, then the front right leg. There’s one point in the canter after the third beat and before the first when the horse is in the air.
• The gallop is the fasted gait and it also has four beats. First the back left leg moves, then the back right leg then the front left leg, and, last, the front right leg. After the fourth beat there’s a pause in sound, which is when the horse is in the air

Horses have a wonderful hearing range. They can hear things much better than humans can. They also have a great sense of smell. Horses have great night vision and can see almost completely around their bodies. Each eye can concentrate on a different thing at the same time. But horses can’t see anything right in front of them, despite their good eyesight.

Horses can sleep standing up because they can lock their hind legs. When they do this, they can’t fall down when they get relaxed and they can quickly move out of this pose if they are threatened or attacked. Sometimes horses sleep lying down. But sometimes when a horse is lying down it means that it is sick. Though it usually only means this if they lie down more than usual or show other signs of sickness. Foals will often lie down, too.

Horses are easily scared. Most are scared to death of fire and some will even run back into a burning barn if they’re nervous. They can be afraid of very tiny, harmless things. Things like paper blowing across the road. When horses are scared of something harmless, they should be allowed to sniff it and see what it is. When horses know that these things are harmless, they won’t be scared anymore. Horses have wonderful memories and they’re very smart, so if something of someone scares them, they’ll remember the scare for a while and, unless the horse is gentle and sound, it will probably be hard to get the scare out.

Horses use body language to communicate with each other. They can show that they’re sick, scared, happy, tired, and more just by movements of their ears, eyes, and body. They have different sounds, too. Such as nickering, whinnying, and neighing. Horses also speak to people in this language and people can learn it. It makes horsemanship much easier when you can understand your horse and it’s needs.