Famous Horses in History

From his boyhood days, Alexander the Great had a beautiful dark colored horse called Bucephalus whom he loved riding. Bucephalus was a stallion of high temper that no one could tame, until the ten-year-old prince succeeded by turning the horse's head into the sun as he'd noticed the stallion's own shadow was upsetting it. Alexander went on to teach the great horse to kneel so that his master could mount him in full armour. Bucephalus served him until his death after the Battle of the Hydaspes in what is now Pakistan in 326BC .

The Roman Emperor Caligula raised his favorite horse Incitatus to the rank of senator. When he died, it was deprived of its privileges

The horse on which Lady Godiva is said to have ridden naked through Coventry was named Aethenoth, which means 'Noble Audacity.'

When Hernando Cortés' horse, El Morzillo fell sick in 1524 and was left with the Maya Indians, they worshiped him as a new god. They had never seen a horse before the Conquistadors arrived and rode on deer. The Aztecs were so struck with horror at the sight of Cortés' mounted soldiers that believing they were confronted with divine creatures they felt it futile to resist them.

The most famous trained animal of Shakespeare's day was the bay horse Morocco, shown by John Banks; as exhibited in the yard of the Belle Sauvage, London, it returned gloves to their owners, told the number of coins, and danced (warranting a mention in Love's Labour's Lost).

King William III had a horse called Sorrell who was blind in one eye. When Sorrell stumbled over a mole hill in Hampton Court Park, the English king fell off on breaking his collar bone. A fortnight later he died from his injuries.

The oldest horse recorded was Old Billy who was foaled in 1760 and died in 1822 at the age of 62.

Potoooooooo (1773-1800) was one of the greatest racehorses of all time. He acquired the unique name because his stable lad didn’t know how to spell potato.

Napoleon's favorite was a white Barbary Egyptian horse called Marengo (1793-1831). He was named after the 1800 Battle of Marengo where his performance had impressed Napoleon.

Napoleon Crossing the Alps painted by Jacques-Louis David. The horse in the painting is believed to be Marengo.

Marengo was wounded eight times in his career, and carried the Emperor in the Battle of Austerlitz, Battle of Jena-Auerstedt, Battle of Wagram, and Battle of Waterloo.

The French emperor was still riding it at Waterloo and Marengo outlived Napoleon after he was captured by the British and brought to London.

Copenhagen was the Duke of Wellington's war horse, which he most famously rode at the Battle of Waterloo. He was a three-quarter Thoroughbred, one-quarter Arabian. Copenhagen died on February 12, 1836 at the age of 28 from eating too many sponge cakes, bath buns and chocolate creams.

Copenhagen as painted in his retirement by Samuel Spode.

Anna Sewell's classic animal welfare novel Black Beauty was published on November 24, 1877. It tells the life story of the titular horse named Black Beauty, beginning with his carefree days as a colt on an English farm with his mother, to his difficult life pulling cabs in London, to his happy retirement in the country. The book played a key part in the successful campaign to abolish the check-rein, a strap which stopped a horse from lowering its head.

Source Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia © 1998 The Learning Company, Inc.

Horse

HISTORY

Even in prehistoric times, hunters scratched pictures of horses on the walls of caves. These drawings, some of which date back to about 18,000 BC, vividly depict in simple lines the animation and action of the animals.

The breeding of horses was practised in Central Asia as early as the fifth pre-Christian millennium.

The horse had almost joined the woolly mammoth and the T. Rex on the list of extinct species when man first domesticated it in around 4000BC.

The Sumerians used the onager, a type of horse to pull wheeled carts.

In Asia Minor, archaeologists discovered Hittite cuneiform clay tablets from the fourteenth century BC with elaborate instructions for an entire course of horse training. The earliest known work devoted exclusively to the care, feeding, and training of horses, it was written by a Mitanni horseman hired by a Hittite king.

By the 1500s BC, the Egyptians used horse-drawn vehicles, but few Egyptians rode horses.

The ancient Egyptians decorated their tombs with spindle-legged stylized horses. Those shown on tombs were often many times larger than life size.

The Scythians of the Russian central steppes were a nomadic people to whom the horse was very important to their lives. In their burial mounds warriors were buried in their riding outfits with their trusted animals.

When Greek traders first saw these mounted Scythian men in the Black Sea region, they believed them to be a strange animal, half horse and half man. The Greeks called them centaurs and developed many fables about these unusual beasts.

The Assyrians and Babylonians were expert horsemen and made good use of the animal in hunting. A stone carving from Nimrod's palace at Nineveh, shows the king sitting secure on his galloping horse and, notwithstanding its tremendous speed, shooting an arrow at the prey. Mounted servants are seen following him, carrying a supply of spare arrows and his lance.

For social and military reasons, the horse was of immense importance in early Ireland. Its introduction to Ireland was credited to the mighty Celtic god Lugh.

The word "canter" entered into the English language from the pace of the horses heading for Canterbury in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. People mockingly called their leisurely progress "the Canterbury pace." Eventually, they dropped most of the phrase and retained only half of Canterbury.

Spanish explorers brought horses to the New World--the first in the Americas since the native horses had died out about 8,500 years before. The Spanish had royal horse farms operating in Jamaica by 1515, and Francisco Pizarro obtained horses from these farms for his expeditions to Peru.

When the Spanish reintroduced the horse to the Americas beginning in the late 15th century, some horses escaped and formed feral herds that remain wild to this day.

A great number of the horses (the majority were Arabians) that the Spaniards brought to the New World managed to escape. Roaming the country, they bred and multiplied, to be joined by other horses that had escaped from French settlers in the north. Together they established the wild American breeds.

The first Polish-language encyclopedia, Nowe Ateny (New Athens), published in the 18th century, the definition of "horse" was, "Everyone can see what a horse is." This concise and somewhat humorous definition has since become a well-known Polish idiom, used to express the obviousness of a particular fact or concept.

The horses brought to the Americas by the Spanish were obtained by the Native Americans only around 1630–1650.

A quarter of the horses in the US died of a vast virus epidemic in 1872.

By the middle of the 20th century, machines were performing many of the jobs that horses had done, and the population of horses--especially in Europe and North America--dropped drastically. In 1915 there were more than 21 million horses in the United States, but by 1955 their number had dropped to only a little more than 3 million.

The American Humane Association Film Unit (responsible for "No Animals Were Harmed" message in films) was formed in 1940 due to outrage about a horse that was thrown off a cliff and drowned for the 1939 movie Jesse James. Before then trip wires were used to film horses falling over often killing them.

In 2004, Congress designated December 13th as National Day of the Horse.

The world's horse population is estimated at 75,000,000.

ANATOMY

The horse genome contains 2.7 billion DNA base pairs, and horses have over 90 hereditary diseases similar to those found in humans.

The maximum output of an individual horse is 14.9 horsepower, but when you average the output of a horse over the course of a work day it ends up being around a horsepower.

Horses expend more energy lying down that they do standing up.

Horses can lock their knee and elbow joints to enable them to stand (and sleep) without using their muscles.

Horses have bigger eyes than any other mammal that lives on land.

A horse can look forward with one eye and backwards with the other.

Horses have nearly 360 degree vision. However, they have blind spots on the front and back of their body. Keeping a hand on their body while walking around them decreases chances of kicking out of shock or fear.

Horses can't vomit.

When horses are born, their hooves are covered in a rubbery layer called a deciduous hoof capsule. This capsule covers the sharp edges of the foal’s untried hooves, protecting both the foal and its mother from injury during gestation and birth. They fall off almost immediately as the foal tries to stand.

A horse's hoof is technically a single toe, so horses run on their toes.

Icelandic horses have a unique gait called tölt in which one foot is on the ground at all times.

The phrase "Long in the tooth," meaning "old" was originally used to describe horses. As horses age, their gums recede, giving the impression that their teeth are growing. The longer the teeth look, the older the horse.

HORSE BEHAVIOR

When a horse is expressing a positive emotion, it whinnies at a low frequency. When it's upset or excited, it whinnies at a high frequency.

Horses can communicate with humans by pointing to symbols. Researchers trained the horses to understand 3 symbols which meant "blanket on," "blanket off," and "no change." After training they were tested in different weather conditions and researchers found the choices matched the weather.

RECORDS

Big Jake is the tallest living horse. A Belgian draft horse, he stands at 210.19cm (just over 6ft 10in). and lives on a farm in Wisconsin, America. Big Jake eats 40 quarts of oats and one-and-a-half bales of hay a day.

FUN HORSE FACTS

A male horse is called a stallion and a female horse is a mare. A male horse which has been castrated is known as a gelding.

Horses killed more people in Australia between 2000 and 2013 than all venomous animals combined.

Hippophobia is the fear of horses.

Viggo Mortensen purchased Eurayus, the horse he rode in Lord of The Rings. Eurayus had a hard time adjusting to the lights and sounds on set and it took a while for them to get in sync. "We got through it together and became friends. I wanted to stay in touch with him," said Viggo.

The Przewalski's horse is the only true wild horse living in the world today.

The Western US has a population of free-roaming horses that are descendants of domesticated Colonial Spanish horses and are thus technically feral not wild.

There are more horses in the USA than any other country but Mongolia has most horses per head of population.

There are about 9.2 million horses in the United States and 4.6 million Americans are involved in the horse business.

Sources Europress Encyclopedia,  Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia © 1998 The Learning Company, Inc

Horn (instrument)

Although there are several different bell-shaped brass instruments, from trumpets to tubas, it’s the French horn that people are talking about when they mention “the horn.”

Horn musical instruments began to emerge in the Bronze Age (c. 2300-1000 BC). The first ones were shell horns fashioned from sea shells and ox horns, which were natural ox horns with bronze fittings on the ends.

The first written records of horn music were hunting-horn signals, which date back to the fourteenth century. The early brass instruments used in hunting were round so that the hunter could put his arm through it and carry it on his shoulder and blow it while riding a horse. The riders could send messages to one another by blowing particular notes.

In the 17th century the modern orchestra was developing. Orchestras played for operas and there was often a hunting scene in the story. Hunters were asked to come and play their horns in the orchestra for these scenes. This is how the horn became an orchestral instrument.

The French horn made its first known debut in the comedy-ballet La Princesse d’Elide in Paris in 1664.

The horn officially did not officially enter the Imperial court orchestra in Vienna until 1712, but from there it was quickly adopted into Neapolitan opera, the most fashionable in Europe at the time. One of the first Neapolitan works to use horns was Alessandro Scarlatti's serenata Il genio austriaco: Il Sole, Flora, Zefiro, Partenope e Sebeto, performed August 28, 1713 as part of the celebrations for the birthday of Empress Elizabeth Christina.

Vienna horn. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikipedia Commons

By the 1830s the modern horn with three valves had been invented. These valves changed the length of the tube, so that the horn had now become chromatic i.e. it could play all the notes including sharps and flats.

For over 1,000 years, a horn has been blown in Ripon, England every night at 9pm in the four corners of the town square. It is allegedly the longest running unbroken daily ritual in the world.

When uncoiled, the French horn is 12 to 13 feet long.

Here is a list of pop songs that feature a horn section.

Source Oxford Music Online

Hormone

Hormones are the chemical messengers of the endocrine system. They are the signals which adjust the body's internal working, together with the nervous system.

Vitamin D is actually a hormone, and can greatly affect your sleep quality and many other bodily functions.

Men and women have the exact same hormones -- the differences lie in the hormone levels and patterns.

Cuddling with pets causes the release of the feel-good hormones like oxytocin and dopamine, and releases the same hormones in the pets.

Both humans and domestic dogs elicit a dramatic increase of oxytocin, the bonding hormone, from the other when staring into each other's eyes. Similar to a human mother and her infant.

The hormone that makes you grow is only produced when you sleep.

The word "Adrenalin" - which would become genericized as "adrenaline" - is actually a trademarked name for the hormone "epinephrine." 

Hops

Hops are the female flowers of the hop plant, Humulus lupulus.

Hop flower. Pixiebay

The first documented use of hops in beer is from the ninth century. Originally the hop shoots were primarily used as a source of food for the poor before it was discovered their use enhances  the flavor of beer.

Before the introduction of hops, brewers had used a wide variety of bitter herbs and flowers, including dandelion, burdock root, marigold, ground ivy, and heather.

The introduction of hops from the Netherlands around 1475 resulted in English breweries starting to manufacture continental beer as well as the "hop-less" ale.

Hop cultivation was began in the present-day United States in 1629 by English and Dutch farmers.

Early season hop growth in a hop yard in Washington's Yakima River Valley.

A study has found that the hops found in beer not only add flavor, but also may lessen the damaging effects of alcohol on the liver.

Hops contain antioxidants, but you'd have to drink 118 gallons of beer a day to see any health benefit from them.

Hops naturally produce an acid that can kill a parasitic mite known to destroy entire colonies of honey bees. Hops have shown such promise in preventing Colony Collapse Disorder, the EPA approved their use in 2015 as a biochemical pesticide around hives.

The hops used in beer are in the same biological family of flowering plants as marijuana. This is why some beers might taste/smell somewhat like cannabis.

Bob Hope

Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope was born on May 29, 1903, in London, England to a Welsh mother and English father. In 1908, the Hopes migrated to Cleveland, Ohio.

From the age of 12, Hope earned pocket money by busking, singing, dancing, and performing comedy. He entered many dancing and amateur talent contests (as Lester Hope) and won a prize in for his impersonation of Charlie Chaplin.

He changed his name from Leslie to Bob, because in school they would call the roll as 'Hope, Leslie' and classmates shortened it to hopeless.

In 1920, at the age of 17, Hope became an American citizen.

Before he was an actor, Hope fought as a professional boxer under the name of  "Packey East".

Bob Hope's first show business job was as a dancer in the 'Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle' vaudeville review in Cleveland in 1924.

Bob Hope's film The Big Broadcast of 1938 debuted in New York on February 18, 1938. The movie introduced Hope's signature song, "Thanks For The Memory."

Bob Hope performed his first USO show on May 6, 1941 at California's March Field. and continued to travel and entertain troops for the rest of World War II, later during the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the third phase of the Lebanon Civil War, the latter years of the Iran–Iraq War, and the 1990–91 Persian Gulf War.

Bob Hope USO show, 1944

Bob Hope made his network TV debut on April 9, 1950, hosting the 90-minute entertainment extravaganza Star-Spangled Review on NBC.

In February 1934, Bob Hope married Dolores DeFina (May 27, 1909 - September 19, 2011). She had been one of his co-stars on Broadway in Roberta .The couple adopted four children: Eleanora, Anthony, Linda, and Kelly.

The couple lived at 10342 Moorpark Street in Toluca Lake, California from 1937 until his death.

Bob Hope wrote a book Confessions of a Hooker, about his lifelong passion for golf.

His golf buddy was Prescott Bush, the father and grandfather of presidents George Bush and George W. Bush.

Bob Hope died of pneumonia on July 27, 2003, two months after his 100th birthday. He was buried three days later, and reburied on July 22, 2005 in a custom made grave in California.

The legendary comedian's last words were "Surprise me" in response to his wife's question regarding where he would like to be buried.

He holds two entries in The Guinness Book of World Records. One is for having the distinction of being the entertainer with "the longest running contract with a single network - spanning sixty-one years". The second is for being the "most honored entertainer", with over 1500 awards.

Bob Hope in 1978

Bob hope used more than 100 writers to create material for his trademark humorous monologues on radio and TV shows. The jokes were then ordered by subject and put in a fireproof vault. In 1998 he donated his entire joke archive to the US library of Congress.

Hope amassed 88,000 pages of comedy material over his lifetime and his long-serving secretary said she’d typed up about seven million jokes over 30 years and had never laughed once.

Bob Hope hosted a total of 19 Oscar ceremonies.

Bob Hope was the only person who was awarded five times with an honorary Oscar.

William Henry "Boss" Hoover

William Henry “Boss” Hoover (1849-1932) was an industrialist; born near North Canton, Ohio, who ran a leather goods manufacturing business. He was married to Susan Troxel Hoover (1846-1925).

In 1907, Susan Hoover's cousin, James Murray Spangler, a janitor in a Canton, Ohio department store, deduced that the carpet sweeper he used was the source of his cough. He tinkered with an old fan motor and attached it to a soap box stapled to a broom handle. Using a pillow case as a dust collector on the contraption, Spangler invented a portable electric vacuum cleaner.

Spangler gave one of his Electric Suction Sweepers to his cousin Susan Hoover, who used it at home. Impressed with the machine, she told her husband about it. Seeing a marketing opportunity, Hoover bought the patent from Spangler in 1908, founding the Electric Suction Sweeper Company with $36,000 capital, retaining Spangler as production supervisor with pay based on royalties in the new business.

Since Hoover vacuums were not well-known yet they offered a 10-day free trial of his electric suction sweeper. At the end of 1908, the company was able to sell 372 units of the models.

After Spangler's death in 1915, the company name was changed to the Hoover Suction Sweeper Company.

In 1919, Hoover's advertising agency came up with a slogan which summed up the Hoover's cleaning action: 'It Beats...as it Sweeps...as it Cleans' Hoover marketed his "vacuum cleaner" around the world, making his name virtually synonymous with the device. Eventually there was a Hoover vacuum cleaner in nearly every home.

William Hoover was a Sunday school teacher for 50 years.