Talk:Horse

Suggestions

I wanted to comment on the PR, but is closed. So commenting here about "Interaction with humans", which needs improvements.

• Some things missed out.
  • "culture": Flying horses are seen in various mythologies: Buraq, Pegasus, Uchchaihshravas
  • "culture": Horse-driven chariots of the Sun and the Moon deities
  • "Warfare": The ancient war-machines - horse chariots
• WP:UNDUE to Chinese zodiac.

Other:

• References: consistent reference style
  • Ensminger Horses and Horsemanship pp. 309–310 v/s Sellnow, Happy Trails, p. 46
  • Fear 2006, p. 75: Harv for only 1 reference.

--Redtigerxyz ^Talk 04:54, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

Good comment on the culture section needing work. Not that I'm, looking forward to it, but yeah...good point. Montanabw^(talk) 21:33, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

I've removed the harv formatting for the one reference that used it, and I think I have now standardized the book references to use no commas, since that seemed to be the prevailing style. I may have missed a couple, though, so please feel free to double-check my work. My laptop is almost out of battery, so I'll take a look at the culture and warfare stuff later tonight. Dana boomer (talk) 22:55, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

OK, so, here are my thoughts on the culture section - second paragraph:

Original - Horses are frequently seen in television and films. They are sometimes featured as a major character in films about particular animals, but also used as visual elements that assure the accuracy of historical stories.[185] Both live horses and iconic images of horses are used in advertising to promote a variety of products.[186] The horse frequently appears in coats of arms in heraldry. The horse can be represented as standing, walking (passant), trotting, running (courant), rearing (rampant or forcine) or springing (salient). The horse may be saddled and bridled, harnessed, or without any apparel whatsoever.[187] The horse also appears in the 12-year cycle of animals in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar. According to Chinese folklore, each animal is associated with certain personality traits, and those born in the year of the horse are intelligent, independent, and free-spirited.[188]

New - Horses are frequently seen in television and films. They are sometimes featured as a major character in films about particular animals, but also used as visual elements that assure the accuracy of historical stories.[185] Both live horses and iconic images of horses are used in advertising to promote a variety of products.[186] They frequently appears in coats of arms in heraldry, in a variety of poses and tackequipment.[187] The mythologies of variousmany cultures, including Hindi, Greek and Arabic, Greco-Roman, Hindu, Islamic, and Norse include references to both normal horses and those with wings or additional limbs, and multiple myths also call upon the horse to draw the chariots of the Moon and Sun.(new ref) The horse appears in the 12-year cycle of animals in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar.[188]

This reduces the amount of space spent on both heraldry and the Chinese zodiac, while adding references to horses in mythology. I haven't dug up a specific source yet, but have one book that is specifically about horses in mythology and several others that mention them in a general sense, so it shouldn't be too hard. Let me know if the above change works for everyone and I can dump it in - probably tomorrow after work. Dana boomer (talk) 03:05, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

I like it. I made some minor tweaks, shown with strikeout and underline above, but yeah, that's the way to go. Montanabw^(talk) 19:11, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

OK, done. Dana boomer (talk) 23:30, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

Looks much better. Maybe Horse worship and Horse sacrifice can be added in a sentence. Also, chariots in "Warfare". --Redtigerxyz ^Talk 18:41, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

extinct in America

This article claims that there is research "still in its infancy" that the horse did not become extinct in North America http://northernhorse.com/wildhorses/index.php/the-final-count/ Does anyone have any information about it? --Richardson mcphillips (talk) 18:40, 22 April 2012 (UTC)

There is no real research backing these claims, it's just ammo in the fight in the free-roaming "wild" horse political world, over whether the horse is an indigenous or introduced species. It creates a red herring, as while all horses here now are feral descendants of previously-domesticated animals, the land itself DID once support an ancient horse subspecies. So those who want to eliminate free-roaming horses as an introduced species or "vermin" have a weak case (particularly if Ice Age human were a contributing factor to the extinction, which is possible, though hotly debated), but on the other side, to stretch science to claim the horse never became extinct in North America is a silly argument too. At present there is NO actual evidence against extinction that can be scientifically verified. Keeping "wild" (feral) horse herds needs to stand on other claims, not this one. Montanabw^(talk) 19:26, 24 April 2012 (UTC)

I think that people should know that wild horses can be very scary for children. most importantly when you are camping. ----— Preceding unsigned comment added by Zipzap11500 (talk • contribs) 11:20, 8 May 2012‎

Numbers of horses

The section "interaction with humans" and the section "work" have conflicting numbers of horses - fewer than 9 million in Africa in one and more than 35 million in the other, 65 million globally in one, more than a 100 million in the other. I don't know how to resolve the conflicts between the two sources, but I think the first is more reliable as a guess. Mulp (talk) 20:54, 11 June 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for spotting that, we'll check it out. Montanabw^(talk) 22:06, 11 June 2012 (UTC) Follow up: It appears that one set of numbers are the FAO estimates of total numbers, while the numbers under "work" are only for working equines, not all equines. Hope that clarifies matters. Let us know if you see other errors. Montanabw^(talk) 22:45, 11 June 2012 (UTC)

Yeah, but the problem is that the number of working equines is higher than the number of total equines...don't think that's possible. I had never noticed that before... Dana boomer (talk) 23:56, 11 June 2012 (UTC)

I think the total stats are for horses only, while the working equines includes mules and donkeys. Needs at least some clarification, anyway. Montanabw^(talk) 18:20, 12 June 2012 (UTC)

Locked article

Why in the world is the article locked? It's just about Horses! And why does Montanabwl answer every question? Does montanabwl own this page? When will it be unlocked?--74.240.225.38 (talk) 21:40, 17 June 2012 (UTC)

Articles are locked when people persistently vandalise them, and this was the case for the Horse article. This lock is indefinite due to the ongoing nature of the vandalism. However, you can still make your contribution in two ways - either post your ideas on the talk page here, and one of the experienced editors will help you out, or you can register for a wikipedia account, and once you've made a few helpful edits you'll be able to edit almost any article. (and nobody 'owns' articles, its just some people are keener to answer than others... ;-) ) OwainDavies ^(about)_(talk) edited at 07:00, 18 June 2012 (UTC)

It seems I am usually first to the page when questions appear, nothing more. Almost all the "major" animal articles are protected in this way, cat, dog, etc. Montanabw^(talk) 23:54, 18 June 2012 (UTC)

Meat eating

Horses eating meat? Horses as predators? Interesting article here about it. http://horsetalk.co.nz/2012/04/17/horses-as-meat-eating-killers/#.UAsuWGt5lP4 the article has a book as its base. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.114.149.160 (talk) 23:16, 21 July 2012 (UTC)

Some horses can become seriously vicious. Horses have been fed animal protein by humans, we fed ground-up cow parts to cows. Nothing new there. Montanabw^(talk) 00:41, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

Would be interesting to have something to that effect in the article.91.125.134.29 (talk) 04:48, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

This is an overview article - not a collection of random bits of information, however. Ealdgyth - Talk 12:28, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

Hardly random. It's fascinating information that most people are unaware of. 87.112.52.148 (talk) 14:18, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

Well, let's put it this way, how much space do they waste at dog over the fact that they eat grass and puke on the living room carpet? These articles are about the animal, not quirky trivia involving a few situtations. Montanabw^(talk) 01:27, 28 July 2012 (UTC)