this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2023
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Today I Learned

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[–] [email protected] 65 points 1 year ago

Horse: "bonjour"

[–] [email protected] 61 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I'd like to subscribe to horse facts, please.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Thank you for subscribing to horse facts! 𐂃

Horses produce roughly 10 gallons of saliva per day!

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That, I didn't want to know.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There's a fungus that grows on clover, that if eaten makes horses salivate more.

"Slobbers" normally isn't anything but annoying, but it actually can cause dehydration if the horse doesn't have access to water

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Son, I'm disappointed in you

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (3 children)

We should use horse saliva as a humane milk replacement.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thank you for subscribing to horse facts! 𐂃

Unlike humans, horses aren’t able to vomit!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

Thank you for subscribing to horse facts! 𐂃

A horse’s heart typically weighs 4–4.5kg (around 2lbs) and is about the size of a basketball!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Next fact about horse semen!

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Thank you for subscribing to horse facts! 𐂃

Thoroughbred horse semen is the most expensive liquid in the world!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

But my friends don’t appreciate it when I order shots of it instead of tequila.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Username checks out

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thank you for subscribing to horse facts! 𐂃

If you see a horse with a red ribbon tied to its tail, stay back – it’s a kicker!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Who had the balls to tie the ribbon on the tail of a kicker lol

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Horses have bones in their legs called splint bones. They are vestigial metacarpals from back when they had 3 toes. As of yet we can't find any role they perform. If damaged or removed it can lead to chronic lameness a condition in horses that will often lead to death.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

As of yet we can't find any role they perform. If damaged or removed it can lead to chronic lameness

That seems to imply they perform a structural role, unless I’m oversimplifying it?

I’m a bit of an anthropology geek, and am super interested in vestigial traits. I have one: the ‘elf ear’, or Darwin’s Tubercal. Mine turns down, not out, so I’m not genetically lucky enough to cosplay as an elf. I kinda feel ripped off.

e: ha, I’m a better example than the wiki picture. Anyone can feel free to use my picture, it’s a pretty good example.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

As far as we can tell they perform no role at all. They are only about the size of a finger, have no major tendon or ligament attachments and do not connect to another bone. There may have been new research in the last few years that I am unaware of that sheads some new light. They are considered a bit of a mystery.

What about half elf. You know left and right half

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I could go half elf. :)

I’m very interested in learning how damage to vestigial anatomy can cause lameness. That’s fascinating and makes a lot of sense.

You’ve sent me down a rabbit hole of horse anatomy, and I appreciate that.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Trust me you are not the only one who is interested in why this happens. There have been a few papers written on it. But I think the reality is the funding doesn't exist to explore it. There are a lot more important and money making things to research about horses.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Role playing vestigial traits is my new band name.

e: In all seriousness, it does sound like a role, even if we can’t figure it out. Turns out the appendix and tonsils have a role, though we didn’t know what until recently.

It doesn’t seem lameness should result from damage to a purely vestigial trait, but I’m no expert.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

The one horse fact I know is that violin bows (and presumably all viol* and string bass bows) use tail hair from male horses, never female, to avoid using pee-drenched hairs.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 year ago

TIL a horse can grow a better stache than me.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Today we both learned something.

Is anybody making horsestache wax? Could be an untapped market!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

Some Syrian well groomed horses could open a horse barber shop with leather aprons and straight egde blades

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago

... damn. Well done op, I'm not sure how I got this old without knowing this. Hella random, sure, but it's ... a horse with a moustache. I mean, c'mon.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago

Apparently they're a sensory system, like a cat's whiskers.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

This is now automatically a great day.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Hmm I mustache a question as this intrigues me

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I stared at that image and could not tell wtf it was. Looks like a dogs belly but there is weird hair where the legs should be.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

It's a horse's nose, with a moustache (the "weird hair"). The other pictures in the link OP provided make it easier to understand for people who aren't familliar with what horse noses look like. Example:

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

This one looks like he’s giving me one more chance to pay him back before his Shetlands come round to rearrange my knees.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

look at my horse, my horse is amazing

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Nothing is more pleasing to the touch than a horse's nose. Okay, vulva is pretty amazing too.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

That escalated quickly.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

!unsubscribe

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

similar feeling

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Mesdames et messieurs, je vous présente "une merveilles"

I made that grammatical error deliberately.