Can You Just Get On An Untrained Horse And Ride It?

It's a favored western trope. The cowboy ropes the wild horse, puts a saddle on it, gets on and rides off into the sunset.

How realistic is that?

With a horse that has never been handled - not very. In reality, when cowboys did that, they would have to deal with the animal's violent objections, which often involved somebody getting hurt.

With a domestic horse that has a calmer temperament, has been treated well and handled her entire life, then it actually is possible. Colored cobs (what Americans call gypsy vanners) and some lines of Quarter Horse are known for being "born broke." I personally know a mare who's first ride was a random teenager and who's second ride was a total beginner (She was so good her owner did not know she was not trained).

Most horses, however, will show some degree of annoyance when saddled and ridden for the first time, ranging from trying to walk away from the tack to violent bucking. So, if you want to use this trope?

With a wild horse, make sure you talk about how difficult a task it is and how the horse needs to be "bucked out" and honestly...wild horse breaking generally involves letting the horse be mad until it's too tired to keep fighting and behaves.

With a domestic horse, make mention that the animal has a good temperament, or is from "good lines" that are known for being easy to train.

What Is Grass Sickness?

Grass sickness is a nasty disease that mostly affects animals in northern Europe, especially Great Britain. It affects all equines, not just horses. (A similar disease effects rabbits and hares).

Grass sickness generally affects younger horses between 2 and 7 years. Older horses appear to develop resistance to the disease. It almost always affects horses on pasture, hence the name.

We have no idea what causes it. It might be a deficiency (it seems to be associated with high nitrogen contact of soil) or, the current lead theory, a soil bacterium called Clostridium botulinum. It's not contagious, but several cases may occur if multiple horses are in the same pasture.

It causes partial or complete paralysis of the digestive tract and is almost universally fatal in the acute form. The symptoms of acute grass sickness include constipation, a distended stomach and partially digested food coming out of the nose - and the horse usually dies within a couple of days.

Subacute grass sickness is less severe, but is still fatal. Chronic grass sickness, which has symptoms that include rapid weight loss, is survivable and some cases can be treated with nursing and special high energy feed.

Grass sickness is horrible and there's no way to prevent it other than not using pasture associated with the disease for grazing horses in spring and summer. (US people, yes, grass sickness is all but unknown in the US, with only a very occasional case diagnosed and as it can sometimes be confused with other forms of colic...)

Are Chestnut Horses Crazy?

Nope. Pure myth. I've met some crazy and "hot headed" chestnuts and also some calm ones, including a mare who let a beginner ride her the second time she was ever ridden. The best trail horse I've ever ridden was also chestnut, and her only temperament flaw was the exact opposite - she was just a bit lazy.

The only possibly supported link between temperament and color in horses is a possibility that pinto horses may be calmer than solid horses due to the link with domestication syndrome.

So, if you're going for a ride and they offer you a chestnut - don't worry. They're not crazy.

In her Paladin's Legacy series Elizabeth Moon assigns a similar superstition about gray or white horses to one of the cultures in her books. So, when worldbuilding, do think whether people in your world have ideas about specific horse colors. But be aware that if your horses are at all realistic, those ideas should be demonstrated to be very, very false.

I mentioned the mare who let a beginner ride her when she wasn't even trained? Here she is.

Why Do Knights Ride White Horses?

In video, this is sometimes an example of white hats versus black hats - in early westerns, especially black and white, the filmmakers would put white hats on the good cowboys and black hats on the evil ones as a quick visual distinguisher that appears tacky today.

But white or white-looking grey horses are special in fantasy fiction. Gandalf rides Shadowfax. The Companions in Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar are white. Over and over again, western authors put the special hero, the king, etc on a white horse.

Why?

Plain and simple, white horses have a mythological significance all over the world. The Celtic mother goddess is sometimes portrayed as a white mare. Pegasus is also white and Odin's eight-legged steed Sleipnir is generally considered to be grey.

White horses have been sacrificed and used in divination ceremonies. At some Hindu weddings the groom arrives riding a white horse and accompanied by the youngest male member of his family (No matter how young). In this case, the white horse symbolizes the hoped-for fertility of the match.

So, the plain truth of it is that white horses are a trope because they have always been a trope - and there's nothing wrong with using it. Just be aware that it is a trope (and therefore ripe to be subverted).

A true white Thoroughbred, courtesy of Kersti Nebelsiek.

What is a zebrass?

A zebrass, zedonk or zedonkey is the cross between a zebra and a donkey.

Unlike with horses, it is possible to breed a zebra hinny (the chromosome numbers are closer together). Additionally, interbreeding between zebras and wild asses, despite the fact that the offspring are not fertile, has been witnessed in parts of Africa where their ranges overlap. It's possible that this may have given people the initial idea to create mules. (Horses and donkeys do not have naturally overlapping ranges).

Like zorses, zedonks resemble the non-zebra parent in body type, but have zebra stripes. Zebrasses have been intentionally bred as work animals, partly in the hope that they would inherit the zebra's resistance to sleeping sickness.

A "zedonk" at Colchester Zoo. Source: sannse via Wikimedia Commons.

What is a zorse?

Some years ago one zoo in the UK sold another a surplus miniature pony for the pregnant zoo.

When the second zoo discovered the pony was pregnant, they called the first zoo.

The first zoo's response: She can't be. We don't have a stallion on the premises.

The foal came out with stripes.

Apparently, the first zoo didn't consider that she'd got in with the zebras...

A zorse is a zebra horse hybrid. Zorses are generally small and often lack any kind of prominent wither. Like zebras (which are, after all, wild animals) they're known for being hard to train - although zorses have successfully competed in the show ring both under saddle and in harness, over fences and even in dressage. They definitely resemble horses more than zebras.

However, zorses are readily distinguishable from pure horses because they always have some degree of striping. Specifically, they have black stripes on a base of a familiar horse color, such as this bay or dun zorse:

(Source: Kumana @ Wild Equines).

If the zorse has pinto markings, the stripes do not carry on across the markings and they can be more subtle, but a zorse will always have stripes.

Sometimes the offspring of a zebra and a pony is called a zony.

Zebras have a much different chromosome number from horses - horses have 64 and zebra species range from 32 and 46. Like mules, zorses are infertile. Also, because of the much greater chromosome difference compared to horses and asses, zebra hinnies are almost never produced. When they are, they seldom survive to adulthood. Also, zorses are prone to dwarfism.

What is a hinny?

A mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse.

A hinny is the opposite - bred from a stallion (male horse) on a jennet/jenny (female donkey).

Hinnies are not always possible to distinguish from mules - if in doubt, the animal is referred to as a mule. They're also considerably rarer because it is, for reasons that are presumably to do with the chromosome numbers, much harder to breed the cross successfully. Mule breeders will generally only make a hinny if they really want a particular cross.

Hinnies tend to look a little bit more like horses than mules do. Anecdotally, some muleskinners claim that you can tell whether an animal is a mule or a hinny by turning them out in a field which has a couple of horses and a couple of donkeys in it - a mule will go hang out with the horses and a hinny will seek out the donkeys.

Mule ears. Just because.