Of all of the animals on Earth, the horse may be the one that has most closely shared in man’s adventures and has been most intimately allied with his progress.  The horse has been a participant in the pleasures, the dangers and the hard work that have been a part of man’s life for thousands of years.  Perhaps, because of this relationship, the horse holds a special place in man’s affection.  It is not clear when exactly man and the horse first became companions.  Some historians are of the belief that man probably hunted the early horse, just as he did other game animals.  There are drawings, engravings and sculptures that date back many thousands of years that were most likely made by hunters and medicine men as offerings to the gods in exchange for the blessing of a good hunt.  Eventually, perhaps man recognized the advantage of the horse’s fleetness and began to tame the horse and began using them in his pursuit for other animals that he needed for food.  When food would become scarce in one area, man could utilize the horse to move and settle in other areas that were more productive.  Gradually, man was able to find more and more uses for the horse, and therefore, became increasingly dependent on it, and as this dependency grew, the horse became a partner in man’s life.  It shared the dangers of war, the satisfactions pf peace, the splendors of knighthood, as well as the sufferings and privations of exploring and settling new lands and earning a living from the soil.  The horse has also made possible some of man’s favorite pastimes, as it has carried him through hunting fields, in polo matches and in races.  It drew the wagons for circuses and traveling players, and then often appeared as a performer in the acts that they presented.  Man has been prompted to show off his pride in this magnificent animal in horse shows, and his admiration for this animal’s grace and beauty has inspired him to portray it in art as well as in literature.  The horse was in integral part of man’s everyday life until around the early 1900’s, when machines began to perform many of the jobs that horses had done.  Then, the population of horses – especially in the areas of Europe and North America – dropped drastically.  For example, in 1915, there were more than 21 million horses in the United States, but by 1955, their number had dropped to only slightly more than 3 million.  However, there have been surveys that have indicated that there has been an increase in the population of light horses.  Horsemen think that this increase is as a result of the growing interest in riding for pleasure and breeding fine horses.  The horse’s anatomy enables it to be not only a beautiful animal, but also a utilitarian one.  Both its beauty and its utility result from the relationship among all its body parts in form and in function.  Horsemen often speak of the conformation of a horse, referring to the general shape and appearance of a horse.  Conformation also includes the form and the proportion of each of the parts of the horse’s body, and the way that they fit together to give it its overall balance, structure and smoothness.  The balance, or proportion, of a horse’s body is important because each of its body parts have a functional relationship to the rest of the parts in its body.  Breeders have come to develop horses of many different colors, sizes and other special attributes, but each of them have retained their “horse like” appearance.  In general, the horse is a relatively large animal that weighs about 1,000 pounds or more.  It usually stands about 5 and a half feet high at the shoulder and is about 9 feet long from the tip of its nose to its tail.  Horses have long muscular necks, a large chest, a rather straight back and powerful hindquarters.  Its legs are very strong yet, comparably slender.  When a horse is in motion, the hind legs are what provide the propelling force and the front legs act primarily as supports.  A horse’s head and neck make up approximately two fifths of its total length.  A horse’s head is held naturally at a 45-degree angle to the neck.  The head and neck act as a counterbalance as the center of gravity shift when the horse is in motion.  The ears are held upright and turned forward when the horse is alert.  They are proportionate to the head and are neither too small nor so large that they look mulish.  The ears are able to move freely so that the horse can pick up sounds from multiple directions.  A horse’s eyes are larger than those of any other land animal.  The eyes of a horse have excellent long-range vision, both at night and in the daytime.  Each of the eyes of a horse can see things above and below as well as behind and in front.  A horse’s eyes sees things separately.  Often times, an object is seen first with one eye, and then with the other.  Sometimes stationary objects, particularly small ones, seem to jump, which can cause the horse to become frightened.  Horsemen will put pads, called blinders or blinkers, near the horse’s eyes to limit their vision so that they can keep the horse from being startled.  The nose has wide and flaring nostrils.  Horses have to use their nasal passages to get all of their air, as they do not get extra air through their mouths like cows, sheep and other animals do.  Even on a very hot day, or when the horse has been racing or working hard, it does not pant through its mouth.  The reason for this is most likely because a horse’s soft palate forms a muscle like curtain that separates the cavity of the mouth from the breather passages, except when the horse is swallowing.  Horses have large jaws and teeth that are large and strong.  Mature male horses have 40 teeth and a mature female has 36.  Their front teeth, or incisors, are separate from the rear teeth, the molars or grinders, and are by a wide space that is sensitive and is called a bar.  The bar forms the space into which the bit fits.  Male horses also have two extra teeth that are called tushes.  Horsemen can check a horse’s teeth in order to estimate its age.  Horses’ teeth grow longer and at a more oblique angle as they age, and the surfaces of their teeth wear away.  A horse’s body is large and sleek.  Thy have a wide chest that houses their huge lungs and heart that are necessary for them to have extreme endurance for running and the power that they need for pulling heavy loads.  Their back is very muscular and strong, and is rigid enough to provide the legs with freedom to move very easily.  When a horse’s back curves downward in the center, it is called a “swayback,” and one that curves upward is called “roach,” or hog back.  The legs of a horse are long, and very strong and slender.  The front legs are used to help support weight and help the horse to maintain its balance and stability.  They also contribute to the forward movement of the animal.  The “knee” of the horse is comparable to the wrist joint of a human.  The horse’s hind legs are very muscular in order to provide the propelling force in running and the pushing force when it is pulling a heavy load.  The central point for these forces lies in the hock joint.  The hock joint bears the burden for all of the horse’s forward movement.  The hock joint is comparable to an ankle joint in a human.  The horse’s foot is actually a single toe, and the hoof is a thick toenail.  The tip of the toe bone fits within the hoof and the heel angles upward.  The