Over the years, horses have set many world records. Guinness World Records has over 300 entries for horses.
In this article, we pulled out 13 of the most astonishing world records about horses for your viewing pleasure. After seeing these, you’ll be surprised by all the things that horses can do!
The 13 Horse World Records
1. The Most Expensive Draught Horse
The most expensive draught horse ever purchased was a 2-year-old Belgian stallion named McEllrath’s Captain Jim. He was $112,500. Jim was sold at a public auction during the Mid-America Draft Horse Sale.
2. Smallest Breed of Horse
The smallest recognized horse breed in the world is the Falabella miniature horse, which has an average height of only 8 hands. This is much smaller than most other horse breeds out there.
This breed is considered to be miniature among true miniature horses due to their extremely short size.
3. Largest Breed of Horse
The largest breed of horse is the English shire horse. This breed can stand up to 17 hands or even taller once they reach full maturity.
They tend to be working horses due to their huge size.
4. Most Runners in a Horse Race
The most horse racers to ever run in a single race was 4,249. This event was organized and held by the Federation of Mongolian Horse Racing Sport and Trainers.
The starting total was 4,279. However, 30 were deducted from the final race total because they didn’t finish the course. The distance was about 11.18 miles. The youngest rider was only 7 years old, while the oldest one was 79 years old.
5. Rarest Domestic Horse Hybrid
The rarest horse hybrid ever documented was a triple hybrid that resulted from mixing a bay mare with a male donkey and a female zebra. It was documented by Charles Darwin in his book, “The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication.”
When the animal was old, they had hardly any stripes. However, the owner did report that a few stripes had been present when they were young.
That said, some researchers are skeptical of this hybrid. Male donkey-zebra mixes are usually sterile, making it quite rare that they would ever be able to breed with a bay mare. That said, it is possible that one of the males was fertile, as sometimes happens with rare hybrids.
6. Oldest Horse
The oldest, reliably documented horse was Old Billy, who lived to 62 years. This horse was bred by Edward Robinson of Woolston, Lancashire, U.K. This horse was foaled in 1760.
7. Tallest Horse Ever
The heaviest and tallest horse ever recorded was Sampson, who was renamed to Mammoth sometime later. This horse was born in 1846 and ended up weighing 3,359 pounds in adulthood. He also stood at 21.2 ½ hands tall. He was a shire horse!
8. Rarest Horse Breed
The rarest purebred horse breed is the Abaco Barb. Originally, this breed was originally quite populous in the Bahamas. However, only five existed as of July 2010, and all of them were infertile.
It is believed that they were overhunted for food and sport. Many were likely poisoned by farming pesticides, which is likely why many were infertile.
9. Smallest Living Horse
The smallest living horse ever recorded was 22.36 inches to the withers. His name was Bombel, and he was measured on April 24, 2018.
Bombel spent much of his time visiting his local Children’s Hospital in Poland to support the patients.
10. Highest Jump by a Miniature Horse
The highest jump ever recorded for a miniature horse was 46.06 inches, which was achieved by Zephyr Woods Storming Treasure in France. This jump was recorded on May 2, 2020.
This horse was a three-time French showjumping champion. When the annual championship was canceled due to COVID-19, the owner decided to pursue the record title instead.
11. Highest Jump by a Horse
The highest jump ever recorded by a horse is 6 feet, 8 inches. This record was achieved by Seic Atlas on October 24, 2013. It took 2 ½ years of training for the horse to achieve this record.
12. Oldest Liquid Blood
The oldest liquid blood ever removed from an animal was from a horse. The blood was extracted from a dead, mummified Lenskaya horse, which is now extinct. The horse was unearthed from the permafrost in Russia in June 2018. The animal was surprisingly well-preserved, despite being about 42,000 years old. An autopsy was carried out on February 28, 2019. The foal was estimated to be only 2 weeks old when it died. The scientists were also able to extract horse urine from the animal’s bladder, which also happens to be the oldest urine collected.
Before this horse, the oldest liquid blood extracted was from a preserved mammoth that had been discovered by the same group of researchers. Currently, the researchers are considering extracting cells from the horse in the hopes that they may be able to clone and bring back the extinct species.
13. First Clone from a Horse Family
The first clone from a horse family was Idaho Gem, which was a domestic mule. The horse was born on May 4, 2003. He had identical genes to his “brother,” Taz, who was a champion racing mule.
This feat was accomplished by a group of researchers at the University of Idaho, USA.
Conclusion
Horses hold records for all sorts, from normal things like height to strange things, like cloning. No matter what record you’re looking at, the extremes that some horses achieve are up there!
New records are being made and held all the time. Keep an eye out for more strange records to be written down in the future.
Featured Image Credit: Pises Tungittipokai, Shutterstock
