Today I continue my quest in creating and posting one block a day of the fabulous That Town And Country Quilt by the lovely Susan-Claire Mayfield. This is day three hundred and twenty-three of that project.

This quilt block shows the outline of a horse in black against a light blue salmon-patterned background. The silhouette has one pen marking on it to show an eye in white. It is outlined by a light brown stitch. You can see the neck, the head, the ears, the tail, and the legs in detail throughout the silhouette.
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The amazing horse.

This is a lovely silhouette of a horse. I think everyone can appreciate the beauty and majesty of the horse, but only someone who has had a relationship with a horse can understand how smart, loyal, and generous they are.

Horses can detect a calm happy face on a human or an angry face. Their heart rates rise when they see angry faces. When a bond is made between a human and his/her horse it’s much like the bond of a really good dog.

Both will virtually die for you. I was raised on an Arabian horse ranch. It is with sadness that I have never had a relationship with a horse.

I was dreadfully allergic when I was a girl and the drugs we have now we didn’t have then so it wasn’t meant to be. However, I have some fun facts for you about horses:

  1. Horses can’t vomit or burp.
  2. There are more than 600 breeds of horses on the planet. They can be divided into 4 groups.
    1. Hot-blooded (Arabian, Thoroughbred and Barb breeds with origins in the Mideast)
    2. Cold blooded (heavy horses, draft horses and ponies, breeds developed in Northern Europe)
    3. Warm-blooded (Horses crossbred between any hot-blooded and a cold-blooded breed)
    4. Miniatures are the last group and are scaled down versions of the big boys.
  3. The tallest horse ever was a shire horse named Sampson. He stood over 7 ft. tall at the withers. He was born in 1846. He also weighed a whopping 3360 lbs.
  4. The oldest horse ever was Old Billy 1760-1822, that’s 62 years old. The average life-span is 25-30 years. Some ponies will go beyond 40.
  5. Horses have nearly a 360-degree visual range. They have the largest eyes of any land mammal. Their eyes can move independently from each other.
  6. The most popular breed is the American quarter horse.
  7. Horses can only breathe through their nose.
  8. Tiniest horse ever was Thumbelina, a dwarf miniature that was only 17.5″ tall.
  9. The highest jump ever made by a horse was 8′ 1.25″.
  10. Arabian horses have 1 less vertebrae, set of ribs and tail bone than any other breed.
  11. A foal is a baby horse. A filly is a little girl horse and a colt is a little boy horse.

Giddy-up!