Horse Trivia
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100 free Horse trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
25 free Horse trivia questions with answers. Horse trivia lives in two places on BrainPickle. This page is the shorter set; the main quiz is Horses trivia, with our deepest question pool on the topic and a source behind every answer.
30 of 100 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How long is one hand, the unit used to give a horse's height?
Four inches
One hand is four inches (101.6 mm), the standard unit for a horse's height at the withers throughout the English-speaking world.
Q 02Under most competition rules, what is an equine measuring no more than 14.2 hands at the withers called?
Pony
14.2 hands — 58 inches — is the usual dividing line. Above it you have a horse; at or below it, a pony.
Q 03Roughly how long does a mare carry a foal before giving birth?
Eleven months
Gestation averages about 340 days, so a little over eleven months, with a normal range of 320 to 370 days.
Q 04What is the term for a young female horse, normally one under four years of age?
Filly
A filly is a young female; the male equivalent is a colt. A mare is an adult female and a gelding is a castrated male.
Q 05Which of a horse's four natural gaits is a three-beat gait?
Canter
The walk has four beats, the trot two and the gallop four. The canter, also called the lope, is the three-beat gait at roughly 19–24 km/h.
Q 06How many incisors does an adult horse have at the front of its mouth?
Twelve
Twelve incisors do the biting off of grass, while 24 premolars and molars at the back do the grinding.
Q 07Przewalski's horse differs from the domestic horse, which has 64 chromosomes, by carrying how many?
66
Przewalski's horse has 66 chromosomes to the domestic horse's 64, yet the two can still interbreed and produce fertile foals.
Q 08One traditional job of the Shire horse was pulling brewers' vehicles of which kind?
Drays
A dray is a heavy flat cart, and Shires hauled them full of beer barrels. The breed also towed canal barges before the railways.
Q 09The Lipizzan is the breed most closely associated with which institution?
The Spanish Riding School of Vienna
Vienna's Spanish Riding School has trained Lipizzans in classical dressage for centuries. Most turn white as adults despite being born dark.
Q 10Eventing puts one horse and rider through dressage, show jumping and which third phase?
Cross-country
Cross-country is the endurance phase, ridden over fixed solid obstacles. Together with dressage and show jumping it makes up the classic three-day event.
Q 11Bucephalus was the celebrated warhorse of which commander?
Alexander the Great
Alexander the Great rode Bucephalus from Macedonia all the way to the Punjab.
Q 12What does the name Bucephalus literally mean?
Ox-headed
It combines the Greek boûs, 'ox', with kephalē, 'head' — probably a nod to the horse's broad head or a brand mark on his flank.
Q 13Alexander founded the city of Bucephala in his horse's honour, on the bank of which river?
The Hydaspes
The Hydaspes is today's Jhelum, in Pakistan. The city was founded after the battle fought there in 326 BC.
Q 21By how many lengths did Secretariat win the Belmont Stakes that completed his Triple Crown?
31
Secretariat won the 1973 Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths, shattering Count Fleet's 25-length record, and ran the mile and a half in 2:24 flat.
Q 22Which English racecourse stages the Grand National?
Aintree
Aintree in Merseyside, near Liverpool, has staged the National since the 19th century.
Q 23Which horse is the only three-time winner of the Grand National?
Red Rum
Red Rum won the National three times in the 1970s and finished second in the two intervening years.
Q 24How many separate fences does the Grand National course have?
Q 14Every Thoroughbred descends from the Darley Arabian, the Godolphin Arabian and which other stallion?
The Byerley Turk
The Byerley Turk, a stallion captured from the Ottomans at the siege of Buda in 1686, was the earliest of the three foundation sires of the Thoroughbred.
Q 15How many pairs of ribs does a typical horse have?
18
The usual count is 18 pairs. Some Arabians also have five lumbar vertebrae instead of six, which shortens the back.
Q 16How many mounted players make up each team in outdoor polo?
Four
Outdoor polo is four a side. Riders swap mounts between periods because one horse cannot last a whole match.
Q 17What is a seven-minute period of play in polo called?
Chukka
A match runs four to eight chukkas, also spelled chukkers, of seven minutes each.
Q 18At which racetrack is the Kentucky Derby run?
Churchill Downs
Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky has staged the Kentucky Derby since its first running on 17 May 1875; the race is the opening leg of the American Triple Crown.
Q 19The Kentucky Derby winner is draped in a blanket of which flower?
Roses
The garland is hand-sewn from hundreds of red roses onto green satin, and it is where the nickname 'The Run for the Roses' comes from.
Q 20In which year did Secretariat take the American Triple Crown?
1973
Secretariat ended a 25-year gap without a Triple Crown winner, setting records in the Derby and the Belmont along the way.
16
There are 16 fences, 14 of them jumped twice, which makes 30 jumps in all over four and a quarter miles.
Q 25Which Grand National fence is named for a captain unseated into its ditch in 1839?
Becher's Brook
Captain Martin Becher fell there in the first official Grand National of 1839, and the fence has carried his name ever since.
Q 26What is the average lifespan of a modern domestic horse?
25 to 30 years
25 to 30 years is the average, though a few animals reach their 40s; horses are considered fully developed adults by about age five.
Q 27Because their eyes sit on the sides of the head, horses have a range of vision of roughly how much?
More than 350 degrees
A horse's field of view is more than 350 degrees, nearly all the way round. Only about 65 degrees of it is binocular, and horses are dichromats, seeing mainly blues and yellows.
Q 28What speed did Winning Brew reach in 2008 to set the Guinness record for a horse?
About 44 mph
Winning Brew, a two-year-old Thoroughbred, clocked 43.97 mph — about 44 mph — over two furlongs at Penn National in 2008, the Guinness-recognised fastest speed for a racehorse.
Q 29Which culture of Kazakhstan, around 3500 BCE, yields the earliest evidence of horse milking?
Botai
The Botai culture of northern Kazakhstan left mare's-milk residues in pottery and bit-wear on horse teeth dated to about 3500 BCE, the earliest known evidence of horse husbandry.
Q 30What are the four canine-type teeth found behind the incisors of stallions and geldings called?
Tushes
Tushes are the four canine teeth that grow in the gap behind the incisors of most male horses; wolf teeth are different — tiny vestigial premolars often removed because they interfere with the bit.