Maryland State Horse

Thoroughbred Horse

(Equus caballus)

Adopted on October 1, 2003.

On October 1, 2003, the Thoroughbred Horse, Equus caballus, became the State Horse of Maryland

(Chapter 359, Acts of 2003; Code State Government Article, sec. 13-318).

Description of the Maryland State Horse

The average Thoroughbred stands 16 hands (64") high at the withers, and weighs 1,000 pounds. Its coat colors may be bay, dark bay, chestnut, black, gray, or occasionally roan.

Able to sustain speed for extended distances, the Thoroughbred can run up to 40 miles per hour. Thoroughbreds are used as racehorses and polo mounts, for show jumping and dressage, and by mounted police units and recreational riders.

The term Thoroughbred describes a breed of horse whose ancestry traces back to three foundation sires -- the Darley Arabian, the Godolphin Arabian and the Byerly Turk.

Named after their respective owners -- Thomas Darley, Lord Godolphin and Captain Robert Byerly -- these three stallions were brought to England from the Mediterranean Middle East around the turn of the 17th century and bred to the stronger, but less precocious, native horse.

The result was an animal which could carry weight with sustained speed over extended distances, qualities which brought a new dimension to the burgeoning, aristocratically-supported, sport of horse racing.

So began a selective breeding process which has been going on for more than 250 years, breeding the best stallions to the best mares, with the proof of superiority and excellence being established on the race track.

Taxonomic Hierarchy of the Thoroughbred Horse

Kingdom	Animalia -- animals
Phylum	Chordata -- chordates
Subphylum	Vertebrata -- vertebrates
Class	Mammalia
Order	Perissodactyla
Family	Equidae
Genus	Odocoileus
Species	Equus caballus

State Animals and Mammals

Mammals are one group of animals. Bears, monkeys and dolphins are mammals. So are humans. But what makes a mammal a mammal?

an·i·mal (ān'ə-məl)
n.

1. A multicellular organism of the kingdom Animalia, differing from plants in certain typical characteristics such as capacity for locomotion, nonphotosynthetic metabolism, pronounced response to stimuli, restricted growth, and fixed bodily structure.
2. An animal organism other than a human, especially a mammal.
mam·mal (mām'əl)
n.

Any of various warm-blooded vertebrate animals of the class Mammalia, including humans, characterized by a covering of hair on the skin and, in the female, milk-producing mammary glands for nourishing the young.