Recently the Year 7 English class went to the St. Andrews School stables and learnt about horses to understand more about them as we are studying a book called ‘War Horse’. Ms Meryl introduced herself and gave us information about horses. We had a sheet of paper to write notes on. We also asked some questions about horses when we were there, such as, how long a horse can live, what protection they need and the different breeds of horses and their uses.
Learning facts about horses from Meryl.
We found out that:
* Horses are expected to live for 25 years but some horses live longer.
* Horses wear horseshoes on their hooves to protect their hooves from rocks and hard ground.
Students take notes for their English project.
* Blacksmiths put the horseshoes on the horse’s hooves with nails, which come up through the hoof and are clenched, then cut off so that they don’t hurt the horse.
* In Thailand there are many flies and dust, so the horses wear a fly mask to protect their eyes. There is another mask called a blinker; this helps horses not to panic when looking at cars and unusual things around them. Some people say that horses are colour blind and some people say they’re not.
* There are lots of breeds of horses such as the Shire and the Friesian. The Shire horse is the strongest and biggest horse and is used for ploughing because of its strength. The Friesian was bred to be a war horse because of its speed, strength and stamina. In peace times, this horse makes a good hunter.
* Horses like to live in groups because they think it’s safer to be in a group.
We really enjoyed visiting the stable. It was nice to meet Ms Meryl and we found her talk very interesting. We think the visit has given us a great understanding of horses and the book we are reading. It was surprising to see the different breeds of horses and the sizes of the horses. It was good that we had a horse stable in our school and had Ms Meryl to give us lots of information. We hope we will go again soon.
It’s interesting to watch the blacksmith in action.
