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When my toddler asked for a horse in the days leading up to his second birthday, my wife and I thought it was adorable and hilarious. He had lounged with us on the sofa as we watched "Seabiscuit," and suddenly a similar horse was a "must have."

When we called my mother-in-law, she cooed as if it melted her heart. It was not an idea, but an outrageous-but-cute anecdote.

She misunderstood. Just two days later, she pulled up to our curb with a horse trailer attached to her truck.

Inside was the little guy's gift: a striking black-and-pearl-white colt that he quickly named "Oreo." We were stunned, but he was in love. We had to go as far as to buy a stuffed horse that resembled Oreo so he could take it to bed.

Although his love of horses is particularly significant in our house, he is far from alone in his adoration of all things equestrian.

For centuries, horses have been a symbol of nobility and esteem - an unrivaled combination of speed and strength, masked beneath a gentle and disarming exterior. Used as heavy labor and swift transport, their strength and beauty have made them an eternal source of admiration, fascination and obsession.

EVOLUTION
Archaeologi sts believe the earliest ancestors of the modern horse - a species known as Hyracotherium - arose about 55 million years ago. They were considerably taller than modern horses, had toed feet, and lived in the forest - eating leaves from trees instead of grazing on grass.

Evolution saw a broad expansion of similar species under the order Perissodactyla, creating 12 unique families of equids. Only three of those families still exist - Equidae (horses and horse-like animals), Rhinocerous, and Tapir.

BREEDS AND TYPES
The old "Mr. Ed" theme song, which expounded that "A horse is a horse, of course, of course" was a bit short-sighted in the eyes of many hard-core horse enthusiasts. Breeds and types (clusters of breeds) vary wildly. The largest type of horse, the draft horse, stands more than six feet (two metres) tall, compared to the smallest - miniature horses - which is typically less than two feet (about half a metre) tall.

Colonial Spanish horses are those typically associated with common horses, which were spread across much of the world by Spanish explorers. They include a wide variety of mixed and purebreed domesticated horses.

Draft horses are large, muscular breeds raised for heavy pulling or plowing. The most famous example of draft horses are the Budweiser Clydesdales, who trot across TV screens pulling the Bud stagecoach,

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