Colt (horse)

A colt is a male horse, usually below the age of four years.

The term "colt" only describes young male horses and is not to be confused with foal, which is a horse of either sex less than one year of age. Similarly, a yearling is a horse of either sex between the ages of one and two. A young female horse is called a filly, and a mare once she is an adult animal. In horse racing, particularly for Thoroughbreds in the United Kingdom, a colt is defined as an uncastrated male from the age of two up to and including the age of four.

An adult male horse if left intact is called either a "stallion" or a "horse" (sometimes full horse); if castrated, it is called a gelding. In some cases, particularly informal nomenclature, a gelding under four years is still called a colt. A rig or ridgling is a male equine with a retained testicle or one which has been incompletely castrated.

In the wild, colts are driven from their herds by the herd stallion somewhere between the age of one and two. This may be in part an instinct to prevent inbreeding. When driven out, they usually join with other young stallions in a bachelor herd. They stay with this band until they are mature enough to form their own herd of mares. The terms "rag" or "rake" have been historically used to refer to a group of colts, but they have fallen out of modern usage.

Horse

The horse (Equus ferus caballus) is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus. It is an odd-toed ungulate mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature, Hyracotherium, into the large, single-toed animal of today. Humans began to domesticate horses around 4000 BC, and their domestication is believed to have been widespread by 3000 BC. Horses in the subspecies caballus are domesticated, although some domesticated populations live in the wild as feral horses. These feral populations are not true wild horses, as this term is used to describe horses that have never been domesticated, such as the endangered Przewalski's horse, a separate subspecies, and the only remaining true wild horse. There is an extensive, specialized vocabulary used to describe equine-related concepts, covering everything from anatomy to life stages, size, colors, markings, breeds, locomotion, and behavior.

Horses' anatomy enables them to make use of speed to escape predators and they have a well-developed sense of balance and a strong fight-or-flight response. Related to this need to flee from predators in the wild is an unusual trait: horses are able to sleep both standing up and lying down. Female horses, called mares, carry their young for approximately 11 months, and a young horse, called a foal, can stand and run shortly following birth. Most domesticated horses begin training under saddle or in harness between the ages of two and four. They reach full adult development by age five, and have an average lifespan of between 25 and 30 years.

Horse (zodiac)

The Horse (馬 午) is one of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar. There is a long tradition of the horse in Chinese mythology. Certain characteristics of the Horse nature are supposed to be typical of or to be associated with either a year of the Horse and its events, or in regard to the personality of someone born in such a year. Horse aspects can also enter by other chronomantic factors or measures, such as hourly.

Years and the Five Elements

People born within these date ranges can be said to have been born in the "Year of the Horse", while also bearing the following elemental sign:

Basic astrology elements

Relationship compatibility

Horses are thought to be particularly incompatible with Rat and Ox personalities; and to be particularly compatible with people of the Tiger and Dog type.

See also

Horse in Chinese mythology

Horses are an important motif in Chinese mythology. There are many myths about the horse or horses, or horse-like beings, including the pony. Chinese mythology refers to those myths found in the historical geographic area of China. This includes myths in Chinese and other languages, as transmitted by Han Chinese as well as other ethnic groups (of which fifty-six are officially recognized by the current administration of China, according to Lihui Yang, 2005:4). There are various motifs of horses in Chinese mythology. In some cases the focus is on a horse or horses as the protagonist of the action, in other cases they appear in a supporting role, sometimes as the locomotive power propelling a chariot and its occupant(s). According to a cyclical Chinese calendar system, the time period of 31 January 2014 - 18 February 2015 falls under the category of the (yang) Wood Horse.

Myth versus history

In the study of historical Chinese culture, many of the stories that have been told regarding characters and events which have been written or told of the distant past have a double tradition: one which tradition which presents a more historicized and one which presents a more mythological version (Yang 2005:12-13). This is also true of some accounts related to mythological horses in China.

Colt (given name)

Colt is a masculine given name which may refer to:

People:

Fictional characters:

Colt (surname)

Colt is the surname of:

People:

Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless

The Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless (not to be confused with the Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammer) is a .32 ACP caliber, self-loading, semi-automatic pistol designed by John Browning and built by Colt Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company of Hartford, Connecticut. The Colt Model 1908 Pocket Hammerless is a variant introduced five years later in .380 ACP caliber. Despite the title 'Hammerless', the Model 1903 does have a hammer. It is covered and hidden from view under the rear of the slide. This allowed the pistol to be carried in and withdrawn from a pocket quickly and smoothly without snagging.

History

Approximately 570,000 Colt Pocket Hammerless pistols were produced from 1903 to 1945, in five different types (see Variants paragraph below). Some were issued to US Army and US Air Force general officers from World War II through the 1970s. They were replaced in 1972 with the RIA Colt M15 General Officer's Model, a compact version of the M1911A1. The Shanghai Municipal Police issued the M1908 to its Chinese officers in the 1920s and 1930s and it was a popular model with police in the United States such as the New York City Police Department, Woonsocket RI, Chicopee Mas, Gloversville NY. Detroit MI and many others. In addition to lawful owners, many gangsters of the pre-World War II era favored the Model 1903 and Model 1908 because they were relatively small and easily concealed. It is said that Al Capone kept one in his coat pocket and Bonnie Parker used one to break Clyde Barrow out of jail after smuggling it into the jail by taping it to her thigh. Bank robber John Dillinger was carrying this model of pistol when he was shot by FBI agents outside the Biograph theater on July 22, 1934, and another famous bank robber, Willie Sutton had one when he was captured by police in Brooklyn on February 18, 1952.