Equus

Equus may refer to:

Music

Transportation

See also

Equus (play)

Equus is a play by Peter Shaffer written in 1973, telling the story of a psychiatrist who attempts to treat a young man who has a pathological religious fascination with horses.

Shaffer was inspired to write Equus when he heard of a crime involving a 17-year-old who blinded six horses in a small town near Suffolk. He set out to construct a fictional account of what might have caused the incident, without knowing any of the details of the crime. The play's action is something of a detective story, involving the attempts of the child psychiatrist, Dr. Martin Dysart, to understand the cause of the boy's actions while wrestling with his own sense of purpose. The stage show ran in London between 1973 and 1975: later came the Broadway productions that starred Anthony Hopkins as Dysart (later played by Richard Burton, Leonard Nimoy, and Anthony Perkins), and from the London production, Peter Firth as Alan. Tom Hulce replaced Firth during the Broadway run. The Broadway production ran for 1,209 performances. Marian Seldes appeared in every single performance of the Broadway run, first in the role of Hesther and then as Dora.

Equus (genus)

Equus is a genus of mammals in the family Equidae, which includes horses, asses, and zebras. Within Equidae, Equus is the only recognized extant genus, comprising seven living species. The term equine refers to any member of this genus, including horses. Like Equidae more broadly, Equus has numerous extinct species known only from fossils. The genus most likely originated in North America and spread quickly to the Old World. Equines are odd-toed ungulates with slender legs, long heads, relatively long necks, manes (erect in most subspecies) and long tails. All species are herbivorous, and mostly grazers with simpler digestive systems than ruminants but able to subsist on lower quality vegetation.

While the domestic horse and donkey (along with their feral descendants) exist worldwide, wild equine populations are limited to Africa and Asia. Wild equine social systems come in two forms; a harem system with tight-knit groups consisting of one adult male or stallion, several females or mares and their young or foals; and a territorial system where males establish territories with resources that attract females, which associate very fluidly. In both systems, females take care of their offspring but males may play a role as well. Equines communicate with each other both visually and vocally. Human activities have threatened wild equine populations and out of the seven living species, only the plains zebra remains widespread and abundant.