Some other animals, and in fact objects, have been given names to suggest a relationship, or appearance, similar to the beloved horse. Here is a look at the most common.

Horsefly

Horseflies are commonly large biting flies who pester horses throughout the summer. Since “Horsefly” is a common name, as opposed to a scientific name, what some people refer to a horsefly may be different than what you might refer to as a horsefly. Horse flies are NOT the same as House flies. As you might gather horseflies live around areas where there are horses. They are bothersome and do bite… hard! The photo is from Flickr.

Sea Horse

Under the sea, among the seaweeds and corals is where we would find this creature. The profile of its head is clearly where it got its name from, it is much like a finely chiseled Arabian Horse’s head. They are best knownfor the father being the one to carry the young in his pouch. If you can believe it, in some parts of the world these beautiful little animals are eaten as food, well, I guess you might believe it, because in some places they eat horses too. The photo is from Flickr.

Horseshoe Crab

This is a very ancient creature, fossils of similar animals have been found showing they were around over 400 million years ago, and little has changed. They are noted as special because their blood, which is grey to light yellow, clots in a unique manner. As such they are valuable to science. Well I suppose this is similar to our beloved equine friends too, many mares are stabled throughout a lengthy pregnancy for the purposes of urine collection to use in medication for menopausal women. The phot is from Wikimedia and shows a horseshoe crab on land.

Horsehair worm

One day my husband and my father were at the river, when my husband exclaimed that there was a black hair in the water and it appeared to be swimming. Indeed it was. My father, who specializes in fish, knew this was a “Horsehair worm”. As adults they swim in the water of ponds, lakes, and even horse troughs. They being life as parasites on insects, such as grasshoppers, so where they spend their adult life depends entirely on where that insect host dies. The photo is from Flickr.

Horsepower

Well, okay, I don’t even understand Horsepower, so there is no point in me trying to explain it to you. I don’t know how to calculate it and apparently it is not a term science is happy with either as it appears to have several different variations, but it is commonly used in the automobile industry. Cars and trucks often come with the header of this much or that much horsepower as a way for you to determine what engine has more power. The photograph is from Flickr.

Water Horse

The Hippopotamus is sometimes called a “Water Horse”, although I have no idea why, they certainly do not look like a regal equine. Although they are also vegetarians, maybe that is it? They spend most of their time in the water, probably to prevent their skin from becoming too dry and to keep annoying bugs away. When they are young they float, but when they are older, they don’t. Even real horses can swim, but adult Hippos cannot. Instead they run along the bottoms of the pond or lake they are in. The photo of this pair is from Flickr.

Horseradish

Horseradish is a nasty tasting root, that some people seem to think is yummy. I have never liked the taste of horseradish, maybe the name turned me off when I was younger, I loved horses and maybe thought it was a trick to make me eat them. As a root, that is often grated with vinegar added, put in soups, or a whole bunch of other things, none of which I particularly care for. The photo is from Wikimedia.

Horse Mushroom

Horse Mushrooms are edible and prized as such, but I wouldn’t recommend eating a mushroom you find haphazardly because they look very much like a poisonous variety of mushroom. They are common in pastures, especially where there are thistles or nettles. As certain as I am that I have these in my pasture, I am still leery to taste them. In the past when people were not sure if a mushroom was poisonous or not, they often fed it to their dogs, if the dog lived, the mushroom was safe. The photo here is from Wikimedia.

Charley Horse

Pay Attention, I know the photo might be distracting.

This typically refers to a cramping of the muscles in the upper leg. In some places it refers to a injury to the knee. There is probably no point in going on, half of you are not even reading this anyhow, too busy looking at the picture. I don’t know why I go on. Filler, fluff, stuff to possibly draw your eye down to the next photograph. The picture is from Flickr.

Saw Horse

A simple design used to support materials while they are being cut or worked on. Not much else to say about this item, it probably was named after a horse because it has four legs. Usually you need a pair of them to cut anything, this would then be called a team of saw horses. The photo is from Wikimedia.

Trojan Horse

The Trojan Horse was a vehicle of Greek Mythology, supposedly used by Greek soldiers to invade the city of Troy during the Trojan war. In the tale it was given as a gift, and once in the city the soldiers spilled out to win the city. As such it is now used as a term for any vehicle used to sneak some attacker into someplace, such as downloading information from the Internet might sneak a Trojan Virus onto somebodies computer. This Trojan horse is in Turkey, the photo is from Wikimedia.

Well that is my look at horses who are not horses at all.  Personally I perfer the actual thing, but wouldn’t mind having one of those Trojan  Horses in my yard, just for effect!