Horse vs. Mare — What's the Difference?

Riding animal

Female horse

The horse (Equus ferus caballus) is a domesticated one-toed hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus.

Adult equine female

A large plant-eating domesticated mammal with solid hoofs and a flowing mane and tail, used for riding, racing, and to carry and pull loads.

Breeding female

A frame or structure on which something is mounted or supported, especially a sawhorse.

Distinct gender

A unit of horsepower

A mare is an adult female horse or other equine.In most cases, a mare is a female horse over the age of three, and a filly is a female horse three and younger. In Thoroughbred horse racing, a mare is defined as a female horse more than four years old.

Heroin.

An adult female horse or the adult female of other equine species.

An obstruction in a vein.

An adult female horse.

Provide (a person or vehicle) with a horse or horses

A foolish woman.

A large hoofed mammal (Equus caballus) having a short coat, a long mane, and a long tail, domesticated since ancient times and used for riding and for drawing or carrying loads.

A type of evil spirit formerly thought to sit on the chest of a sleeping person; also, the feeling of suffocation felt during sleep, attributed to such a spirit.

An adult male horse; a stallion.

A nightmare; a frustrating or terrible experience.

Any of various equine mammals, such as the wild Asian species Przewalski's horse or certain extinct forms related ancestrally to the modern horse.

(planetology) A large, dark plain, which may have the appearance of a sea.

A frame or device, usually with four legs, used for supporting or holding.

(planetology) On Saturn's moon Titan, any of several lakes which are large expanses of what is thought to be liquid hydrocarbons.

(Sports) A vaulting horse.

Obsolete form of mayor

(Slang) Heroin.

Obsolete form of mair

Often horses Horsepower

The female of the horse and other equine quadrupeds.

Mounted soldiers; cavalry

Sighing, suffocative panting, intercepted utterance, with a sense of pressure across the chest, occurring during sleep; the incubus; - obsolete, except in the compound nightmare.

A block of rock interrupting a vein and containing no minerals.

Female equine animal

A large block of displaced rock that is caught along a fault.

A dark region of considerable extent on the surface of the moon

To provide with a horse.

Maternal equine

To haul or hoist energetically

To be in heat. Used of a mare.

Of or relating to a horse

Mounted on horses

Drawn or operated by a horse.

Larger or cruder than others in the same category

A hoofed mammal, Equus ferus caballus, often used throughout history for riding and draft work.

Any member of the species Equus ferus, including the Przewalski's horse and the extinct Equus ferus ferus.

(zoology) Any current or extinct animal of the family Equidae, including zebras and asses.

Cavalry soldiers (sometimes capitalized when referring to an official category).

A component of certain games.

(slang) A large and sturdy person.

(historical) A timber frame shaped like a horse, which soldiers were made to ride for punishment.

Equipment with legs.

In gymnastics, a piece of equipment with a body on two or four legs, approximately four feet high, sometimes (pommel horse) with two handles on top.

A frame with legs, used to support something.

(nautical) Type of equipment.

A rope stretching along a yard, upon which men stand when reefing or furling the sails; footrope.

A breastband for a leadsman.

An iron bar for a sheet traveller to slide upon.

A jackstay.

(mining) A mass of earthy matter, or rock of the same character as the wall rock, occurring in the course of a vein, as of coal or ore; hence, to take horse (said of a vein) is to divide into branches for a distance.

(US) An informal variant of basketball in which players match shots made by their opponent(s), each miss adding a letter to the word "horse", with 5 misses spelling the whole word and eliminating a player, until only the winner is left. Also HORSE, H-O-R-S-E or H.O.R.S.E. (see H-O-R-S-E).

(uncountable) The flesh of a horse as an item of cuisine.

(prison slang) A prison guard who smuggles contraband in or out for prisoners.

A translation or other illegitimate aid in study or examination.

Horseplay; tomfoolery.

(slang) Heroin drug.

(intransitive) To frolic, to act mischievously. (Usually followed by "around".)

(transitive) To play mischievous pranks on.

(transitive) To provide with a horse; supply horses for.

(obsolete) To get on horseback.

To sit astride of; to bestride.

(of a male horse) To copulate with (a mare).

To take or carry on the back.

To place (someone) on the back of another person, or on a wooden horse, chair, etc., to be flogged or punished.

(by extension) To flog.

(transitive) To pull, haul, or move (something) with great effort, like a horse would.

(informal) To cram (food) quickly, indiscriminately or in great volume.

To urge at work tyrannically.

To charge for work before it is finished.

A hoofed quadruped of the genus Equus; especially, the domestic horse (Equus caballus), which was domesticated in Egypt and Asia at a very early period. It has six broad molars, on each side of each jaw, with six incisors, and two canine teeth, both above and below. The mares usually have the canine teeth rudimentary or wanting. The horse differs from the true asses, in having a long, flowing mane, and the tail bushy to the base. Unlike the asses it has callosities, or chestnuts, on all its legs. The horse excels in strength, speed, docility, courage, and nobleness of character, and is used for drawing, carrying, bearing a rider, and like purposes.

The male of the genus Equus, in distinction from the female or male; usually, a castrated male.

Mounted soldiery; cavalry; - used without the plural termination; as, a regiment of horse; - distinguished from foot.

A frame with legs, used to support something; as, a clotheshorse, a sawhorse, etc.

A frame of timber, shaped like a horse, on which soldiers were made to ride for punishment.

Anything, actual or figurative, on which one rides as on a horse; a hobby.

A mass of earthy matter, or rock of the same character as the wall rock, occurring in the course of a vein, as of coal or ore; hence, to take horse - said of a vein - is to divide into branches for a distance.

A translation or other illegitimate aid in study or examination; - called also trot, pony, Dobbin.

Heroin.

Horsepower.

To provide with a horse, or with horses; to mount on, or as on, a horse.

To sit astride of; to bestride.

To mate with (a mare); - said of the male.

To take or carry on the back; as, the keeper, horsing a deer.

To place on the back of another, or on a wooden horse, etc., to be flogged; to subject to such punishment.

To get on horseback.

Solid-hoofed herbivorous quadruped domesticated since prehistoric times

A padded gymnastic apparatus on legs

Troops trained to fight on horseback;

A framework for holding wood that is being sawed

A chessman in the shape of a horse's head; can move two squares horizontally and one vertically (or vice versa)

Provide with a horse or horses

Large mammal

Domesticated ungulate

Work beast

Equine species

Yes, 'horse' can denote the entire species Equus ferus caballus.

Yes, 'horse' is a gender-neutral term.

Only adult female horses over the age of three are typically called mares.

An adult male horse is called a stallion, and a castrated male is called a gelding.

Mares may have different nutritional needs, especially when pregnant or nursing.

Yes, due to hormonal differences, mares and stallions may exhibit different behaviors.

Not all mares are used for breeding; some may be used for work or riding.

A young female horse is called a filly.

A mare is a female horse, while a gelding is a castrated male horse.

Yes, mares fall under the general category of horses.

The gestation period for a mare is typically around 11 months.

A mare can be identified by her feminine build and, if observed closely, the absence of male genitalia.

In cattle, a female is called a cow, and in deer, a doe.

Yes, mares can compete in horse sports just like male horses.

The term 'mare' is universally used across all horse breeds to denote adult females.