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 age three and younger. However, in Thoroughbred horse racing, a mare is defined as a female horse more than four years old. The word can also be used for other female equine animals, particularly mules and zebras, though a female donkey is usually called a "jenny." A broodmare is a mare used for breeding. A horse's female parent is known as its dam.
An adult male horse is called a stallion, or, if castrated, a gelding. Occasionally the term "horse" is used in a restrictive sense to designate only a male horse.
Read more about Mare: Reproductive Cycle, Behavior, Uses, Etymology
Famous quotes containing the word mare:
“A harvest mouse goes scampering by,
With silver claws and silver eye;
And moveless fish in the water gleam,
By silver reeds in a silver stream.”
—Walter De La Mare (1873–1956)
“Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup,
And the sound of iron on stone,
And how the silence surged softly backward,
When the plunging hoofs were gone.”
—Walter De La Mare (1873–1956)
“And the country proverb known,
That every man should take his own,
In your waking shall be shown.
Jack shall have Jill,
Naught shall go ill:
The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)