--- title: Horses, zebras and donkeys — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Horses, zebras and donkeys», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: A horse is a runner built to escape: four long legs, each ending in a single giant toe whose hoof is a huge toenail, eyes on the sides of its h --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/25-horses-zebras-and-donkeys/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / Horses, zebras and donkeys # Horses, zebras and donkeys Lesson 25 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 18 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/25-horses-zebras-and-donkeys/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/25-horses-zebras-and-donkeys/0/) — A horse is a runner built to escape: four long legs, each ending in a single giant toe whose hoof is a huge toenail, eyes on the sides of its head that see almost all the way round, and a big heart and lungs for galloping. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/25-horses-zebras-and-donkeys/1/) — It can even doze standing up, because its legs lock with a system called the stay apparatus, so it is ready to run the moment a predator appears. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/25-horses-zebras-and-donkeys/2/) — Its cousins are the zebra, black-skinned with white stripes that seem to confuse biting flies, and the donkey, a desert animal with long ears and a hee-haw bray that carries about 3 kilometres. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/25-horses-zebras-and-donkeys/3/) — Old paintings and cartoons show a galloping horse with its front legs stretched forwards and back legs stretched back like a rocking horse; Eadweard Muybridge's photographs in 1878 showed that all four feet do leave the ground, but with the legs tucked under the body. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/25-horses-zebras-and-donkeys/4/) — And Eeyore is gloomy and cartoon donkeys are stubborn and stupid, but real donkeys are careful: they stop when they judge something unsafe. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/25-horses-zebras-and-donkeys/5/) — Horses can sleep standing up because a locking system in their legs, the stay apparatus, holds them up, though they still lie down for short times for deep sleep. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/25-horses-zebras-and-donkeys/6/) — A hoof is made of keratin like your fingernails, so a farrier's nails in a properly fitted shoe don't hurt; a horse walks on the tip of one toe on each leg. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/25-horses-zebras-and-donkeys/7/) — Horses' eyes are on the sides of the head and see almost all round, with small blind spots right behind and right in front of the nose, so a horse startled from behind may kick. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/25-horses-zebras-and-donkeys/8/) — Horse teeth keep growing out and wearing down on tough grass, so a vet can guess a horse's age from its teeth. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/25-horses-zebras-and-donkeys/9/) — A foal can usually stand within about an hour of birth and run within hours, and its legs are nearly as long as an adult's. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/25-horses-zebras-and-donkeys/10/) — A galloping racehorse can reach about 70 kilometres an hour over a short distance. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/25-horses-zebras-and-donkeys/11/) — Every zebra has its own stripe pattern, and the best evidence says the stripes help keep biting flies from landing. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/25-horses-zebras-and-donkeys/12/) — Zebras have black skin, so they are usually described as black with white stripes. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/25-horses-zebras-and-donkeys/13/) — Zebras defend themselves with powerful kicks and bites that can badly injure a lion, and they have never been tamed like horses. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/25-horses-zebras-and-donkeys/14/) — Donkeys bray to call other donkeys, and the sound can carry about 3 kilometres across their desert homeland. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/25-horses-zebras-and-donkeys/15/) — Donkeys' long ears hear far-away calls and help them lose heat, and donkeys are often kept as guards for sheep, because they chase off foxes and dogs. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/25-horses-zebras-and-donkeys/16/) — A mule is the young of a donkey father and a horse mother; it is strong and sure-footed but almost never has young of its own. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/25-horses-zebras-and-donkeys/17/) — Horses roll to scratch itches and coat themselves in dust, but a horse that rolls a lot and seems in pain may have colic, so owners call a vet. - ← previous: [Wolves and dogs](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/24-wolves-and-dogs/) - next →: [Whales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/26-whales/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)