# What if centaurs existed? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 19, 2014, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-centaurs-existed/681733 "2014-02-19T21:03:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2014, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-centaurs-existed/681733/41 "2014-02-20T22:47:21Z")
There’s a number of sports that centaurs would be worse at or outright incapable of. Gymnastics being an obvious one. I’m not sure about swimming; how good are horses at swimming compared to humans? ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2014, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-centaurs-existed/681733/42 "2014-02-20T23:24:41Z")
Also polo might be popular, or a modified version of field hockey. ---
**Author:** ![nevadaexile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2014, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-centaurs-existed/681733/43 "2014-02-20T23:42:06Z")
Given horses vulnerabilities to a number of cattle diseases, then there would likely be very few centaurs. The relatively small number centaurs would have been no match for the larger number of human being and they would have rendered extinct as a result. There probably wouldn’t have centaurs in the New World as there were no horses in the New World (at least in large numbers) until after Columbus arrived (the Vikings may have brought horses with them to Vinland but they obviously took them with them when they were expelled by the Natives or they died after being abandoned). That would have left centaurs in the Old World and even then in a limited area (horses weren’t common in Sub-Saharan Africa until the 11th century). Finally, the limitations of their anatomy wouldn’t have helped. They can’t turn around without turning their entire bodies meaning that they could be snuck up on from the rear quite easily. They can’t climb trees, so they couldn’t avoid a number of predators. Nor could they easily navigate rough terrain, meaning that they would be limited to relatively flat ground, again leaving them vulnerable to predators. Centaurs would be a sad animal if it existed that would have a limited lifespan and which could easily be controlled by human beings who have fewer of their limitations, while still retaining their intelligence. ---
**Author:** ![Inna\_Minnit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Inna\_Minnit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inna_Minnit)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2014, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-centaurs-existed/681733/44 "2014-02-20T23:45:59Z")
> [@nevadaexile](#): > > Finally, the limitations of their anatomy wouldn’t have helped. They can’t turn around without turning their entire bodies meaning that they could be snuck up on from the rear quite easily. They can’t climb trees, so they couldn’t avoid a number of predators. Nor could they easily navigate rough terrain, meaning that they would be limited to relatively flat ground, again leaving them vulnerable to predators. Horses get by in most of those limitations by living in herds. They also navigate pretty darn well on rough terrain. Would their be centaur little people? With pony or donkey bodies? ---
**Author:** ![nevadaexile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2014, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-centaurs-existed/681733/45 "2014-02-20T23:59:08Z")
> [@Inna\_Minnit](#): > > Horses get by in most of those limitations by living in herds. They also navigate pretty darn well on rough terrain. > > Would their be centaur little people? With pony or donkey bodies? Actually, horses do poorly on rough terrain. Their hooves get stone bruised and split and they can’t easily navigate steep hills or in the mountains. Even out West where I’m from (hence the name) you only see wild horses on relatively level ground. And horses can see behind and beside them quite easily (look at the setting of their eyes). Human eyes are set forward as we are predators; but we can also turn around quickly to discern danger behind us. Centaurs would lack this ability. Ponies and donkeys are slightly different animals from horses. Same general family; somewhat different animals. Ponies continue to exist as a human creation due to breeding and they would survive poorly in any environment with a number of predators (they evolved as horses which matured living in marginally habitable areas.) As far “cent-donkeys”, these would even be more vulnerable due to their smaller size and slower gait it would seem. ---
**Author:** ![Inna\_Minnit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Inna\_Minnit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inna_Minnit)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2014, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-centaurs-existed/681733/46 "2014-02-21T00:03:02Z")
Eh, our horses were pastured on hillsides at times. But then, they’d always have those legs on the one side shorter than the other. 😜 ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2014, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-centaurs-existed/681733/47 "2014-02-21T00:52:28Z")
What would centaurs think of humans using horses to ride or as draft animals? Would they view humans as oppressors of their cousins? Or would they think of horses more like the way we think of chimpanzees and monkeys? ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2014, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-centaurs-existed/681733/48 "2014-02-21T01:29:53Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#): > > What would centaurs think of humans using horses to ride or as draft animals? Would they view humans as oppressors of their cousins? Or would they think of horses more like the way we think of chimpanzees and monkeys? Depends on if they’re “undocumented” centaurs in which the top half is Mexican. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2014, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-centaurs-existed/681733/49 "2014-02-21T02:24:55Z")
> [@nevadaexile](#): > > Given horses vulnerabilities to a number of cattle diseases, then there would likely be very few centaurs. Why do you presume they’d have the same vulnerabilities as horses? They _aren’t_ horses - they are half human by appearance, and who-knows-what genetically. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2014, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-centaurs-existed/681733/50 "2014-02-21T03:30:21Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#): > > Do female centaurs have breasts like human females have? I’d imagine they would. I guess they’d have to wear bras and bustiers and stuff like that. I mean with all that trotting and galloping they’d be doing, well, bouncing around might become uncomfortable for the more endowed ones. Yes, according to Disney, and they didn’t wear bras either. The original version of _Fantasia_ (1940) featured [bare-breasted female centaurs](http://sistersuffragette.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/topless.jpg), until a later Disney-correct version was released which sanitized the scene by [putting bikini tops on them](http://images6.fanpop.com/image/photos/35700000/Centaurs-Centaurettes-fantasia-35769027-500-375.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2014, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-centaurs-existed/681733/51 "2014-02-21T03:59:34Z")
> [@MLS](#): > > How about their internal organs? For example, where are their lungs? In the human chest or the horse chest? Same question for digestive organs. Are they in the horse part? Is the human part mostly muscle, or just empty? If there are lungs and digestive organs in the human part, then what’s in the horse part? Maybe they’re like giraffes with really buff necks? ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2014, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-centaurs-existed/681733/52 "2014-02-21T04:04:34Z")
I can just see it; a centaur among a herd of horses saying to one of the horses “I don’t know what the heck it is; it just started as a bump on my neck and grew.” ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2014, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-centaurs-existed/681733/53 "2014-02-21T04:12:42Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#): > > What would centaurs think of humans using horses to ride or as draft animals? Would they view humans as oppressors of their cousins? Only if they were morons. There’d probably be some organisation called CETH or whatever, but the rest of the centaurs would be smart enough to not fall for that kind of stupidity. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2014, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-centaurs-existed/681733/54 "2014-02-21T05:42:52Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > Only if they were morons. There’d probably be some organisation called CETH or whatever, but the rest of the centaurs would be smart enough to not fall for that kind of stupidity. Makes sense, I guess. Why should only humans get morons? ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2014, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-centaurs-existed/681733/55 "2014-02-21T17:35:41Z")
> [@nevadaexile](#): > > There probably wouldn’t have centaurs in the New World as there were no horses in the New World (at least in large numbers) until after Columbus arrived (the Vikings may have brought horses with them to Vinland but they obviously took them with them when they were expelled by the Natives or they died after being abandoned). That would have left centaurs in the Old World and even then in a limited area (horses weren’t common in Sub-Saharan Africa until the 11th century). While I agree about the Americas, I see no reason why Africa couldn’t have been inhabited by a centaur-like creature with the hindquarters of a zebra. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2014, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-centaurs-existed/681733/56 "2014-02-21T21:30:47Z")
Yeah, that Disney Fantasia segment is funny. They have not-really-all-that-racist [black woman-zebra](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Ag_ZmL4XBIo/Tkb-OIRGCgI/AAAAAAAADI8/ycdAmpUUOE8/s640/Fantasia%2525202.jpg) centaurs. Plus a totally-racist [gollywog-donkey](http://coilhouse.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/sunflower01.jpg) centaur servant. Centaur porn is already a thing in our world. Can you imagine the centaur porn everywhere if centaurs were real? ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2014, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-centaurs-existed/681733/57 "2014-02-21T21:36:26Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#): > > Humans would probably have all sorts of derogatory names for centaurs they wouldn’t say in polite company. I wouldn’t want to live next door to one of those damned grass-chokers. ---
**Author:** ![nevadaexile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2014, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-centaurs-existed/681733/58 "2014-02-21T22:37:09Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > While I agree about the Americas, I see no reason why Africa couldn’t have been inhabited by a centaur-like creature with the hindquarters of a zebra. While zebras are certainly “sturdier” than horses, the inability to see behind you would mean that centaurs would be vulnerable to animal predation in a manner unlike that of other animals. The animals in Africa survive because they are herds and have evolved the ability to avoid predators. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2014, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-centaurs-existed/681733/59 "2014-02-22T00:06:00Z")
I’m thinking a pony-sized equine part, for Centaurs. Easier to go indoors, & use elevators. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2014, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-centaurs-existed/681733/60 "2014-02-22T00:22:32Z")
> [@nevadaexile](#): > > While zebras are certainly “sturdier” than horses, the inability to see behind you would mean that centaurs would be vulnerable to animal predation in a manner unlike that of other animals. The animals in Africa survive because they are herds and have evolved the ability to avoid predators. It would be less of a problem if centaurs were, themselves, predators. After all, humans can’t see behind themselves, either. Nonetheless, we’ve done pretty well. We’re omnivorous and capable of being predators even if some of our closer relatives are vegetarian (gorillas and orangs, we all know now chimps will also kill and eat meat). Why not a tool-using centaur that is also an omnivore and possible predator like humans? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-centaurs-existed/681733.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-centaurs-existed/681733.md?page=4)