Brain Teasers

A farmer had nine horses, and all but seven died. How many did he have left?
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All of my horses except two are Quarter horses. All of my horses except two are Tennessee Walkers. All of my horses except two are Arabians. How many horses do I have?
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A farmer died, leaving in his will 17 fine horses to his three children, Ann, Bob, and Ted. The will stated that to Ann he left half his horses, to Bob a third of them, and to Ted a ninth of them. How did they divide up the horses?
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How far can a horse run into the woods?
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A cowboy went to and stayed in an inn on Friday. He stayed there 2 nights and left on Friday. How is this possible?
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How many horses can you put in the average empty corral?
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You are a contestant on a game show where you have an opportunity to win a fabulous pedigreed horse.  The horse is behind one of three doors.  Behind the other two doors are cheap rocking horses.  If you pick the correct door, you win and get to keep the real horse.  First, you select one of the doors.  But before you look behind the door, the host opens one of the other doors and reveals a rocking horse.  The host then offers to let you keep your selection or switch to the unopened door.  What do you think is best for you to do now -- open the current door you have already selected, switch and open the other unopened door, or it does not matter which you do?
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Make the horse triangle point upward by moving three horses. Click here for answer. Contributed by: Ben Y.

You have ten horses and 9 boxes.  Your job is to put them in the 9 boxes, having only 1 in each box. You cannot physically do anything to the horses.
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You counted 10 horses on your right when going to the stable, and counted horses 10 on your left on the way back.  How many total horses have you counted?
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Find the horse images that match in the group at right. Click here for answer. Contributed by: Ben Y.

A horse is tied to a 30 foot rope. A haystack lies 40 feet away, but the horse is able to
eat it. How is this possible?
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The Bar Z ranch was a dude ranch. One day a new "dude" asked one of the stable hands how many men were tending the horses in the corral.  Having a mischievous sense of humor, he replied, "I saw eighty-two feet and twenty-six heads".  He then walked away, leaving the dude scratching his head trying to figure it out.  How many men were tending the horses?
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How would you arrange the three triangular horse corrals (below) so that all four horses will have a corral (pen) of their own?         Contributed by: Ben Y.

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You have nine horses (numbered from 1 through 9) with riders that are taking part in a parade.  After the  coordinator makes a request for the participants to get ready to start the parade, he notices that the horses are lined up out of order.   What is the least number of horses he will have to ask to move so that the lineup is in numerical order?  (He can ask any horse to come out of the parade and move into any gap in the lineup, asking the others to shuffle up if necessary. )
The order of the horses is:  9,8,2,7,3,4,6,1,5.
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Two stallions (fathers) and two stallion offspring (sons) were being readied for a trail ride.  Only 3 saddles were needed.  Why?
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You have nine horses positioned in rows of three (as at right).  Use three wooden corrals (fences) of the same shape (they do not have to be the same the same size), so that all the horses are separated from one another and are prevented from escaping. The corrals my not overlap. Click here for answer. If overlapping is allowed, what is the minimum number of circular corrals that you would need to make sure the horses are separated and can't escape? Click here for answer.

Six horses and 6 children were standing under one umbrella. None of them got wet?  How could this be?
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You are shown eight horses in a corral. The horses all weigh the same amount except for
one which is slightly heavier. You have a huge balancing scale at your disposal. What's the minimum number of weighings required for you to pick out the heavy horse every time?
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A man and a horse were going down the street.  The man rode, yet walked.   What was the horse's name?
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Rescue the Horse!  You are on the outside of the maze and must find a path to enter that will allow you to reach the center and lead the horse out.  (To see details in a full page view, click on image at right.  When finished with viewing enlarged image, press the "Back" icon on your browser to return here. Not drawn in proportion.) Click here for answer. Note:  Other than the horse that we added in the center, this is acutally a maze created by Lewis Carroll (author of Alice in Wonderland) and published in his magazine, Mischmasch,  between 1855 and 1862.  The magazine was written for his three brothers and seven sisters.  For more about Carroll's games and puzzles and related sources, see the book, Lewis Carroll's Games and Puzzles, edited by Edward Wakeling, Published by Dover Publicatoins, Inc., 1992, in association with the Lewis Carroll Birthplace Trust.  ISBN 0-486-26922-1

What is shaped like a horse, often as big or bigger than a horse, but doesn't weigh anything?
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You have a herd of  19 horses.  How can you take 1 from 19 to leave 20?
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A race enthusiast was not able to attend a racing event, so he asked his friend to update him on the results.  His friend decided to tease him.  Instead of telling him the results of the race, the friend gave clues as to how the five horses finished -- which may have included some ties -- as follows:

Penuche Fudge finished before Near Miss and after Whispered Promises. Whispered Promises tied with Penuche Fudge if and only if Happy Go Lucky did not tie with Skipper's Gal. Penuche Fudge finished as many places after Skipper's Gal as Skipper's Gal finished after Whispered Promises if and only if Whispered Promises finished before Near Miss.

The race enthusiast thought for a moment, then answered correctly. How did the five horses finish the race?
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Trick question: What breed of horse eats and drinks with it's tail?
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Two horse breeders, while discussing their horses, discovered that if horse breeder #1 were to sell horse breeder #2 seven horses, then breeder #1 would have exactly as many horses as breeder #2.  If horse breeder #2 were to sell horse breeder #1 seven horses, then breeder #1 would have exactly twice as many horses as breeder #2.
How many horses did each breeder have?
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