For several years, Internet users have published pictures that supposedly depict the largest horse that has ever lived on the planet. We checked the authenticity of these photographs and the veracity of the statements.
Photo of horses with dark color
Since the spring of 2023, supposedly a vintage picture has been distributed in social networks (and its mirror version) horses and six people who are about two times lower than the animal. In signatures, it is characterized as the largest horse in the world. Sometimes the authors of such publications give details that vary from post to post: the horse was called either Samson, either Sampson, he was born either in 1846 year, either in 1867 and weighed either 1520 kg, either 1524, was photographed either in 1846 year, either in 1859. Record with this picture posted in a public "Leonardo Davinchik"On VKontakte in May 2023, scored 3.4 million views. In the same social networks there are many similar publications that have scored dozens and hundreds of thousands of views; Some of them appeared recently (examples here, here, here And here). Similar records can also be found in Odnoklassniki (here, here And here) and in Tiktok, where only one video In Russian Sicked 349,000 views, and in English -speaking rollers Million views are found.
Around the same period, another picture went on the network (and its mirror version) a similar horse standing in a crowd of people. The signature read: “This is the largest horse in the world. He weighed 1846 kg and lived in the 19th century. " Although certain records were gaining tens of thousands of views, this picture did not become as popular as the previous one, and most of the posts appeared with it on VKontakte (here, here, here, here, here And here).
With a detailed examination of the first picture, you can notice many anomalies and oddities. For example, the faces of some people captured in the photo are distorted, they have deformed hands, and part of the harness of the neck of the horse seemed to hang in the air. Similar visual inconsistencies and artifacts are one of the main signs The fact that the image was generated by a neural network. To the same conclusion They came factor from Snopes, and Facta project I found outthat for the first time this picture was published on April 8, 2023 on Facebook*. User Mervin Chapman Placed Photo in the Midjourney Official community - it is dedicated to the Midjourney program, which using artificial intelligence Creates Images according to text descriptions.
The Chapman published not one picture created in the neural network, but shared a whole selection of supposedly old photographs with different huge animals. The author came up with such an accompanying legend: “Early attempts to derive larger animals for both food and work were ambiguous. In one of these attempts, the researcher accidentally crossed his genes with snail genes. All documents on these experiments have disappeared, except for these photographs, saved by an unscrupulous researcher. ”
A similar situation with the second viral photo. During his close consideration, it is noticeable that the faces and brushes of almost all people captured in the picture are very distorted. Sometimes this is a horse image distribute As part of the selection of archival photos with giant animals, where huge dogs, dove, cat, sheep, etc. are shown. "Checked" analyzed the photo using services Ai or not and tools Maybe's Ai Art Detector. In both cases, according to the results, the image was most likely created by a neural network.
Photos of horses with light color
The first of the above images checked for authenticity and “noodles of media” - quasifactkeking project close to the Russian authorities of ANO "Dialogue of the Region". In the refutation of "noodles" on site and on "Picabu"It was indicated that the picture was generated by the Midjourney neural network, and the author was named the author. At the same time, the text notes that viral publications contain reliable information: “If you believe the Guinness Book of Records, the largest horse in the world was born in 1846.” Further in the analysis of the "noodles" a screenshot is given Articles On the Prohorse website, which is allegedly shown a horse of the shaire breed named Sampson, which was recognized as the largest in the world and subsequently renamed the mammoth. The height of the horse, as reported, was 219 cm. Partner "Lapsha" website URA.RU, which previously distributed Dozens of fakes, reportedthat the animal is called Samson and that it weighed 1524 kg. However, at the end of its parsing, the “noodles” brought another photo with such a signature (spelling and punctuation are preserved): “The largest horse in the world named Samson was 2 m 20 cm tall and weighed 1520 kg. He came from the British breed of horses-horseman-the shaire. "
By themselves, these two photos supposedly the largest horse in history are found on other sites. For example, on Instagram* fast About Sampson with a similar signature in Russian was posted back in 2021. In the 2022th Telegram channel "Film"(91,000 views) reported that this horse was photographed in 1928. The same two pictures with similar descriptions are found in an article about horses in "Zen"(And the author claims that the achievement of Samson is not registered in the Guinness Book of Records), as well as on sites Fb.ru And Toptimes. Moreover, a link to one of these photos is supposedly Sampson Given In Community Notes - the X -Social network tool X, which allows users to add an important context to tweets containing manipulations or inaccurate information.
“Verified” the return search for the first photo and found out that it captures the Belgian heavy car (brabanson) nicknamed Brooklyn Supim. Original photo Store In the library of the college Greennell, Iowa. According to the signature on the archive website, the photograph was taken in the United States in the first half of the 20th century, and at the time of shooting the horse was 14 years old.
According to the Guinness Book of Records, Brooklyn Suprim lived from 1928 to 1948 and was indeed a record holder. For example, in the publication 1986 The stallion was called the largest horse, clarifying that he was the most severe ever registered horse. Sizes were also reported: shortly before death (however, according to the book 1991, measurements were carried out in 1938) Brooklyn Supime weighed 3,200 pounds (1451.5 kg), and its growth In the withers amounted to 6 feet 6 inches (198.1 cm). In the publication 1987 Added information about coverage chest: 102 inches (259.1 cm), while on other resources indicated 10 feet 2 inches (309.9 cm).
After a similar search for the second photo, which allegedly shows Samson / Sampson, “verified” found a picture on the British Farm website Tynybryn. There indicatedthat the photo captures a stallion of the gheira breed named the Gray King of Albion. A short description says that the horse at one time was sold to London and, according to rumors, carried the carriage of the Lord Maer.
As for the horse with the largest documented growth, it, according to the Guinness Book of Records 1986, in fact, there was Sampson - gerrin of the Ghire breed from Great Britain. It was reported that the highest horse, which was later renamed into a mammoth, was born in 1846, and already in 1850 the growth of the animal was 7 feet 2.5 inches (more than 219 cm). It also said that later the horse weighed 3360 pounds (1524 kg). On the website of the Guinness Sampson record book also Name The most heavy horse.
Although Sampson’s photos are not in the public domain (they probably do not exist at all), the size of this horse can be compared with the growth of the Belgian gelding nicknamed Big Jake. He was born in 2001 in the United States and until his death In 2021, he wore the title of the highest of the living horses according to the Guinness Book of Records. Jake's growth was 82.75 inch (210.19 cm).
Thus, the largest horse in the history of the pictures distributed in the network is not shown in the history, because there are simply no photos of Sampson (or Mammoth) (at least they are not published). In a large part of such publications, images generated by a neural network were used, however, some posts show genuine photos of real horses, which nevertheless did not reach a record growth. At the same time, most publications indicate incorrect data on the size of the horse-record and the details of the biography of the animal.
*Russian authorities They think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns social networks Facebook and Instagram, an extremist organization, its activities in Russia are prohibited.
Photo on the cover: collage "Checked"
- Guinness World Records. Tallest Horse Ever
- Putin is on the knee, the pope's down jacket and Trump's arrest: how to recognize viral photos created by neural networks
- Is it true that for the filming of one of the scenes of the film “The Kreytoye Father” they used the real head of the horse?
- The invented world of the Gekov public (VMGP)
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