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This article refers to the geographical area. See also Horse latitudes (disambiguation)

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A diagram showing the relative positions of the Horse latitudes

Horse latitudes or Subtropical High are subtropical latitudes between 30 and 35 degrees both north and south. This region, under a ridge of high pressure called the Subtropical ridge, is an area which receives little precipitation and has variable winds mixed with calm. It may owe its name to the fact that the confused sea, muggy heat, and rolling and pitching of waves (variably stilled and aerated by winds) often slowed colonial ships for days to weeks due to lack of propulsion. In order to reduce the weight of the ship and to conserve water, the crew would throw horses overboard, subsequently increasing the speed of the ship in the low winds.^[1]

Alternately, the ancient Persian navigator and general Sataspes, whose name was derived from his command of a Persian horse cavalry unit (sat was the unit size and asp(es) was the Persian word for horse), has been credited by some historians as the progenitor of the term. Sataspes was the leading explorer and navigator of this day, circumnavigating Africa^{[citation needed]} as well as mapping out the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Verde. Mariners navigating ancient waters may have referred to the mid-latitudes as those mapped by Sataspes, whose name was translated as "horse".

The consistently warm, dry conditions of the horse latitudes also contribute to the existence of temperate deserts, such as the Sahara Desert in Africa, the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, and parts of the Middle East in the Northern Hemisphere, and the Atacama Desert, the Kalahari Desert, and the Australian Desert in the Southern Hemisphere.

• About.com, Trade Winds, Horse Latitudes, and the Doldrums, accessed 5 Jan 2007.
• The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Columbia University Press., 2003.

• Doldrums
• Intertropical convergence zone
• Circle of latitude
• Subtropical ridge

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