<P> The horse latitudes are associated with the subtropical anticyclone and the large - scale descent of air from high - altitude currents moving toward the poles . After reaching the earth's surface, this air spreads toward the equator as part of the prevailing trade winds or toward the poles as part of the westerlies . The belt in the Northern Hemisphere is sometimes called the "calms of Cancer" and that in the Southern Hemisphere the "calms of Capricorn". </P> <P> The consistently warm, dry, and sunny conditions of the horse latitudes are the main cause for the existence of the world's major non-polar deserts, such as the Sahara Desert in Africa, the Arabian and Syrian deserts in the Middle East, the Mojave and Sonoran deserts in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, all in the Northern Hemisphere; and the Atacama Desert, the Kalahari Desert, and the Australian Desert in the Southern Hemisphere . </P> <P> A likely and documented explanation is that the term is derived from the "dead horse" ritual of seamen (see Beating a dead horse). In this practice, the seaman paraded a straw - stuffed effigy of a horse around the deck before throwing it overboard . Seamen were paid partly in advance before a long voyage, and they frequently spent their pay all at once, resulting in a period of time without income . If they got advances from the ship's paymaster, they would incur debt . This period was called the "dead horse" time, and it usually lasted a month or two . The seaman's ceremony was to celebrate having worked off the "dead horse" debt . As west - bound shipping from Europe usually reached the subtropics at about the time the "dead horse" was worked off, the latitude became associated with the ceremony . </P> <P> An alternative theory, of sufficient popularity to serve as an example of folk etymology, is that the term horse latitudes originates from when the Spanish transported horses by ship to their colonies in the West Indies and Americas . Ships often became becalmed in mid-ocean in this latitude, thus severely prolonging the voyage; the resulting water shortages made it impossible for the crew to keep the horses alive, and they would throw the dead or dying animals overboard . </P>

How did the horse latitudes get their name
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