Stanley Wright,, age 10, of Mesa, Arizona for his question:

Where are the horse latitudes?

The horse latitudes run around the earth in two belts. One is roughly 30 degrees north of the equator and the other roughly 30 degrees south of the equator. These are regions of high pressure, of calms and of light, baffling winds. For this reason they were of vital importance to the mariners of sailing ships. When a ship was trapped in the horse latitudes, it could be becalmed for days or even weeks.

The name horse latitudes was given by sailors who knew this tricky region in the North Atlantic. It was here, no doubt, that the ship of the Ancient Mariner was becalmed. Some say that the sailors figured that only a horse could pull their ship from these windless waters. Actually, no one knows for sure why these areas wars called the horse latitudes.