Anatomy

Important points of the horse:

CHESTNUTS—Chestnuts are the elongated calluses (horny structures) on the inner surface of a horse's legs. On the forelegs, they are above the knees—on the hindlegs, they are below the hocks.

RIBS—A horse has eight pairs of true ribs and ten pairs of false ribs.

TEETH—A grown horse has 40 and sometimes 42 teeth (2 wolf teeth).

A mare has 36 and sometimes 38 (2 wolf teeth).

A foal has 24 teeth.

There are 24 molars (grinding teeth) and 12 incisors (biting teeth) and—in a male horse's mouth—4 tushes.

A horse normally has a full set of teeth at five years of age.

Tushes are pointed teeth near the front row of teeth (incisors), 2 in the lower jaw, 2 in the upper. They appear only in the male.

Wolf teeth are small rudimentary teeth which sometimes appear in front of the first molars of the upper jaw. They interfere with the action of the bit and should be removed.

Milk teeth (which precede permanent teeth) usually disappear at the age of 5.

Approximate age of a horse may be determined by the appearance of the teeth.

When viewed in profile, the angle between the upper and lower incisors (front teeth) becomes more acute (sloping) with age.

When viewed from the front, the teeth are somewhat separated (diverged from the middle) in a young horse and tend to converge in an old one.

When viewed toward their surface, the front teeth of a young horse are oblong in shape. As the horse grows older, the teeth become round and then triangular in appearance. The cup in the teeth of a young horse is oblong and black. As the horse grows older, the cup wears out from the center incisor teeth outward until, at 8 years, all of the lower cups are worn out. As the cups wear out they are replaced by a black line in front of the cup. In an old horse this line (the dental star) becomes round and small in the center of the tooth.

Galvayne's groove is sometimes useful in determining a horse's age. It is a well-defined vertical line (groove) close to the gums on the upper corner incisor teeth. It appears when the horse is about nine years old and extends gradually downward with advancing years.

THE STOMACH—A horse's stomach is comparatively small and there is no gall bladder. Food does not stay in it long and, when about two-thirds full, the food is forced out of it at about the rate it is consumed. It is important, therefore, to feed horses frequently and in small quantities.

JOINTS—The principal joints of the foreleg are: the shoulder, elbow, knee, fetlock, pastern, coffin (inside the hoof at the hairline). The "knee" of a horse corresponds to the wrist joint of a man—the hock to the ankle joint.

The principal joints of the hindleg are: the hip, stifle, hock, fetlock, pastern, coffin.

A tendon is an elastic fibrous cord or band attaching a muscle to a bone and transmitting the force of the muscle to the bone.

A ligament is an inelastic tough fibrous tissue which binds bones together to form joints.

THE HOOF—The hoof is divided into three major parts: the wall, the sole and the frog.
Exercise is necessary to keep a horse's feet healthy, because only by pressure and release of that pressure on the frog is blood circulated through the hoof. Thus, exercise is really the only means of nourishing the hoof and keeping it in good condition.

CONFORMATION—Conformation is a matter primarily of pleasing appearance, good structure and sound proportion for the type of horse and the type of work he is expected to do. Principal areas for determining good conformation include: the size of the head; the length and shape of the neck; the proportionate length of the back, forearms and cannons; the shape and muscle of the rump, the slope of the shoulder and pasterns; the substance of the leg or "bone"; and overall appearance.

Good shoulders for a riding horse should slope at approximately a 30 degree angle from the vertical and should have low points.

Good pasterns for a riding horse should slope at an angle from the vertical approximately 45 degrees in the forelegs and 30 degrees in the hind. If they are short and straight, the horse's gait will be choppy and uncomfortable; if they slope too much or are too long, the horse's legs will be weak.

MAJOR FAULTS OF CONFORMATION:

 
FAULTY  GAITS—Dishing  or  paddling  means  swinging the forefeet sidewards when moving, especially at the trot.

Brushing or interfering refers to the interference of the inner portions of a hoof with the opposite leg so as to cause abrasions, cuts and other injuries.
Overreaching refers to the interference of a hind hoof with a foreleg, or vice versa, to cause abrasions, cuts and other injuries.

Forging is similar to overreaching except that the hind shoe strikes the fore shoe, resulting in a metallic click.

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