Anatomy

The Horse

Anatomy - Points of the Horse

Virtually Horses

Points of the Horse

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Interesting Horse Anatomy Facts

Colours
Markings
How to tell age
Horse Height

The horse's anatomy includes an ingenious set of muscles, tendons and skeletal structures known as the 'passive stay apparatus' that allows the horse to sleep standing up.
- The horse uses approx. 10% less energy resting standing up than lying down!
- The horse still needs to have some sleep lying down in order to fulfil their 'REM' (dream) sleep patterns, horses that are unable to do this will often fall asleep at every opportunity when standing up.
Horse's hooves grow at a rate of about 1cm per month.
A horse has no gall bladder
Food only spends about 10-15 minutes in the horse's stomach
Mares come in to heat around age 1, but usually can't be safely bred until 4. Stallions are mature and can breed around 2 or 3 years of age.
A horse's heart weighs about 10 pounds.
The teeth take up more room in a horse's head than its brain does.
Most breeds of horses have 18 ribs, 5-6 lumbar bones, and 18 tail vertebrae. Arabians have 17 ribs, 5 lumbar bones, and 16 tail vertebrae.
Horses make several basic sounds- snort, squeal, nicker, neigh, roar, blow.
A horse's gestation period is 11 months, but can be anywhere from 10-12 months long.

Related Pages

Horse Height

Body Score

A horse's height is measured from the ground to the withers and is traditionally measured in 'hands'. A hand is equal to 4 inches. The 3 inches in between each hand measurement are denoted as decimal measurements, therefore a horse which is described as 14.1 hands is 14 hands + 1 inch. Horses are beginning to be measured in cm however hands are still in common use. All miniature horses and ponies under 10 hands are always measured in either inches or cms.

Hands	Inches	cm
10	40	100
11	44	110
12	48	120
13	52	130
14	56	140
15	60	150
16	64	160
17	68	170

Horse Colours

Colour definitions often change from country to country and even between breeds. There is a move in some countries to eliminate the descriptions; pinto, piebald and skewbald and for all of these horses to simply be described as 'coloured'.

Appaloosa - the Appaloosa is a breed of horse not just a colour pattern, but the colour pattern is defined by spots.

Bay: A colour ranging from dull red. almost brown, to a gold shade that is nearly chestnut. Bays always have black manes and tails and the lower limbs are usually black also.

Black: Black pigment is present throughout the coat, including all the limbs, mane and tail. The muzzle and eyes are black and the coat never fades to brown. The only other colour present would be white markings.

Brown: A mixture of black and brown pigment in the coat with black limbs, mane and tail. Brown horses are black horses genetically, but are distinguished by red or brown hairs on the flanks and muzzle and a coat that fades during summer esp. on the flanks.

Without performing a DNA test on black\brown\bay horses the best way to tell some of them apart is to look at their offspring and work backwards, since brown horses may produce chestnuts while bays may produce 'blacks'.

Chestnut: A gold colour of various shades. A true chestnut has the same coloured mane and tail, although it may be lighter or darker than the coat colour. A light chestnut often has a flaxen mane and tail. Light red chestnuts are often referred to as sorrels in America.

Cream or Cremello: The coat is cream (usually like palomino colouring) and the skin is unpigmented. The iris is also deficient of pigment making it look either pink or blue. The stallion shown on the right is difficult to tell from a true white horse, except that his eyes are unpigmented and his coat colour would have been creamy at birth and then fading with time to look more whitish.

Buckskin or Dun, note the dorsal stripe Dun: This colour may be either blue or yellow dun. Often there is a dorsal stripe or list (running from withers to dock) and sometimes zebra stripes on the legs. Mane, tail and lower legs are usually black.

Grey: The skin is black with a varied mosaic of white and black hairs. The coat grows lighter with age and where there was a dappled effect this will disappear. A grey horse may lighten with age but telltale signs are generally black or dark colouration on the muzzle, nostrils and eyes (where the skin shows through).

Palomino: A gold coat with white or cream mane and tail.

Roan: Roan colouring is defined by the main body colour being flecked with an even distribution of white hairs. There are 3 roan types Blue Roan is a black or black-brown base colour, Red Roans are bay or bay-brown and Strawberry roans are chestnut based.

White True white horses are remarkably rare. A true white horse is born pure white, often has brown eyes and occasionally foals are born with tufts of cream to chestnut forelocks which then fade.

Description of Coat Markings blaze

Blaze: A broad white mark down the face which extends over the bones of the nose
Ermine marks: White marks on the coronet, generally this also refers to black spots on white.
Flesh Marks or patches: Occur on the underside of the belly or flanks.
Snip: A white mark between the nostrils, which in some cases extends into the nostrils.
Stripe: A narrow white mark down the face (the horse at the top shows a stripe)
Socks: White on the legs to below the knees - the fetlock and part of the cannon (the horse at the top of the page has 3 socks)
Stockings: White on the legs to above the knees - extending as far as the knee or hock.
Wall Eye: One eye which shows white or blue-white colouring in place of normal colouration.
White face: The white marking covers the forehead, eyes, the nose and part of themuzzle.

Horses may also have a white fetlock, pastern or coronet and this is then referred to specifically.

Other markings

In addition to colour patterns and markings your horse has a number of other markings that are unique. Hair pattern swirls (whorls) occur on all horses and are used by many agencies to help to uniquely identify horses on registration papers. To complete a full registration paper of your horse a vet or other certified person may have to note all colour markings, the type and placement of all whorls and all permanent scars or unique markings (brands, tattoos etc)

Coloured Horses

Coloured Horses is a term that refers to any horse with irregular patches of colour. The patches may be any base colour, including roans, palomino or other 'dilute' colours with white.

In the UK the following terms tend to be used;

Piebald: Large irregular patches of black and white (usually black on a white base)

Skewbald: Large irregular patches of brown, chestnut or any other colour other than black on white.

Whereas in the US there is a whole horse industry and several breed registries devoted to coloured horses.

Pinto or Paint?

The Pinto Horse Association is a colour registry, and Pintos can be any breed.

Paints are APHA-registered horses that can prove parentage from one of the three approved registries AQHA, TB and APHA, as well as meet a minimum colour requirement.

While a "loud-coloured horse" could be double-registered if it met the breed standards specified by each registry, the two registries are independent.

Patterns of Colour

Tobiano\Overo\Tovero: These are not colours but descriptions given to the colour patterns on painted horses (piebald or skewbald). There are three colour patterns acceptable for registration, "Overo" and "Tobiano" and a horse which shows markings of both is referred to as 'Tovero'.

Tobiano is a type created by the dominant colour gene and white is the more predominant colour with markings of colours other than white.

Overo is a type created by the recessive colour gene and the solid (darker) colour
predominates.

For more information on Paint or Pinto horses visit APHA or http://www.pinto.org/

Age

The age of a horse is determined by examining the front (incisor) teeth. There are six of these teeth in each jaw. A horse has two complete sets of these teeth, namely milk (baby) teeth and permanent teeth. The milk teeth are small and white, have a distinct neck and a short fang. The permanent teeth are of a browner yellowish colour, are much larger and have no distinct neck.

The changeover from milk to permanent teeth occurs at certain definite ages and the ageing of a horse is based mainly upon this fact plus additional indications.

At one year the horse looks young, as a fluffy tail and shows six new unworn milk teeth in each jaw.
At two the horse still looks young but has lost the fluffy hairs of the tail. The jaws still show a complete set of milk teeth but they are now worn.
At three the centre two milk teeth in each jaw have been replaced b permanent teeth which are larger and show a sharp edge.
At four two more milk teeth in each jaw have been replaced, namely those lateral to the central two. In the male a tush appears behind the corner incisor.
At five the corner milk teeth have been shed and show as new shell-like teeth at the corners.
At six there is a 'full mouth' but the corner teeth have lost their shell-like appearance.
At seven a hook appears on the top corner tooth. A similar hook may show at thirteen which may lead to confusion.
At eight the hook has disappeared, the tables of the teeth show wear and the black hollow centres have disappeared.

From eight onwards there is no certainty although among other things an intimate knowledge of the changes in the outline of the 'tables' of the teeth and the slope of the jaws enables an opinion to be formed.

For more information on your horse's teeth look at our Health Feature article on Equine Dental Health

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