Horse

:This article discusses ungulate mammals. For other meanings of horse, see Horse (disambiguation).

Specialized vocabulary

The English-speaking world measures the height of horses in hands. One hand is defined in British law as 101.6 mm and is derived from a previous definition of 4 inches. Adult horses can range in size from 5 hands (0.5 m) (a very small miniature horse or falabella) to over 18 hands (1.8 m). By convention, 15.2 hh means 15 hands, 2 inches (1.57 m) in height, measured at the highest point of the withers.

Related Topics:
Inch - Miniature horse

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Usually, size alone marks the difference between horses and ponies. The threshold is 14.2 hh (1.47 m) for an adult. Below the threshold it is a pony, above the threshold it is a horse. Thus normal variations can mean that a horse stallion and horse mare can become the parents of an adult pony. However, a distinct set of characteristic pony traits, developed in northwest Europe and further evolved in the British Isles, muddies the issue of whether we use the word "pony" to describe a size or a type. Many people consider the Shetland pony as the archetypical pony, with its proportions very different from horses. Several small breeds appear as "horses" or "ponies" interchangeably, including the Icelandic, Fjord, and Caspian. Breeders of miniature horses favor that name because they strive to reproduce horse-like conformation in a very small size, even though their animals undeniably descend from ponies.

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Words for gaits

All horses move naturally in three basic gaits. Walk, Trot, and Gallop.

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• the walk - a "four beat" lateral gait in which a horse must have three feet on the ground and only one foot in the air at any time. The walking horse will lift first a hind leg, then the foreleg on the same side, then the remaining hind leg, then the foreleg on the same side. To get a horse into walk from halt, one must gently squeeze the sides of the horse and release the pressure on the reins. To get a horse to walk from trot, one must take sitting trot and gently apply pressure on the reins.
• the trot/jog - a "two beat" diagonal gait in which a foreleg and opposite hindleg (often called "diagonals") touch the ground at the same time. In this gait, each leg bears weight separately, making it ideal to check for lameness or for stiffness in the joints. To get a horse to trot fom walk you must soften your reins and apply more pressure with the leg. There are two types of trot a rider can do. Rising trot, where the rider stands up slightly in the saddle each time the horses outside front leg goes forward, and sitting trot, where the rider sits in the saddle and goes with the horse's movement.
• the canter/lope - A "three beat" gait in which a foreleg and opposite hindleg strike the ground together, and the other two legs strike separately. A cantering horse will first stride off with the outside hind leg, then then inside hind and outside fore together, then the inside front leg, and finally a period of suspension in which all four legs are off the ground. the rhythm should be 1-2-3, 1-2-3, etc. When cantering in a straight line, it does not usually matter which foreleg (or leading leg) goes first, but both leads should receive equal practice time, as otherwise the horse may become "one-sided" or develop a reluctance to canter on a specific lead. In the arena, the horse should canter on the inside lead. In making a fairly tight turn, the inside leg (the one nearest to the center of the turn) should lead, as this prevents the horse from "falling in". to get a horse to canter on the correct leg from trot, one must go into sitting trot, place their outside leg slightly behind the girth and squeeze with the inside leg. To get a horse to canter from gallop, one must alter the position of the body slightly back in the saddle, then you must place the outside leg behind the girth to allow the horse to canter on the correct leg, and apply pressure on the reins. Also called "lope" when riding in a Western show class. The canter is not a natural gait, but a restrained form of a gallop.
• the gallop - Another "four beat" gait which follows a similar progression to the canter, except the two paired legs land separately, the hind leg landing slightly before the foreleg. The gallop also involves having a leading leg. In turning at a very rapid rate, it is even more important that the horse use the appropriate lead, leading with the left leg if making a left turn, and the right leg if making a right turn, since the faster the turn the more the horse needs to lean into the turn. Horses that usually are galloped in a straight line need to be caused to alternate leads so that they do not suffer a muscular imbalance and subsequent difficulty making turns in one direction or the other. to get a horse into gallop, the rider must alter their position so they are slightly more forward in the saddle, then they should allow the horse its head and gently kick the horses sides.

Some horses have other gaits other than the most common three above. These horses are called Gaited Horses.

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• tölt or tolt is a four beat running walk and can be ridden at any speed, from slow dancing steps to the speed of a galloping horse. This beat is natural to the Icelandic breed.
• pace is a lateral two-beat gait more commonly used in racing. In the pace, the legs move in lateral pairs, in a two beat gait, similar to the trot (however, in a trot, the legs move in diagonal pairs). In most countries pacers are raced in front of a sulky, an open mouthed two-wheeled vehicle drawn by one horse. These horses are commonly called "pacers" because of their unique gait.
• corto, largo, fino are the smooth four-beat gaits performed by Paso Finos. Similar natural four-beat gaits are found in breeds such as the Peruvian Paso. The corto occurs naturally, and is similar to the trot in speed. The largo is extended and high-speed, and the fino is very collected. This is the gait emphasized in high-level competition.

Trainers have developed various artificial gaits for reasons such as appearance, and to improve the riding or driving quality.

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For details, see Horse gaits.

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Cited: Sly, Debbie. "The Practical Rider's Handbook". London: Lorenz Books, 1997.

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Words relating to horses

You can view an entire equine dictionary at: The Horse Dictionary

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• Bronco - a wild, untamed horse, typically used in reference to the American mustang.
• Brumby - a wild or untrained Australian horse
• Charger - a medieval war horse
• cob - any horse of a short-legged, stout variety, with short legs, and a compact body, neck and back
• colt - an unaltered male horse from birth till the age of 4.
• destrier - a heavy, strong medieval war horse
• draught horse - heavy, muscular beast of burden
• filly - female horse from birth till the age of 4.
• foal - infant horse of either sex
• garron - small and disdained horse
• gelding - a castrated male horse of any age
• God dog - how the Apaches referred to horses
• green - a term used to describe an inexperienced horse
• hack - (noun) a horse for hire, or adapted to general work, used for driving or riding. Although the word sometimes means an old, worn out horse, it is also used to signify an extremely elegant horse used for riding on social occasions ("park hack", "hunter hack" etc.) (verb)- to ride a horse for pleasure, not as training
• hackney - a specific breed of flashy, elegant driving pony
• Hand - a unit of measuring used frequently to measure a horses height. One hand is equal to 4 inches (appox. 10 cm)
• horse - adult equine of either sex over 14.2 hh (58 inches, 1.47 m)
• jennet - a small horse, particularly a Spanish one
• mare - adult female horse
• mustang - a feral horse found in the western plains of North America
• nag - small horse or pony used for riding (uncomplimentary term)
• palfrey - a smooth gaited type, a riding horse, a woman's horse
• pony - equine 14.2 hh or less (58 inches, 1.47 metres)
• School Horse/Pony- A horse owned by a riding academy
• shelt or shelty - a Shetland pony
• stallion - adult, male horse that is able to produce offspring
• weanling - a young horse that has just been weaned from their mother (usually 6 months or a little older)
• yearling - male or female horse one year old

In horse racing the definitions of colt, filly, mare, and horse differ from those given above. Thoroughbred racing defines a colt as a male horse less than five years old and a filly as a female horse less than five years old; harness racing defines colts and fillies as less than four years old. Horses older than colts and fillies become known as horses and mares respectively.

Related Topics:
Horse racing - Thoroughbred - Horse - Harness racing

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Words relating to horse anatomy

; withers: the highest point of the shoulder seen best with horse standing square and head slightly lowered. The tops of the two shoulder blades and the space between them define the withers.

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; mane and forelock: long and relatively coarse hair growing from the dorsal ridge of the neck, lying on either the left or right side of the neck, and the continuation of that hair on the top of the head, where it generally hangs forward. (See illustration.)

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; Dock: the point where the tail connects to the rear of the horse.

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; Flank: Where the hind legs and the stomach of the horse meet.

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; Pastern: The connection between the coronet and the fetlock.

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; Fetlock: Resembles the ankle of the horse.

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; Coronet: The part of the hoof that connects the hoof to the pastern.

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; Cannon: Resembles the shin of the horse.

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; Muzzle: the chin, mouth, and nostrils make up the muzzle on the horse's face.

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; Crest: the point on the neck where the mane grows out of.

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; Poll: the portion of the horse's neck right behind the ears.

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; Hock: Hindlimb equivalent to the Heel, the main joint on the hind leg.

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; Stifle: corresponds to the elbow of a horse, except on the hind limb.

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; Gaskin: also known as the "second thigh," the large muscle on the hind leg, just above the hock, below the stifle.

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Horse coat colors and markings

Horses exhibit a diverse array of coat colors and distinctive markings, and a specialized vocabulary has evolved to describe them. In fact, one will often refer to a horse in the field by his or her coat color rather than by breed or by gender.

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Coat colors include:

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• Appaloosa - a breed of horse with spots, any color mixed with white. There are different patterns: blanket- white blanket that typically starts around or behind withers with dark spots mostly over the hips, snowflake - solid with white spots over hips, and leopard - which is white with dark spots over all the coat. A true Appaloosa is actually a breed, not a color.
• Bay- Dark red to deep brown with black points.
• Black- There are two types of black, fading black and jet black. Ordinary black horses will fade to a rusty brownish color if the horse is exposed to sunlight on a regular basis. Jet black is a blue-black shade that is fadeproof. Black foals are usually born a mousy grey color. As their foal coat begins to shed out, their black color will show through,but jet black foals are born jet black. Usually for a horse to be considered black it must be completely black with no brown at all, only white markings.
• Brown -black with brown muzzle.
• Buckskin- A bay horse with a gene that 'dilutes' the coat colour to a yellow, cream, or gold while keeping the black points (mane, tail, ears, legs).
• Chestnut- A reddish body color with no black.
• Cremello - A chestnut horse with two dilute genes that washes out almost all colour. Often called pseudo albinos, they have blue eyes. There are no true albino horses.
• Dun - Yellowish brown with a dorsal stripe along the back and occasionally zebra stripings on the legs.
• Fleabitten - not a color, but refers to usually red hairs flecked in the coat of a gray horse.
• Gray - a mixture white and any other colour hairs. Grey horses can be born any colour, and eventually most will turn white with age.
• Grullo- A black horse with a dun gene. It is often a grayish/silver colored horse with dark dun factors.
• Pinto - a multi-colored horse with large patches of brown, white, and/or black and white. Piebald is black and white, while Skewbald is white and any other color except black. Specific patterns such as tobiano, overo, and tovero are placements of white on the body.
• Palomino-chesnut horse that has one cream dilute gene that turns the horse to a golden, yellow, or tan shade with a flaxen (white) mane and tail. Often cited as being a color "within three shades of a newly minted coin", palominos actually come in all shades from extremely light, to deep chocolate.
• Perlino - Exactly like a cremello but a bay horse with two dilute genes.
• Roan - a color pattern that causes white hairs to be sprinkled over the horse's body color. Red roans are chesnut and white hairs, blue roans are black/bay with white hairs. Roan can happen on any body color; for example, there are palomino roans and dun roans. Roans are distiguishable from greys because roans typically do not change colour in their lifetimes, unlike gray that gradually gets lighter as a horse ages. Roans also have solid colored heads that do not lighten.
• White - Technically called a grey, though they appear white. All white, may be the result of overlapping pinto, appaloosa, or sabino markings. Rarely there are true white horses born and are documented to have a dominant white gene (see Gray (horse) for a discussion of these). These horses have normal eye colour, and they stay white for life.

Markings include:

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On the face:

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• Star
• Snip
• Stripe
• Blaze
• White Face (sometimes called Bald Face)

On the legs:

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• Coronet
• Pastern
• Sock
• Stocking

Elsewhere:

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• Cowlicks (hair whorls)--can occur on any part of the animal, but are mainly seen on the forehead and neck.

For horse color and marking genetics see Equine coat color genetics. Another good resource for horse color is: Horse color, markings, and genetics.

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