Major External Parts 1
The long hair on top of the neck.
(BONUS: +50 points - What type of equine animal has an erect mane, instead of a flowing mane?)
What is the mane?
The lower end of the nose which includes the nostrils, lips, and chin.
What is the muzzle?
The top part of the head between the horse’s ears.
What is the poll?
Include all the bones of the front legs, and carry about 60% of the horse’s weight.
What are the thoracic limbs?
Include all the bones of the hind legs, including the joints of the stifle and the hock. This is the horse’s main means of propelling itself forward.
What are the pelvic limbs?
The lock of hair falling forward over the face.
What is the forelock?
the central region of the horse from the back to the abdomen
What is the barrel?
The part of the horse’s hindquarter between the stifle and the rump (croup).
What is the thigh?
Encloses and protects the brain. Provides cavities for the eyes and nervous system.
What is the skull?
Should be long, lean, and attach to the bone close to the knee.
What are the forearm muscles?
The fleshy side of a horse between the ribs and the hip.
What is the flank?
The circumference of the chest just behind the withers and in front of the back.
What is heart girth?
The highest part of the back located at the base of the neck in the horse.
What are the withers?
Horses usually have 18 pairs of these, but 19 are frequently found on one side or the other. They provide protection and space for vital internal organs.
(BONUS: +50 points - Name the breed that often has 17 pairs of these.)
What are the ribs?
(Arabian)
Consists of bones in the tail, neck, back, loin, and croup.
(BONUS: +250 points {+50 points each} - Properly name each section.)
What is the vertebral column?
(Cervical vertebrae, thoracic vertebrae, lumbar vertebrae, sacral vertebrae, and coccygeal vertebrae)
The dividing line between the hoof and the leg of the horse (located in the coronary band).
What is the coronet?
The large joint halfway up the hind leg of a horse. It is also the most complex and most important single joint in the horse.
(BONUS: +100 points - What issue is found here more than in any other part of the horse's body?)
What is the hock?
(Serious unsoundness)
The part extending to the base of the neck that connects the forelimbs to the body.
What is the shoulder?
The canoe-shaped breastbone made up of 7 fused segments.
What is the sternum?
These muscles affect the ease and freedom of movement of the forelegs and should be long, smooth, and flat.
What are the neck muscles?
The joint connecting the cannon and the pastern above the hoof of the horse.
What is the fetlock?
The part of the leg between the fetlock joint and the coronary band of the hoof.
What is the pastern?
The knee-like joint above the hock in the hind leg of a horse.
(BONUS: +100 points - Explain what the main health issue associated with this joint is, and how the problem is corrected.)
What is the stifle?
(When the stifle joint sticks, the horse cannot bend the joint, and the “stifled” horse requires surgery to correct it.)
Consists of the skull, ribs, vertebral column, and pelvic girdle.
What is the axial skeleton?
Consists of the forelimbs (thoracic limbs) and hindlimbs (pelvic limbs).
What is the appendicular skeleton?