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Category: Anatomy

Home / Anatomy
person running their hand down a horse's foreleg
Anatomy Horse Care

Everything you need to know about keeping your horse’s hooves healthy

by Eva

Horses evolved to run. That’s why your horse has the legs of a runner. To survive, they needed to run fast, and this was the driving force of their evolution. Your modern horse walks on just one digit (toe), where her ancestors walked on as many as four toes. If …

Foal doing flehmen
Anatomy Behaviour

The lip curl: that one thing your horse does that looks funny but actually means something

by Eva

The flehmen response is a behaviour in which your horse curls back her upper lip exposing its front teeth, inhales with the nostrils usually closed, and then tyically holds this position for several seconds. The nostrils of your horse flare to draw more scents into the long, cavernous nasal passages that are …

Horses depend on their sense of smell with their life
Anatomy Behaviour

Did you know that your horse depends on her sense of smell with her life?

by Eva

When you disturb your horse’s sense of smell, like overwhelming it with a very strong scent, her social interactions are radically altered. As prey animals, horses need to be able to detect even the slightest scent of danger on the wind to stay safe. Horses are also quick to note …

Close up on woman vet examining horses teeth
Anatomy Nutrition & Feeding

Find out everything you need to know about your horse’s teeth in just 15 minutes

by Eva

Horses have evolved teeth to eat rough, varied forage that wears down the teeth. However, many domestic horses today eat a diet which is low in abrasive minerals and materials and so their teeth don’t wear down as they would in the wild. Just because our horses are now living …

What you need to know about skeletal maturity in horses
Anatomy

Do you know why it’s important to understand physical maturity in horses when training them?

by Eva

A mature horse can be worked very hard, but if the horse is never given the chance to fully develop before being put to work, how much of his full potential will he ever achieve? When buying, training and starting a young horse – or when looking at problems of …

Horses and their sense of balance
Anatomy Behaviour

What difference does your horse’s sense of balance make to riding?

by Eva

The sense of balance is crucial to your horse and it is important for anyone working with horses to understand how it affects behaviour. Immediately after birth foals being practising to stand. The sensory receptors, called proprioceptors, in the muscles, joints, tendons and skin sense the position of the body …

What you need to know about horse's eyesight
Anatomy Behaviour

Stop underestimating how important your horse’s sense of vision is for her everyday life

by Eva

Eyesight (vision) is the most important sense for your horse. For a prey animal, the constant, vigilant monitoring of the surrounding environment is crucial for survival. Horses are very sensitive to motion and will usually react by trying to get as far away as possible from whatever suddenly entered their …

The sense of touch in horses
Anatomy Behaviour

Do you actually know how important the sense of touch is to your horse?

by Eva

It’s a common misconception that horses have a thick hide (almost like an elephant), when, in fact, horses have very sensitive skin. Yes, it’s thicker than human skin but it is also loaded with nerve endings. Horses can feel a tiny little fly landing on them and then shake the …

Horse listening with ears pricked
Anatomy Behaviour

A good rider knows to watch the horse’s ears, a great rider knows what the ears are saying. Which are you?

by Eva

Your horse has excellent hearing and continuously swivels his ears towards different noises in the environment. He has a large field of vision and doesn’t need to turn his head in order to see things around him (like we do). By paying attention to which way the ears are pointing, …

Simple external anatomy of the horse
Anatomy

External anatomy of the horse (with easy-to-read chart & PDF download)

by Eva

It’s always a good time to brush up on your horse’s anatomy. Though you don’t use a lot of the terms daily, it’s good to know which part is named what so that when you’re talking to other people caring for the horse, or the vet, you’ll know that you’re …

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