Video: Horse Anatomy: Front Legs

The front legs of a horse have parts owners and riders must learn to talk with trainers and vets. Learn about horse anatomy and parts of a horse's front legs from a ranch owner in this free horse care video.

Video Transcript

There's no question it takes four legs to make a usable horse. So, we're going to look at the front legs and learn some of those parts, because that's what in any kind of horse work, you're going to need to know how to talk and converse with your veterinarian in a professional way, as horses do become lame and it's important to understand those parts. We have a forearm, just like we would have on our bodies. We consider this part of the horse to be the knee. As well as then we have the cannon bone. The cannon bone is a strong structural part that is supported by tendons and ligaments. And that leads down into the pastern. The pastern has a fetlock joint, this joint here, and the portion between the fetlock and the coronary band where the hoof grows from. We want to know that this is called a chestnut. And that's actually a part of the evolution of the horse's front leg, at a time when the horse was a two-toed animal. This is the unnecessary part that has, through evolution, come up and created this bony or horny kind of spot. A lot of people don't understand that this is just a piece of that bone tissue that was like the hoof. Then, we have down here, another part similar. This horse doesn't have much of it, but there's a small part that you may feel when you palpate around the horse's leg. And that's called an ergot. The ergot is similar to the chestnut. It's just a piece of hoof tissue that can be peeled away and kept in a neat and tidy appearance when we clip these horses for show.

Horse Anatomy: Front Legs

Comments

Related Ads

Related Articles & Videos