What Lies Beneath [Video]
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A horse has 205 bones and over 700 muscles in its body. Attaching each muscle to a bone and stabilizing joints are many tendons and ligaments. Picturing how all of this works together is very difficult when all we can see is the beautiful outside of a horse. Painted horses however, reveal what lies beneath in a very vivid and easy to understand way. During these demonstrations, the inner structures of the horse are painted on its coat. Sometimes, a rider wears a suit showing the placement of human bones as well. Observers not only see what these bones and muscles look like while the horse is standing, but how everything moves together at all paces and even over jumps.
We don't always think about what is under the skin of our horses, unless of course, something goes wrong. And what is actually under there may not be what we think. Here are a few hidden mysteries revealed.
A Knee is Not a Knee
We call that flat looking joint about half-way down a horse's front leg its knee. Your knee works like a hinge, and so does a horse's. The knee in both humans and horses is comprised of several bones. But that's where the similarity ends. Your knee joint has a patella or kneecap. Tendons connect your femur or thigh bone and the bones in your lower leg, your fibula and tibia, to your thigh and calf muscles. Ligaments connect the bones to keep them stable.
The joint we call the horse's knee is made up of two rows of bones. The scientific name for this joint is the anterior carpus. There are eight bones in the carpus that make three joints. Above the carpus are two bones, the radius and ulna. Below the carpus are the second, third and fourth metacarpals. The largest of these is what we call the canon bone, and the two smaller make up the splint bone. So the knee is not a knee at all.
Inside the Hoof
Inside the horse's hooves are bones and joints. These structures are similar to the joints in your hands and fingers. So horses are actually standing on their finger tips! Their front legs are much more like arms, wrists and hands than legs. There are no supporting muscles for these bones below the knee. This is also why injuries to these structures are so serious.
So, Where is the Knee?
The joint that is analogous to the human knee doesn't look like a knee at all. It's what we call the stifle joint, and this structure is comprised of two separate joints. The patella isn't as round and flat as ours is, and the tibia and fibula are angled backward towards the hock joint. By feeling under the stifle area, you can feel the patella poking out and the hollow below that is a joint. The stifle is the largest joint in the horse's body. In humans, the hip joint is the largest joint.
What Are We Sitting On?
If your horse is like mine, it probably has a flat back that makes a nice comfy seat. However, take away all the muscle and other tissues—and fat, and a horse's back would be a bumpy seat. The vertebrae that make up the horse's spine aren't exactly shaped like ours. You can probably feel your spine as bumps under your skin. What you are feeling is each of the boney fingers of the spinous processes. On humans, these processes are roughly the same size and not very large. But on horses, the spinous proceses stick up like thick fins on each vertebrae. It's the thick layer of padding over these bones that make it possible to ride a horse more or less comfortably.
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