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The Horse's Skeleton

Understanding the structure of the horse helps in the assessment of conformation, which in turn helps us to understand each horse's limitations. The skeleton comprises of about 210 bones.
Although it is easy to think of bone as hard and inflexible, this is not so. The skeleton has evolved to suit the horse's natural lifestyle and has the ideal amount of rigidity, flexibility and ability to move, rarely going wrong in the wild horse. However, the domesticated horse's skeleton often suffers from lack of exercise, which 'stiffens' and weakens it, or from the demands of excessive performance, which over-stresses and causes injury to it and it's associated structures, ligaments, tendons and muscles.
However your cursor over the skeleton above to see more information about some of the major bones in the horse.
The horse has no collarbone so therefore the front legs are not attached by joints, meaning purely a sling of muscles and ligaments supports the weight of the horse and rider. This is part of the shock absorbing mechanism of the front legs, which also includes all the angles and joints of the front leg.

Horse's can sleep in the upright position without falling over due to a 'locking' mechanism in the fore and hindlimbs. The main joints can be locked into position by a system of muscles and ligaments mostly based around the suspensory ligament at the back of the cannon bone. In this position very little energy is needed to hold the 'lock'.


definitions of the bones
Skeleton of a horse: large hoofed and maned domestic animal of the ungulate family. Raised by humans for pulling loads and for transportation.
Atlas: first bone of the neck.
Cervical vertebrae: bones of the neck.
Thoracic vertebrae: bones that form the dorsal part of the thoracic cage.
Lumbar vertebrae: the bones of the lumbar region of the back.
Sacrum: the set of sacral vertebrae.
Caudal vertebrae: bones of the tail.
Pelvis: the set of bones to which are attached the rear legs.
Femur: thigh bone.
Patella: bone that allows the flexion of the thigh on the gaskin.
Tibia: leg bone.
Calcaneus: bone that forms the hock tip.
Tarsus: bone forming the joint between the tibia and the metatarsus.
Metatarsus: hock bone.
Phalanges: toe bones.
Third phalange: the toe bone furthest from the metatarsus.
Second phalange: middle toe bone.
First phalange: the toe bone closest to the metatarsus.
Cannon bone: cannon bone.
Carpus: wrist bone.
Radius: forearm bone.
Sternum: bone forming the underside of the thoracic cage.
Humerus: arm bone.
Rib: bone of the thoracic cage.
Scapula: shoulder bone.
Mandible: lower jaw.
Tooth: hard organ used to chew food.
Orbital cavity: cavity of the skull which contains the eye.
Skull: bony case of the skull.

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