Talk:Equine anatomy

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[edit] Reproductive System of the Mare

The fact in dispute is with the quote "[The vulva] lies dorsal to the rectum." According to a University of Minnesota webpage describing anatomical locations and planes (http://vanat.cvm.umn.edu/anatDirections/), the correct anatomical location term would be "ventral." So, to rephrase the quote in the article, "[The vulva] lies ventral to the rectum." Any dispute as to whether this change should be made? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.131.158.168 (talk) 02:28, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Just fix it and remove the tag, please. On a horse that is standing up, the vagina is underneath below the rectum, so whatever the correct medical term for "below" is, use it. The editor who put that in didn't cite a source, so hard to say if it was a source error or just an editing glitch. Just remove that horrible tag! (grin) Montanabw(talk) 04:13, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Possible merge?

Hi Horse anatomy editors! The following material is taken, verbatim from the Equine nutrition article, which I started, but another editor added onto in the digestive system section. I think there is some good material here that isn't in horse anatomy. I think it should be consolidated, and then I'd like to shorten the section in equine nutrition and just reference it to here. Feel free to steal it and incorporate it into horse anatomy, and when I feel most if it is where it needs to be, I'll remove it from here and reduce the other article accordingly. Thanks! Montanabw 05:57, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Removed the material that has now been merged. Montanabw(talk) 17:13, 21 November 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Teeth

"A horse's teeth grow throughout the animal's lifetime"

The quote above is incorrect. It’s actually a common misunderstanding.

A horse’s teeth are only temporary rootless, which means that they grow for a period of time until they grow roots and stop. The incisors stop growing when the animal reaches about 12 years of age. The premolars and molars are also temporary rootless, but I don’t know when they stop growing.

The term “temporary rootless” is translated from the Norwegian term since I don’t know what term to use in English.

I’m new at Wikipedia so I would not try to edit the article at once, but I hope some one can correct it.


Greetings from Norwegian veterinary student Grosvold 18:21, 16 June 2007 (UTC)

See horse teeth and the anatomy section of horse someone got it right in one or the other of those sections, in that they phrased it that the teeth ERUPT continuously thoughout its lifetime, which is more accurate. If you want to let me know which page has the phrasing "erupt," I can do the wordsmithing. However, I have never heard of age 12 as when the teeth stop growing, so I am not certain you have it correct either. I would suggest that someone get a source on this before we mess it up too much. Montanabw 03:59, 17 June 2007 (UTC)
And now I have fixed it. See horse teeth for futher details. Montanabw 05:14, 17 June 2007 (UTC)


Ok =) I have the age about 12 from a symposium we use at school about digestion in animals. It is written by one of our professors. I can try to ask him where he has it from when I start school again after summer. Grosvold 21:45, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

All I know is that horses still have teeth in their late 20's, I've known several. I know that a horse's baby teeth are replaced by adult teeth, but that is done well before age 12. (At 12 months, some adult teeth may be forming? Are you confusing months and years? Could this be a translation problem?) The adult tooth is, ultimately, only a certain length (i.e. I agree that they "erupt," they do not "grow" like a rodent.) and eventually they get quite short and some very old horses do "lose" their molars as the entire tooth apparently wears away, but I have never heard of anything special happening at age 12 years. If there is, well, that will be useful in horse teeth, where the topic is covered in detail. Montanabw 16:13, 18 June 2007 (UTC)
Horse teeth continue to erupt well into the 20's. And while the general contetion is that they do not truly grow (as happens in rodents and lagomorphs), there is some evidence that there is a small amount of true growth that can occur. (I'll have to find the reference, although it's probably better to leave the terminology as "erupts" to avoid confusion.) But, yes, generally speaking, a horse's teeth are as long as they are going to be once they are about 4-5 (the bumps on the underside of the jaw of a 4 year old are where the roots end), and there are roots present throughout this whole period. The only (somewhat) rootless teeth are the 'caps' which are the deciduous premolars.--Getwood (talk) 00:31, 27 March 2008 (UTC)
No disagreement. My now-28 year old mare still has all her teeth, eats just fine, maintains her weight well, though she needs some major dental work about every 18 months to deal with some hooks she gets on her back molars. Some horses seem to have better tooth luck than others, I had another horse that lost teth to the point she was on mush by about age 31 or so, it would be interesting if it has been established that some growth occurs. Be quite interesting. Maybe check Horse teeth to see if it can be sourced a bit. Montanabw(talk) 21:26, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] definition of elbow

"elbow: the front leg equivalent to the stifle. The joint of the front leg that is right at the point where the belly of the horse meets the leg. This joint extends backward when a horse jumps an obstacle." Is it not the fetlock and knee that extend backward when a horse jumps an obstacle? Does not the elbow bend FORWARD when a horse jumps? Look at any picture of a horse jumping; if the elbow bent backward the knees would be under the barrel instead of in front of the chest as is the case in any picture. Thanks for any help or clarification!216.234.218.155 19:20, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

This article needs tons of cleanup, you're right. If you can fix that, go for it! Montanabw 21:07, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Horse morphology/Horse anatomy

My dictionary says "Anatomy:The science of the structure of the body learned by dissection." Shouldn't this article be more correctly "Horse morphology" since that covers both the outer form and the inner structure, while anatomy is reserved for inner structure. Just asking.....Roxithro 10:02, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

I think the term anatomy is sufficiently broad to cover both aspects with respect to this article. The diagrams cover both and the text while focused on the outside does also discuss the internal morphology so to speak. I would recommend though that horse morphology be created and redirected here just in case we're missing readers. I expect most people arrive at this page through the root horse page though. WikipedianProlific(Talk) 12:58, 19 July 2007 (UTC)
Edit/Update - in the interest of being bold I have created the page horse morphology and redirected it to this article.WikipedianProlific(Talk) 13:01, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

I would keep "anatomy," as that is the general public's term for such things, even if not entirely accurate. Thanks, though, for doing the redirect. Montanabw(talk) 17:54, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] clumsy opening

so... whats up with the first sentence of this article?

"The anatomy of the horse comes with a large number of horse specific terms."

This seems clumsy and kind of redundant to me.

Anyone can edit. If you want to improve it, feel free to give it a shot! Montanabw(talk) 17:25, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Can we change the title??

Per a request from folks over at the Equidae article, would anyone object if we changed the name of this article to Equine anatomy? I'll leave this request here for 4-5 days, and if no one objects, I'll make the move. This may result in a need to wordsmith the article a bit so that, if I may mix my methphors, the donkey people don't have a cow (grin), but I am willing to deal with that issue if need be. Montanabw(talk) 17:15, 21 November 2007 (UTC)

I'm in favor of the change to equine from horse.--Getwood (talk) 00:09, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

I think someone changed Horse conformation to Equine conformation. When I created Equine nutrition, I think I started with that title (can't remember, it was a while ago.) You and I appear to be the only ones who care. Be my guest if you'd like to do the move. Montanabw(talk) 21:26, 27 March 2008 (UTC)