A workmate sent this link around for reference for our students and I thought it a great one to share!  If you’re interested in the horse’s anatomy, especially with regards to where muscles sit internally, there are great photos on this site with individual muscles identified and named.

If you visit this Horse Dissection site and click on ‘search the database’, you can view in great detail different photos of dissections of varying parts of the horse’s body.

If you’re interested in the skeletal side of things, perhaps an equine clay model would be of interest.

“What a piece of work is a horse! How noble in reasons! How infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a man! The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals!” – James Agate

So recently I was up in Wagga at Charles Sturt University for my resident school.  One of the subjects I’m studying this year is equine locomotion.

One of the lecturers on the subject had recently done a study on the effectiveness of certain anti inflammatory drugs.  In assessing this, she was observing horses move on a treadmill and filming this whilst also putting a sensor on their feet to determine weight carrying capacity.

A program that she used was a free motion analysis tool that you can download online.  I asked if I could use this program to film my own horse and then assess his movement if he was out racing around a paddock.  The answer was yes, although it wouldn’t provide as detailed or controlled information as sensors and a treadmill would.

So!  For those curious about software that they can download and use for free that assesses motion, take a look at The Institution for Rehabilitation Research and Development.  Enjoy!

“Stay away from a horse long enough and you’ll start tapping your fingers in the beat of a post trot.” – Author Unknown