USHJA Horsemanship Quiz Challenge Study Session 2

Week 2 of the USHJA Horsemanship Quiz Challenge was such a blast!

Week two of our study series for the USHJA Horsemanship Quiz Challenge presented by The Plaid Horse was great fun. Our creative sides came out while we covered the Anatomy & Physiology and Horse Identification chapters. We went over the basic anatomy of our four-legged best friends, whipped out some X-rays from previous injuries, identified confirmations and learned about our horses pedigrees. Our goal with this session was for our girls to learn and understand the way our horses are built and why this is so important to know as an equestrian.

 Anatomy and Physiology became an art project

Learning anatomy and physiology can be tricky. So, Kristin Jacob and I decided to paint basic equine anatomy and physiology on Cat (yes, Cat got a bazillion cookies for being so patient! She’s perfect!) to better show the girls how their bodies are built and why they work the way they do. The whole process from painting Cat, to teaching the girls, to watching the girls learn was more fun than we could have imagined.

We all learned so much. Here are the girls’ biggest takeaways:

• Tendons connect muscles to bones
• Ligaments connect bones to each other across a joint
• The structures that navicular syndrome can affect
  • Navicular bone
  • Navicular bursa
  • Deep digital flexor tendon
  • Supporting ligaments of the navicular bone
• Three main muscle groups:
  • Cardiac: found only in the heart
  • Smooth: found in autonomic systems, like the digestive tract
  • Skeletal: responsible for moving the bones
• A horse bears approximately 55% of their body weight on their front legs
• The horse’s power comes from their hindquarters
• The horse’s body contains just over 200 bones
• Horse’s hooves are one of the most important structures of the horse’s body. “No foot, no horse” is very true!
• The stay apparatus – a system of muscles, tendons and ligaments at the front and back of each limb
  • Four main parts (pictured below)
    • Superficial digital flexor tendon
    • Deep digital flexor tendon
    • Check ligament
    • Suspensory ligament

 Past injuries become great learning tools

After going through the basic anatomy of the horse, we then brought out X-rays of Cat’s previous injuries to utilized as learning tools. Though, as Cat’s mom, I wish these injuries and/or scary days never happened in the past, it really gave me joy to see the girls in awe over these X-rays. It brought the anatomy of the horse to reality and gave the girls something tangible to really understand. Some girls even wanted to keep the copies I made of Cat’s skull X-rays (it is pretty cool, I have to admit). We used the skull X-ray to better understand teeth structure and bone structure. I also had images of Cat’s X-rays of her splint. This was a really great piece because they can physically feel and see the hard lump on Cat’s right front and then look at the X-ray to understand what is happening internally.

What is our horse’s background?

This is always my favorite part because I LOVE researching anything and everything about Cat. After talking through anatomy & physiology we brought our girls inside to go over our horses identification, both externally and internally. Kristin and I compiled our girls’ horses pedigrees and brought them to class as most of them had never seen their pedigrees before. As we were handing the pedigrees out along with images of their horse’s dams and sires, Kristin and I were just watching jaw after jaw after jaw drop. They couldn’t believe how cool their horse’s bloodlines were. You could see the instant boost of confidence in the girl’s faces as they were looking through pedigrees and pictures. It was a heartwarming moment.

We all identify our horses by their looks and what we know but sometimes we forget to look further and deeper into our horse. This is an advantage every equestrian should have. The more we know about our horses outside of the ring, makes the partnership inside the ring that much stronger. Next week, the girls are presenting their horse’s identification to the group. This includes their breed, color, face markings, leg markings and characteristics. We encouraged the girls to go home and research more about their horse. What is their background? Who exactly are they? What characteristics does your horse share with its bloodline? What makes your horse unique? We want the girls to be descriptive as possible and cannot wait to see what they find.

Stay tuned for week 3!

Next week we will be covering horse health, first aid and bandaging with our special guest, Dr. Downey of Quality Equine Vets.

Register for the Horsemanship Quiz Challenge

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