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Below is just a small portion of the “Horse Language”
Hand: Used to determine the height of a horse. 1 hand = 10cm.
Tack: All equipment worn by your horse, including saddle, reins, bit, and bridle.
Bit: Horse’s
mouthpiece, usually made from steel.
Bridle: Headgear used on the horse during riding, includes reins and bit.
Halter: Equipment worn on the horse’s head for leading or tying.
Lead Rope: A rope usually having a snap on one end, used to lead or tie a horse.
Rein:
The long strap that passes from the bit to the riders hands, by which the rider maintains control of the horse.
English:
Style of riding using a lightweight saddle with a shallow seat. Reins are held in both hands.
Western:
Style of riding using a heavier saddle with a deeper seat. Reins are held in left hand, right hand stays at your side.
For more on Western & English visit the Western vs. English page.
Mount: Getting up onto the horse. You can mount from the ground, a mounting block, or by
getting a knee-up.
Knee-Up/Leg Up: A form of mounting a horse. Requires 2 people:
1 person helps the other onto the horse by taking their knee (or foot) in the palm of the helpers hands and lifting them off
the ground.
Gaits:
The different speeds the horse travels: walk, trot (or jog), and canter (or lope) and gallop - although there are more in
different breeds.
Lead: A specific footfall pattern at the canter or lope in which the inside legs of the circle reaches
farther forward than the outside legs. When working to the right on the right lead, the horse's right foreleg and right hind
leg reach farther forward than the left legs. If a horse is loping in a circle to the right on the left lead, he is said to
be on the wrong lead or is counter-cantering.
Post: Up and down movement in English riding performed in rhythm to
horse’s trot.
Coggins test: A laboratory blood test used to detect previous exposure to equine infectious anemia or swamp fever, developed by
Dr. Leroy Coggins.
Coggins certificate: A veterinarian's document that certifies the horse free of the disease, equine infectious anemia.
What are specific horses called?
- Foal - Horse of either sex, up to six months of age.
- Weanling - A foal that has been separated from its mother; usually 4–12 months of age.
- Yearling - Horse of either sex, between one and two years of age.
- Filly - Female up to four years of age.
- Colt - Male up to four years of age.
- Mare - Mature female horse, four years or older.
- Stallion - Mature male horse, four years or older.
- Gelding - Castrated male horse.
- Sire - Father of a foal.
- Dam - Mother of a foal.
- Pony - Horse measuring fewer than 14.2 hands in height.
- Purebred - A horse whose recent ancestors are of the same breed; not to be confused with Thoroughbred,
which is a breed.
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