Exterior (earth), skeleton and muscles of the horse
The exterior of the horse (the way)
Exterior translated from French means – external. These are the outer forms of the animal. Article – a separate part of the horse’s body.
The skeleton of a horse
The General form of the horse’s body and its performance depends on its skeleton and musculature. The skeleton fully develops by the age of 5 years. Compared with the bones of other, less mobile animals, the bones of the horse have better development in the length and thickness (at such as fast pace horses horse limb bones are longer and thinner, and heavy – shorter and thicker) and also by strength.
The basis of the horse’s body is a skeleton consisting of 252 bones. The bones of the skeleton are interconnected by means of cartilage and ligaments.
The skeleton consists of the following parts:
The skeleton of the head consists of bones that form the cranial cavity in which the brain is placed, and from the bones that form the basis of the face and form the skeleton of the nasal and oral cavities
The skeleton of the body consists of the spinal column and chest. The vertebral column consists of vertebrae, fastened together by cartilages and ligaments: 7 cervical, 18 dorsal, 5-6 lumbar, 5 sacral, 17-18 caudal. Chest are: upper dorsal vertebrae, from the sides of the ribs (18 pairs have Arabian horses – 16 pairs), below the breast bone. In the chest are the organs of blood circulation and respiration (heart and lungs)
The skeleton of the limbs is divided into belts and the actual limbs(legs). There are two belts: shoulder and pelvic. The shoulder girdle consists of shoulder blades that connect the forelimbs to the thoracic part of the trunk only by means of muscles and ligaments. A horse doesn’t have a bone like a clavicle. The pelvic girdle is formed from the pelvic bones that connect the hind limbs to the posterior trunk
The front legs of the horse serve as a moving support, and the back serves her body forward.
Muscles of the horse
Muscles, or the muscles that cover almost the entire skeleton of a horse and represent bundles of red meat, which constitute the bulk of the horse’s body and are located mainly near the bone.
Muscles of the horse
Each muscle consists of many long fibrils, so thin that they can be distinguished only under a microscope in a highly enlarged form. Gathering in bundles, these fibers form muscles. They are attached to the bones either directly by their muscle fibers, or by means of dense, strong veins – tendons, into which the muscle bundle passes on one or both of its ends.
Muscles tend to shrink, so that they serve as active organs of locomotion of the horse. According to the division of the skeleton muscles can be divided into muscles of the head, torso and limbs.