Horse World

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Talking with others about horses is easier if you understand the basic terminology used when referring to horses.

If you or someone you love is really in to horses, you will want to be able to converse with them intelligently.

Here are the basic horse terms and what they mean.

There are some basic “age related terms”, that you should be able to understand when in a conversation about horses.

• A FOAL is a horse that is less than a year old, male or female.
• A SUCKLING is a nursing foal.
• A WEANLING is a foal that has been weaned and no longer nursed by mom. Domesticated foals are generally weaned by the time they are 6 months old, some be the time they are 4 months of age.
• A COLT is a male horse that is less than two years old but older than 12 months.
• A FILLY is a female horse younger than 4 years.
• A MARE is a female horse older than 4 years.
• A STALLION is a male horse that has not been castrated and is at least 4 years old
• A RIDGLING is a stallion with an undescended testicle. It is possible to have a stallion with both testicles that are undescended who will look like a gelding, but have all of the behavioral characteristics of a stallion.
• A GELDING is a male horse of any age that is castrated. Many individuals will still refer to a young gelding that is under age 4 as a colt.

Terminology may differ in the horse racing arena regards to sex, age, and castration status.

Some of the more obvious differences is that in horse racing in the UK,

Thoroughbred horses who race and are males less than five years of age are referred to as colts, and female horses less than five years of age are referred to as fillies.

In the U.S. in harness racing and Thoroughbred racing males four years of age and younger are colts, and females four years and younger are fillies.

If you need to determine a horse’s age, an experienced horse person or a vet can determine the age by looking at the teeth of a horse.

Horse terms that refer to size:

Hands are how the English-speaking world measures the height of horses.

Hands can be abbreviated as “h” or as “hh”. The measurement is taken from the highest point of the horse’s withers.

One hand is approximately 4″ (10.16 cm). If you need to determine intermediate heights you round to the lower measurement in hands, and then follow by a decimal point and then the number of additional inches between 1 and 3.

The size of a horse will be different depending on the breed of the horse.

There are many breeds of horses.

Arabians, Morgans, and Quarter Horses are light riding horses and can range in height from 14.0 (142 cm) to 16.0 (163 cm) in hands.

Thoroughbreds, American Saddlebreds or Warmbloods are the larger riding horses and can range from 15.2 (157 cm) hands to 17 (172 cm) hands.

Clydesdales, Belgian, Percheron, and Shires are heavy or draft horses and range from 16.0 (163 cm) to 18.0 (183 cm) hands.

Previous Articles By This Author

• Buying Your First Horse
• Equipment for Horses
• Basics of Horse Care
• Grooming your Horse
• The History of Horses