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The horse has flat and wide withers, from short spines projecting off the 8th–12th vertebrae. Can be seen in any breed. The withers are an important attachment for ligaments and muscles that extend head, neck, shoulder, and back vertebrae, and are also insertion point for muscles that open ribs for breathing.
Most horses have 18 thoracic vertebrae. The processes at the withers can be more than 30 centimetres (12 in) long. Since they do not move relative to the ground as the horse's head does, the withers are used as the measuring point for the height of a horse. Horses are sometimes measured in hands – one hand is 4 inches (10.2 cm). Horse heights ...
Ideally, the length of a horse's back from the peak of the withers to the point of the hip should be 1/3 of the horse's overall body length (from the point of the shoulder to the point of the buttock, excluding head and neck). A horse's back is called "long" if the length exceeds 1/3 and "short" if less than 1/3.
Lameness is an abnormal gait or stance of an animal that is the result of dysfunction of the locomotor system.In the horse, it is most commonly caused by pain, but can be due to neurologic or mechanical dysfunction.
Shoulder: made up of the scapula and associated muscles, runs from the withers to the point of shoulder (the joint at the front of the chest, i.e. the glenoid); the angle of the shoulder has a great effect on the horse's movement and jumping ability, and is an important aspect of equine conformation
Stronger blistering solutions may be made using red mercuric iodide. These require the use of a neck cradle, and the horse risks laminitis and lymphangitis if not walked regularly. [7] Blistering is used for a variety of lameness problems, including splints, curbs, sore shins, tendonitis, suspensory desmitis, and sesamoiditis.
Wobbler disease or wobbler's syndrome is a broad category of cervical disorders in the horse, including the conditions listed above, as well as equine wobbles anemia and cervical vertebral myelopathy, spinal cord compression (sometimes referred to colloquially among horse owners as "cervical arthritis" due to the arthritis that accumulates in facets).
Poll evil is a traditional term for a painful condition in a horse or other equid, that starts as an inflamed bursa at the cranial end of the neck between vertebrae and the nuchal ligament, and swells until it presents as an acute swelling at the poll, on the top of the back of the animal's head.