When you learn to ride a bicycle, some one tells you to hold onto the handle bars, sit in the seat and put your feet on the peddles. Horse riding is very much the same. When you are around horses people are going to be using the language of horses including the parts of a horse that make up his anatomy.

The most common ones to know are head, back, tail, hooves. Pretty straight forward, knowing the parts of a horse really pays off in a number of areas. For example when you take riding lessons, the instructor may say to "engage the hindquarters". What are hindquarters exactly?

When you tack up a horse, certain straps and buckles go in specific places on a horse. If you read any book on fitting tack correctly, it will tell you exactly how and where with the use of the parts of a horse. For example a sentence in a book may say something like this: The headpiece should lie comfortably behind the horse's poll. When you are putting on a bridle you do not want the headpiece to go anywhere else, so it helps to know exactly where the poll is.

Anytime your horse injures himself, it is very useful and helpful to be able to tell the veterinarian in horse terms, where on his body he hurt himself. "He hurt himself on his leg"; the foreleg, the hindleg, the knee or the hock; where exactly?

The most significant time to know the parts of a horse is when you are buying a horse. When you buy a horse, you have to look at his conformation. How well is his body put together? Does he have sickle hocks, is he over at the knee?

Conformation goes hand in hand with body parts and the horse's anatomy. If the horse has conformational faults and you can point them out to the owner, with the correct use of 'horse lingo', you may be able to negotiate a lower price.

By no means buy a horse that's anatomy is less than desirable, if his fetlock sinks to the floor when he is walking, walk away from the horse and do not look back. Some conformation faults can be overlooked and forgiven, some must be avoided at all costs. You'll only know what faults to look for and where to look for them by knowing basic horse anatomy - the parts of a horse.

People who are around horses will not think that you are showing off when you start naming or using the names of parts of the horse. In fact more than likely they will expect any horse person simply to know them. When you know the horse, you'll know all the parts that make him whole.