Bones of the Distal Forelimb (Merritt 2005)

A horse’s leg is made up of three main muscles: the interosseus, deep digital flexor, and plantaris muscles. Each of these muscles has a long tendon or tendons running through it, from the metacarpals down to the phalanxes, and which act like springs. When the horse puts its leg down, the tendons stretch over the proximal sesamoids, storing the energy the stretching gives them. They retain almost all of this elastic strain energy and can use it to propel the horse when it picks its leg back up (Dimery 1985, Alexander 1985). Similarly springy ligaments in the fetlock (area encompassing the phalanx bones) allow the horse to move its hooves forwards and backwards, but not side to side (Waring 25).

This website was created as a part of a class project in the Animal Physiology Class at Davidson College.

E-mail me at emmccracken@davidson.edu