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Acute
Acute describes a disease or condition that comes on suddenly and runs a short course. In clinical use it also implies greater severity than the baseline, an acute episode is more intense, more urgent, or more dangerous than the same condition in its mild or chronic form. The opposite is chronic, which refers to a…
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Ancestor
An ancestor is any individual from which a horse is directly descended, every sire, dam, grandsire, and granddam recorded back through the pedigree. The term covers the entire vertical lineage, not just parents: a horse three generations back is still an ancestor. In equine breeding, ancestor analysis is the primary tool for predicting performance traits…
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Anal
Anal refers to the anus and the surrounding perineal tissues, the terminal opening of the equine digestive tract through which feces are expelled. In horses, the anus lies in the perineal region beneath the tail, dorsal to the vulva in mares and above the scrotum or sheath in males. The anus is a clinical landmark…
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Horse Pedigrees: Breed Registries, Bloodlines, and Reading a Pedigree
Horse pedigrees explained: what a pedigree contains, how breed registries work, foundation sires, inbreeding vs. outcrossing, and how to verify a pedigree.
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Horse Behavior: Understanding the Prey Animal Mind
Horse behavior explained: the prey animal frame, herd dynamics, the flight response, communication signals, and the causes of common behavioral problems.
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Purebred
A purebred horse is one whose sire and dam are both registered members of the same recognized breed, with its own lineage documented in that breed’s official studbook. Purebred status is determined by the relevant breed registry, not by visual conformity to a breed standard, a horse that looks like a Quarter Horse is not…
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Skewbald
Skewbald is a coat pattern in which large, irregular patches of white overlie a non-black base color, bay, chestnut, brown, roan, or any other base coat that is not black. When the base is black, the equivalent pattern is called piebald. Both piebald and skewbald fall under the North American pinto category, which groups both…
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Piebald
A piebald horse has a black base coat broken by large, irregular patches of white. The term is British in origin and describes the color combination only, black and white, not a breed or a genetic mechanism. The white markings arise from one or more white-patterning genes (frame overo, splashed white, sabino) acting on a…
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Dun
Dun is a coat color in horses produced by the dominant D-locus dilution gene, which lightens the body while leaving the mane, tail, lower legs, and primitive markings at full pigment intensity. Every dun horse carries at least one copy of the D allele; two copies are visually identical to one. The gene does not…
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Horse Gait: Definition and the Four Natural Gaits
Definition A gait is the specific pattern in which an animal moves its legs to travel at a given speed. In horses, each gait has a defined footfall sequence, number of beats per stride, and characteristic rhythm that distinguishes it from other gaits. The term covers both natural gaits, which horses perform without training, and…