White markings and whorls

Two horses of the same colour are told apart by their white markings and their whorls. These features do not change with age: they let you recognise a horse without a moment’s doubt.

In the exam programme

Recognise and name the white markings: blaze, star, sock.Common module B
Recognise and name the whorls: on the head, on the neck.Common module B

A white marking is an area of white hair, usually on pink skin, on the head or the lower legs. It does not change the coat colour: a chestnut with a broad blaze is still a chestnut. The official vocabulary, that of the French horse and riding institute (IFCE), describes each marking by its position, its shape and its extent.

On the head: star, stripe and blaze

A few white hairs on the forehead

Star

Round star

Narrow stripe

Broad blaze down to the lips

White face

Fig. 3.11White markings on the head

Star: A white marking on the forehead. You state its size and its shape: a few white hairs, a star proper, a crescent, a diamond, an oval — or a round one, which in French has a name of its own, a pelote.
Stripe or blaze: A vertical white band down the face. A narrow one is a stripe, a broad one a blaze; it can be straight or crooked, continuous or broken.
Drinks in its white: The French way of describing a horse whose blaze runs right down to its lips: it dips its white in the water every time it drinks.
White face: A very broad blaze that spreads onto the sides of the head.

Markings often come together: a star can run on into a stripe down the face, and then you describe both.

On the legs: from coronet to stocking

Trace: a few white hairs above the hoof
White coronet: a white ring round the coronet
White pastern: up to the fetlock
Sock: up to mid-cannon
Stocking: up to below the knee
High stocking: above the knee

Fig. 3.12From a trace of white to a high stocking

A leg marking is white on the lower leg that starts at the hoof. It is named after the height where the white stops:

Name	How far up the white goes
Trace of white	A few white hairs above the hoof that do not go all the way round the leg.
White coronet	A white ring all the way round the leg just above the hoof, no higher than the pastern.
White pastern	Up to about the fetlock, pastern included.
Sock	Up to about the middle of the cannon.
Stocking	Above the middle of the cannon, to just below the knee or the hock.
High stocking	Up to the knee or the hock, or beyond.

Remember

To describe a leg marking precisely, say which leg it is on and where it stops: “left fore, sock to mid-cannon”, for instance. A leg only ever has one leg marking.

Whorls

A whorl is a point in the coat around which the hair grows in a swirl: it spreads out from a centre or meets around it, like a cowlick in a person’s hair. You find it more easily by running your hand against the lie of the coat, or in low, raking light.

The forehead whorl

On the forehead, between the eyes or a little above.

The mane whorl

On the neck, at the root of the mane.

Fig. 3.13Where to look for whorls

The head whorl is on the forehead, usually between the eyes or a little above. The great majority of horses have at least one; some have two or three, side by side or one above the other.
The mane whorl is on the neck, at the root of the mane or along its edge, on one side or the other.

There are other whorls, on the chest, the belly or the lower part of the neck; you will record them when you learn to identify a horse, at Galop 4.

A word from the instructor

A horse can change its rug, its mane and even its name. Its whorls stay in the same place all its life: they are its fingerprints, only hairier.

Ekidemy

The Galops^®, from the first step to Galop 7