I didn't take any pictures, though a lot of people in the class did, but I got to go to class with Katie and help participate in dissecting a horse leg! So cool.
I did this when I took the class a few years ago, but it was great to go back and see it all again with a new eye on what those parts do, how they work together to support healthy movement in the horse, and how an injury can affect them.
The tendon Bar bowed was probably the superficial digital tendon. It is a big, thick, strong tendon, and probably tore near the sheath that bundles that tendon to the deep digital flexor tendon. (See here for drawing of the lower leg.)
Horses have no muscles below their "knee," so rely on this rather complex set of ligaments and tendons to move. In addition, they basically pump blood back to their heart from the bottoms of their feet. The movie we watched first likened it to horses having 5 hearts--one in their chest, and one at the bottom of each foot.
Looking at the structures, taking the leg apart, really pointed out how important circulation is and how when one thing goes wrong in there, it can snowball into lots of things going wrong in there.
Plus, how cool is it to watch your daughter diving in with a scalpel!
1 comment:
That must have been fascinating! It helps to give an appreciation of how complex and beautiful the mechanisms are that make a horse's leg work.
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