A foal refers to a horse under 1 year old. Horses reach adulthood at about age 5.

We call any forward motion of the horse “gait.” Most horses can gait in four speeds: walk, which is a slow four-beat gait; trot, which has two of the horse’s hoofs on the ground at all times; canter, which is a controlled three-beat gait; and gallop, which a fast four-beat gait.

Horses are usually measured by hands—yes, our hands. Each hand is about four inches in width. A horse’s height is measured by stacking your hands from hoof to shoulder.

In terms of horses, a frog is the soft underside of a horse’s hoof. The frog is a triangular shape that starts from the heel and points toward the toe. The primary function of a frog is to be a shock absorber.