Did you know that our human fingers & the horse's legs are built in the same way? I will explain the various bones in the horses's lower leg, or foreleg & how they compare to the bones in our own fingers. Hopefully you will find this small article of interest.

What we call the horse's knee is our wrist. From the wrist to the first knuckle is their single Canon bone, with the splints along the side being remnants of our other palm bones. Again, each finger is analogous to the horse’s single fetlock and hoof. Our hands & feet are well endowed with muscle. Contrary to the forelimbs & hind limbs of the horse. These are essentially devoid of muscle below their so-called knees and hocks, with the tendons and ligaments being a “spring loading” system of recoil that adds to their efficiency of movement.

A horse doesn't have clavicles (collarbones), so the front limbs are held to the body by soft tissue alone, muscle, tendons, & fibrous sheets of fascia.

The Carpal Bones - The Carpal bones in a human hand are equate to that of the horse's knee.

The Metacarpal Bones - In a human the Metacarpals are hand bones. In the horse they are the bones of the Canon bone.

First & Second Phalanx - The first & second Phalanx within a human are the first two bones in our finger. In the horse they are the Long & Short Pastern.

Third Phalanx - In a human the third Phalanx is the tip of our finger. Within the horse this is the bone that sits inside the actual hoof capsule. This bone within the horse is called the Coffin bone.

The image below shows how those bones collate to that of our hand & just how much weight and force is transferred through those bones.