Chrome –
White on head, legs. On paints and pintos, can mean lots more white than other colors.
Cremello –
All over off-white to pearl-colored to pale gold. A sort of washed out, not quite Palomino.
Dun, buckskin –
Can range from pale gold or red or light brown with any shade of brown or black points to cocoa brown with darker brown or black points. Often includes stripes on the legs and a dark dorsal stripe down the back, but not necessarily. Yellow duns have a golden base coat, red duns have a reddish base coat. I love this color. For whatever reason, I have never met a dun that wasn’t a pleasure to work with.
Gray –
From white to steel gray to “flea-bit” gray which is grey with blackish specks all over the coat.
Grulla –
A special kind of buckskin/dun with a taupe, mousy gray or even a bluish base coat with darker points. These horses are legendary favored mounts in Western history. (Smoky the Cowhorse comes to mind.)
Palomino –
Shades of gold from pale to dark bronze, with white or pale mane and tail.
Pinto/paint –
Pintos are any unregistered, spotted horse. Can be base white with colored markings or colored base with white markings. Paints are registered offspring of Thoroughbreds or Quarter Horses with more white on them than the registry allows. All Paints are pintos in color, but not all pintos are Paints.
Points –
Ears, legs, tail, mane
Sorrel/Chestnut –
Solid shades of reddish brown, might have a flaxen mane and tail.
Stockings/socks –
Colored area (usually white or black) of the leg from where the hoof joins the leg as high up as just past the knees(front legs) or hocks(back legs).
Equipment
All the school horses used English tack: a saddle, bridle, and breast collar – the neckpiece that kept the saddle from slipping back when jumping or climbing hills. However, we also used specialized equipment for specific results.
Bits –
These come in two basic types. Snaffles can be solid or jointed, smooth or twisted with D-rings, loose round rings, integrated rings (Eggbutt) or have full or half metal stops (shanks) between the lip and the rings to keep the rings from sliding through the mouth. These are considered the less severe class of bits. The others, and there are mind-boggling numbers of these, have the commonality of using a curb chain under the lower jaw for more leverage. In other words, besides the pressure exerted by the direct pull on the mouthpiece, the pressure from the rider’s hands also tightens the chain under the horse’s jaw. These range in severity from mild to overwhelming. Most of the horses in my school used snaffles. Some didn’t listen to any bit at all.
Double reins –
Sometimes a horse may have two bits or a bit with two rings on each side for reins. Then there are two reins in the riders hand, the snaffle rein and the curb rein. The snaffle is less severe and the curb more severe. The use of a bit requiring double reins can be decided by the type of class (upper level dressage, saddle seat) the rider is in or the type of control the rider wants or needs. Usually double reins are associated with more control of the horse when the snaffle doesn’t seem enough. In my classes, they were seldom used. For one, they weren’t needed. For another, if I were using draw reins in association with the regular reins, the rider already had two sets of reins to deal with.
Draw reins –
These long reins go from the rider’s hands through the bit rings and attach to either a ring on the breast collar or to the girth. They assist in keeping the horse from pulling at the bit and make keeping the horse and rider balanced easier The rider also uses the reins on the bit. There are two sets of reins in the rider’s hands.
German draw reins(martingale) –
The reins attached to the bit have four or more evenly spaced rings attached along about two to two and one half feet of their length starting about three inches from the bit. A second element, a partially split piece, attaches to the girth or to the breast collar. Each part of the split goes through the two bit rings and snaps to the appropriate rings on the reins. The horse is encouraged not to pull. The rider carries one rein, and can easily loosen the hold on the reins or not. Under direct instruction, that is, with me watching one on one the rider and the effect of the reins on the horse, draw reins are a valuable aide to helping both horse and rider understand how to collect and balance.
Jumps –
Whatever you ask your horse to jump over. The side pieces, called standards hold the cups that hold whatever is the top of the obstacle. It could be a rail or a plank or a banner… Besides the height, jumps are designated by width, shape, and solidity. Rail jumps, simply made up of rails or poles, can be:
One rail wide – a vertical.
Two rails wide – an oxer.
Top rails parallel
Back rail higher than front
The two rails make a high “X” - Swedish oxer
Three rails wide – a hogsback
Middle rail is highest
Or, a really wide oxer
Planks – are used instead of rails
Naturals – any natural object, like a log
Brush – brush, sticks, compose the body of the obstacle.
Bullfinch is a special type of brush jump that is higher than the horse. The horse jumps through it on faith!
Wall – brick, stone, wood painted to look like brick or stone. Usually has a flat top between the two parallel sides.
Coop – the two solid sides of the jump meet at a point on top that is narrower than the sides at the base. The sides slant in at the top.
Ditch – may be natural or constructed with stone or wood lining.
Trakehner – a ditch with a rail over the length of the center of the ditch. Bank – the horse jumps up or down a terrace of some sort.
Water – the horse jumps over or into water. It may have a rail above the water or not.
All other jumps are a variation on these. As a rule, jumps in an arena are more man-made looking than jumps on an outside or cross-country course, though course designers are the ones responsible for all the competition obstacles that horses are asked to clear. During a Hunt, horses and riders may jump all sorts of naturally occurring phenomena that pop up in front
