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Word rarity: = commonly used = occasionally used = obsolete


Words with two dots are between categories.
Total words in this section: 40

GADFLY

A fly that lays eggs on the legs of horses. It is not considered a parasite, even thought the larva spends part of its life in the horse's intestines.

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GAG

Dentistry- A tool that is used to keep the horse's mouth open while the dentist works on the teeth. The mouthpiece is crescent-shaped and held in place by a headstall that goes over the horse's poll. It is placed in the horse's mouth then racheted and held open while the denits works. There is a quick-release on it so that it can be removed easily. Bit- a type of bit that is designed to put pressure on the bars, lips, and poll of a horse, giving the rider more control. This is usually used on a horse that pulls.

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GAIT

The movement a horse does. There are 4 main gaits- walk, trot, lope (or canter), and gallop.

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GAITED

A horse that does gaits additional to the 4 main gaits. These can either be naturally occuring, or artificially trained. Tennessee walking horses, saddlebreds, and peruvian pasos are examples of gaited breeds.

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GALLOP

The fastest of the four basic gaits. This is also called a 'run', and there is a period of suspension when the horse has all four feet in the air.

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GALLS

Sores on the horse's body that have been formed from tack that does not fit correctly.

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GALVAYNE'S GROOVE

This is a groove that appears on the two upper incisors of older horses. It first appears at the gum line when a horse is 10, and works downward as the horse ages. At 15, the groove will be halfway down the tooth; at 20, it will run the full length of the tooth; at 21, the groove will begin to recede away from the gumline, down the tooth; it will be halfway gone by 25, and it will disappear by 30.

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GAMGEE

A thick layer of absorbent cotton between two layers of absorbent gauze, used in surgical dressings.

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GASKIN

A muscle in the hind leg, above the hock, and below the stifle. It is located on the leg, on the opposite side from the hock.

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GASTRIC

Within or having to do with the stomach.

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GAUGE

The measure of the diameter of an injection needle.

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GELDING

A castrated male horse. Also, the act of castrating a male horse.

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GESTATION

The period of time that a young animal is retained in uterus; from conception to birth. A horse's gestation is 11 months average, with some horses having a 10 or 12 month gestation.

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GET

A stallion's offspring.

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GHORKHAR

Also called the Indian Ass. An endangered wild ass related to the Kiang and other Asian asses.

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GIRTH

See 'Cinch'.

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GLANCE OFF

Jumping- instead of clearing a jump, the horse shies off to one side.

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GLANDERS

An ancient and once worldwide bacterial disease of equids, now rare and restricted to certain areas of the Middle East and Asia; caused by Pseudomonas mallei.

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GOING

A horse's way of moving or performing.

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GO-ROUND

Rodeo term. A contestant's turn at an event.

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GOOD BUCKER

Self-explanitory. A bronco that has a good bucking style and can throw cowboys.

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GRADE

An unregistered horse; a horse without papers or with no documented pedigree or background. Because such horses have no proof of ownership, they are more easily stolen than papered horses. Also, their age and background is often unknown.

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GRADING UP

A breeding plan in which a grade or native mare is bred to a purebred stallion with the purpose of adding quality and increasing performance in the foal. For example, mustang (native) mares might be crossed with a Quarter Horse stallion to produce good cow ponies. The resulting foal will have 50% of the mare and 50% of the stallion's blood. This foal then may be bred back to another purbred, increasing the 'blood' of the purebred

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GRAKLE NOSEBAND

Also called figure-eight or crossed noseband. This is a noseband with thin leather straps that cross over at the front buckle, both above and below the bit. Some horses take more kindly to this type of noseband rather than a flash noseband, because the positioning of the straps seems to be more comfortable. Like all nosebands, this has a strange function-- it tightens around the nose and causes discomfort if the horse tries to open his mouth, making the horse keep his mouth shut. Some people consider it harsh or unnecessary. The noseband is an English tack item.

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GRAND PRIX

Showjumping. The international level where the best of the best compete.

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GRASS

A type of hay, usually a mixture of different types of grass and excludes alfalfa.

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GRASS TIPS

A shoe made for pastured horses. It is crescent shaped and only fits on the horses toe, as opposed to a regular shoe that spans most of the hoof. This type of shoe helps prevent the hoof from splitting.

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GRAY

A horse coat color. Often mistakenly called 'white'. Gray horses have white hairs (or mix of dark & white) and dark skin and eyes; a true white horse is rare and has pink skin and dark eyes. Genetically, gray is dominant over other colors and it itself is not a color, but a pattern. Gray horses are usually born a color other than gray (bay, chestnut, palomino, buckskin, etc.) but then turn gray with age. If a horse has the gray gene, it will get lighter with age until it has turned gray. All gray horses will have at least one gray parent, you cannot get a gray by breeding two non-grays since it is a dominant gene. When breeding a heterozygous gray to a non-gray, you have a 50% chance of getting a gray foal. When breeding a homozygous gray, you will always get a gray foal.

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GRAVEL

Common term describing drainage at the coronary band of the foot; caused by infection that migrates up the hoof wall and breaks out as an abscess at the coronary band.

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GREEN

A horse that is unbroke (untrained). Usually refers to a horse that has been ground worked, but can not yet be ridden.

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GREEN BROKE

A horse that has been ground trained, and can be ridden a little, but is not fully trained.

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GROOM

To brush and clean a horse; to prepare it for a show or for riding. Racing-- where owners are usually not involved in their horses lives, a person is usually hired to clean the horse. This person is called a 'groom'.

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GROOMING KIT

A kit made up of the tools used when grooming a horse, such as curry combs, brushes, mane combs, bot knives, hoof picks, sweat scrapers, fly spray, etc.

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GROOVING

Cutting or burning a horizontal groove across the fibers of the hoof horn to alter the way in which stresses are transferred up the wall. This may be done when treating founder, flares, basal cracks, and other hoof maladies.

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GROUND TIE

A well-trained horse will be taught to ground tie. This means that when the rider dismounts and places the reins upon the ground that the horse will not move (it will act as if it were tied to the ground). This way, if the rider must get off in a hurry and leave the horse, he does not have to worry about the horse running off. A well-trained horse will stand ground tied and stay even if the rider leaves.

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GROUND TRAINING

A horse with ground manners has had ground training. Ground training involves everything but riding the horse-- leading, tying, turning, grooming, bathing, trailer loading, etc. A horse should have ground training before riding begins. A horse that has not been ground trained and is not well behaved in off-riding activities should be considered green.

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GRULLA/GRULLO

Spanish word, pronounced 'grew-ya' or 'grew-yo'. This is also called a blue dun, lobo dun, or black dun. The horse is a mouse grey-tan color with a dorsal stripe and other dun factors. It is essentially a black horse with a dun dilute gene. Unlike grey horses, grullas are not a color pattern; instead, each hair is a diluted, dun-grey color. The original word is actually the Spanish word "Grulla", a word for a blue-gray crane. The 'a' denotes that it is feminine (most words in Spanish are either masculine or feminine). The term was adopted for horses of this color, and the word was later changed by the AQHA to "Grullo", which had a more masculine sound. Technically "Grulla" is more correct as it is the original word. However, some people like to use "grulla" for female horses of this color and "grullo" for male.

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GRUNTING

A sound that occurs when there is sudden pressure on the diaphram from the stomach. Sometimes a horse when threatened with a whack or when whacked will grunt. Sometimes this sound is linked with the disorder roaring, in which the horse makes whistling or grunting sounds when exercised.

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GULLET

Oesophagus - through which food travels from the mouth to stomach. Most commonly, the swell or fork of the saddle that sits above the withers on the horse. On a Western saddle, the horn is placed upon the gullet.

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GYMKHANA

Mounted games and timed events. Often includes barrel racing, pole bending, keyhole, and flag race, and sometimes egg-in-spoon, arena race, and others.

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