Any easy way to remember the proper names of the bones?

[JillA]

I'm doing the CAFRE course on horse health and week one is the skeleton and the cardio respiratory system. Try as I might I just CAN'T store the names of the bones of the fore and hind limbs in my memory - I have the diagrams but they just won't remain in my head. Are there any rhymes or mnemonics to help? (I do know the horseman's terms, but this is tibia, humerus, and all that stuff).

 

[Honey08]

I used to find physically touching where the bones are and saying their names when grooming etc used to help me back in the days when I was doing my stages.

 

[Cowpony]

I always love the name sesamoid - it's all the little bones in the hocks and knees, and I remember it by thinking they look like sesame seeds. A lot of the bones in the upper limbs are equivalent to human bones (femur, patella etc), which also helps.

 

[Honey08]

We were given a picture of a person bending over so that the end of their fingers touched the ground (skeleton) next to the skeleton of a horse. That was helpful and interesting to compare. They're very similar.

 

[Cowpony]

You could try to create silly pictures to remember them. Imagine two little girls, Pat and Ella, sitting on their dad's knee. Femur reminds me of a feminist fur. You get the picture!

 

[wish upon a star]

We stuck labels on the bones of an actual horse, it helped me to remember it as I could see it

 

[orionstar]

Write them in the correct places on your arm!

 

[Lilchunk]

Back in the day when I was training - one of the sayings we used was "Mr Patella at the corner shop". Helped me remember to this day! 👍

 

[Exploding Chestnuts]

Crikey a lot to cover in week one ............. there is a video here which shows nice pictures
http://vetmed.iastate.edu/limbanatomy/horse.html

All mammals started off [in evolutionary terms] with the same structure, the pentadactyle limb, which is why we have five fingers and toes.
Horses are walking on their "fingernails" so they no longer resemble the human limb in many respects. They are very specialised, walking on the third digit.

I have great colouring book which covers all anatomy in great detail, and its fun to use! I got it off Amazon

HORSE ANATOMY A Colouring Atlas by Kainer and McCracken

Do things in order, using diagrams:
Scapula is attached first, forward pointing
Humerous points backwards
Radius and ulna
Carpus [known as "knee, but its not]
Three metacarpal bones make one cannon bone
Two Sesamoids [small]
P1
P2
P3

Re hindlimb: the illeum, ischium, and pubis are one unit
Attachment of the femur is by ball and socket joint, next is tibia [and fibula]
Tarsal bones [hock]
Hind cannon bone
P1,
P2
P3
The 3 bones from the fetlock down are phalanges, hence P1 etc, and have common names.
I think you just have to practice, with diagrams, then you have to add a name tag.