White Leg Markings -
The Correct Terminology

White Leg Markings are eyecatching on any horse but also serve a vital purpose in helping to distinguish your horse as part of his unique "blueprint" or identification.

Two horses may display "identical" leg markings through inherited genes or just pure coincidence but althoug they look the same they will vary slightly in size or direction of hair growth which means that every horse's markings are truly unique.

Common leg markings include:-

White Stockings - white hair growth on one or more legs up to the knee joint on the front legs and the point of the hock on the hind legs.

White stockings can occur on any colour horse but are most striking on more contrasting colours. They will only show up on grey (white) horses when wet. Then they look like slightly pink markings as the skin underneath shows through.

White Socks - white hair growth on one or more legs from the top of the hoof (coronet band) to approximately half way up the lower leg.

These are smaller than stockings and can be present in all horse colours.

White Pastern - white hair from the top of the hoof over the pastern but not as high up as the fetlock joint.

White Fetlock - shorter than a sock this is where white hair growth is visible from the top of the hoof up to or slightly over the fetlock joint on one or more legs. This marking is sometimes called a "boot". The black horse below has a white fetlock marking on her front foot nearest the camera.

White Coronet - this is a circular thin line of white hair just visible around the top of the hoof and not more than 1" in height.

Ermine - this is where one or more darker spots break up a white leg marking and are usually seen just above the hoof interrupting a sock or coronet marking.

Striped Hoof - this occurs where the hoof is made up of 2 different colours - a light area and a dark area. Stripes run vertically from the top of the hoof to the bottom and it is possible that only one of a horse's feet will display this marking.

Find out more about Horse Face Markings by clicking on this link.

Alternatively, return to our main Horse Markings topic to find out about some other unique markings used to identify your horse.

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