Hey guys, I've been a lurker here but haven't posted much. Anyway, saw a picture on a new album coming out soon and thought I'd ask the experts: Do you all identify this horse as male or female? I can't tell if that's an udder or a sheath or what. Anyway, thanks for any info!
You can tell after you've been around horses enough that you can identify gender at a glance. It's just learning what things look like. Keep looking under horses, you'll get it.
It is as obvious a sheath as possible. Wish they fed the horse a bit better. I hate seeing that many ribs on a horse. That turns me off the band real fast. Poor graphics choices.
No, not definitely not emaciated. Lean/thin. I think if he lost his winter coat people would be more upset...
Henneke high 3/Low 4 out of 10. Losing topline. Ribs showing more. Pelvis starting to be more aware, but not prominent. Withers prominent. Body eating muscle.
Yup, that is definitely a boy. Geldings are pretty easy to tell apart from the mares - unless it's a MUCH older mare who's had a lot of foals, or a mare who just had a foal taken off her, udders are rarely something you can see from a quick glance.
And this looks like a standardbred who has been freeze-fired.
Either you have much better eyes or a much bigger screen than I do. I had to blow the pic way up and only found two tiny dots. But I'm sure you're right.
Probably the only picture I could find where a mare in foal looks as if she has a "sheath" but the album cover you shared is definitely at minimum a gelding.
@EliRose are you referring to the scars on his rear cannon and front fetlock or the scars on the backs of his pasterns? Don't know much about freeze firing.
And yes, if you see "bits" there it's a boy 99% of the time, esp if you see them well. As said, it is VERY uncommon to be able to see even a very full udder from the side like that. Bits = boy almost always...especially when it's that noticeable.
As far as the picture I think a lot of non horse people want to add a horse to things but don't really get how to do it. I'm sure we've all seen the super awkward modeling pics that they try to get horses into? Same thing.
Shape and connection to belly, as well as how forward it is tells me it's a sheath and male.
The mare has a leg back, which exposes a teat. If it wasn't mentioned that it was a mare, I would take a second look to check further details, like that leg position, veins thicker feeding to teats and position under hip.
As a general rule, a sheath is positioned further forward. A mare's teats are usually well tucked up between her back legs and cannot be seen at all from a side view. A gelding or stallion's sheath runs along a posterior section of abdomen. Full udders are generally slightly rounded, with large nipples, while a sheath is triangular in shape.
Here's a side view of my mare. She's never had a foal. Her udders aren't visible at all.
This is my dad's mare. She's had two foals, and her udders are more than twice the size of my draft cross's udders. You can only sorta see them on a side view but you can see they're more half-moon shaped instead of triangle shaped.
Unless a mare has unusually large udders or is currently lactating, you won't see her udders in a photo. As a general rule, if you see something, it's a gelding or stallion. If you don't, it's either a female, or a male where the angle of the photo hides the sheath.
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