The more terms one knows within a subject, the better he can understand the whole. Try these general horse and Standardbred meanings of gait, birthdays, and more.

Some of the following terms have very specific meanings for Standardbreds, while others can be applied generally to the horse world. The more one knows, the more he can say!

AGE -- January 1st is the universal birthdate of all horses. Foaled on December 31, a horse automatically becomes one year old on the next day, January 1st.

ARABIAN INFLUENCE -- All light horse breeds have the Arabian as their foundation breed.

COLOR -- Standardbreds are bay, black, brown, chestnut, gray, or roan. A bay (b) is reddish tan to rich mahogany brown. Bays have black tails and manes, and (usually) black legs. A black (bl) is deep brown, often with bluish highlights. A brown (br) is between dark bay and black, including tan, or brown hairs on its muzzle, or flanks. A chestnut (ch) is a golden yellow shade to dark, reddish brown. A chestnut does not have a black mane, tail, or points. A gray (gr) is a combination of white and black hairs. A roan (ro) is a mixture of colorful shades. A strawberry roan is red, white, and yellow intermingled. A blue roan is black, white, and yellow.

CONFORMATION -- The build of a horse.

DOG -- A cheap, or (considered) useless horse (slangology).

GAIT -- Refers to the way a horse moves his legs naturally; a walk, a trot, or a gallop. The Standardbred paces, or trots. A Thoroughbred gallops.

HOMEBRED -- Example: the New York Sire Stakes is conducted for homebreds, those Standardbreds foaled in the state of New York. Foals born in the jurisdiction in which they will be raced are homebreds.

PACE -- A gait in which a horse moves both legs on one side of his body in the same direction at the same time. Standardbreds compete as pacers, or trotters.

POLL -- The topmost part of a horse's head, between his ears.

PREPOTENCY -- The ability of a horse to pass on greater hereditary qualities, or characteristics.

PRODUCE -- A mare's offspring.

QUARTER -- The area between the heel and the toe of a horse's foot.

SANDSIFTER -- An early term to describe a Standardbred pacer.

SNIP -- The small white, or flesh-colored patch on a horse's lip, or nose.

STANDARDBRED -- The registered breed of trotting, or pacing horse.

STUD FEE -- The payment collected by a horse's owner in return for the horse's breeding services.

TAIL FEMALE -- The ancestry of a horse traced through the female line.

TAIL MALE -- The ancestry of a horse traced through the male line.

TROT -- A gait in which a horse moves his right front and his left rear legs in the same direction at the same time, followed by movement of the left front and the right rear at the same time. Standardbreds are trotters, or pacers, with the trot being the slower of the two gaits.

YEARLING -- Any horse that is between his first and second birthdays.

BLISTERING -- The application of an irritant on an extremity area of a horse to increase the blood volume supplying that area.

BOWED TENDON-- Tendons at the back of the cannon bone that become strained, or sprained and heal in the shape of a bow.

CURBS -- Ligament ruptures on the back of the hock joint, usually accompanied by considerable swelling.

FIRING -- Using a red hot needle, or a hot electric iron to an anesthetized area of a horse's leg to produce irritation on the surface of the skin. This increased the supply of blood to that area to hasten healing.

NAVICULAR DISEASE -- Lameness under the middle part of the frog in the horse's foot.

QUARTER CRACKS-- Cracks in the wall of the hoof, from the outside surface into the fleshy portion.

SPLINT -- A bony growth on the side of the splint bone between the knee and ankle.

CROSSFIRE -- Refers to a pacer striking his own diagonal hind hoof when on his gait.

DRIVER -- The person in the sulky, driving the Standardbred.

INDIANA PANTS -- Hobbles developed by John Browning of Indiana (slangology).

JOG CART -- Similar to a racing sulky, but longer and heavier, used for training.

POINTS -- The characteristics of a horse's conformation.

PULLED OUT -- Taking a horse out toward the center of the track to pass horses ahead of him.

SULKY -- The Standardbred's racing vehicle; a two-wheel "bike" that carries the driver.

WAGON -- A four-wheel vehicle used for racing harness horses, or showing road horses.

With a knowledge of terms, a day at the races can be enjoyable and enlightening.