Horse anatomy reference: skeleton and muscle, gaits, head angles

The horse is hard to draw because its bones and muscles set its proportions, and its gaits change the shape each stride. These charts show the skeleton and main muscles in profile, the walk, trot, canter and gallop with the leg order of each stride, and the head from three angles. Each chart comes in clean contour, anatomy study, and graphite sketch. Type a different horse, such as a foal, and the same charts carry it.

• an anatomy study for an art class
• a reference for a horse in a painting or a comic
• a sketchbook page on the gallop
• a classroom handout on the horse's skeleton

Frequently asked questions

What is on the charts?

The skeleton and the main muscles of a horse, its four gaits, and its head from three angles.

What is the difference between the three styles?

Clean contour is outlines with accurate proportion, the anatomy study uses fine line and light hatching on the muscle, and the graphite sketch has soft shading on the neck, flank and legs.

Are these photographs?

No. Each chart is a flat line drawing on a plain white sheet, with no text and no labels.

Can I ask for a different horse?

Yes. Type a direction such as foal or jumping, and it is a request for that, not a promised result.

About toile

This page is a showcase and a starting point: nine samples already rendered, three readings of the pack crossed with three styles, each shown at the size and ratio it was made for. Take any of them further on the wall with a few words, or ask for all nine again under your own direction; a sign-in keeps what you make, and it is free while Toile is new. The recipe behind each sample — the subject, the style, the palette, the framing — travels with the image rather than staying private to the render: it is in the alt text of every sample and in the page's own structured data, so a search engine reads the same handles a person would.