prophets thumb

I've only seen them on the neck, but that doesn't mean it's where they always are. I never thought about it.

What is this thing? I've never heard of it.

an indent on the neck..about the size of a thumbprint

found this on a few sites:

"A widespread belief tells of how any horse that has a groove in its neck is to be treasured and treated with great respect as it believed to come from a the line of horses that belonged to the Prophet Mahammed. If you can place your thumb gently into the groove on the neck, which is known as the 'Prophet's Thumb Print', then the horse is allegedly connected to one of the five brood mares that Mahommed owned, and therefore sacred. "

I've seen some on the bum.

Diane

I've only seen them on the neck. I know many horses with them and even owned one but I can't seem to find a photo that shows it right now.

I always thought those were like fatty dimples..if we're talking about the same thing.

I doubt we are. These are in the muscled area of the neck usually and are just one very deep dip.

Here's one:
http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-…" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

My anglo mare has one on her neck. She's out on lease so I can't get pics to show it.
I've seen them on several horses over the years.

my sold now QH mare has one too

is this one? http://img352.imageshack.us/img352/7185…" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Classy has one on her neck and Dusty has one in his chest muscle of all places. :-| I have owned a horse with one on top of his bum too.
You can see Classy's best in this picture:
[img]http://www.planetaccess.net/dangerranch…]

She is squeeky clean!!! How do you do it?

EZ All? LOL!

I've only seen them on the neck. I've heard they were pinched nerves. Don't know about any merit behind that. xD

One of our Connemara mares has one. She's a great horse with a great temperament, if that's got anything to do with it :)

[quote="Jenks"]She is squeeky clean!!! How do you do it?[/quote]
Haha, well that was directly after a bath with a brand new summer coat. She's generally a clean horse and V takes after her (thank god). As far as the bath itself I usually start with Orvus for the major dirt and finish with Quicksilver. My first paint was an absolute pig so I learned how to scrub pretty well lol.

[quote="Krickette"]is this one? http://img352.imageshack.us/img352/7185…" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;[/quote]

Looks somewhat like the bum ones I've seen before (mostly when I was in the Middle East, actually...). I've seen them in that location, as well as down a bit (about 2 fingers' width on this photo).

Diane

They can be the result of scar tissue of the muscles, for example the result after an inflammation after an injection. In this area the muscle has been damaged. I have also seen them resulting from old barb-wire wounds.

An old cowboy friend of mine told me they were where a hoof pressed while they were devolping before they were born. This was many years ago, and now scientific anything to say this is true or not.

That's what I've heard Rhaige. It makes sense to me (causing atrophy or even muscle death).

[quote="Rhaige9"]An old cowboy friend of mine told me they were where a hoof pressed while they were devolping before they were born. This was many years ago, and now scientific anything to say this is true or not.[/quote]
Doesn't sound that strange, after all wasn't there an arabian mare who had an extreme head that we thought was caused by her leg being over her face in the womb?

eta: Namusca! couldn't remember her name.
(not to get too far off topic, lol)

Yep sure is a scary looking mare that one - poor thing.

I thought that it was exactly the same thing as a dimple.