Walk: a four-beat flat-footed gait

War Bridle: restraining rope placed under nose, over gums, and up over poll

Warmblood: in practice, a horse which is a cross between a hotblood breed or type and a coldblood breed or type. More specifically, warmbloods are taken to mean warmblooded horses originating from one of the continental European countries

Warming Up: galloping horse on way to post

Washy: horse breaking out in nervous sweat before race, sometimes to the point it will be dripping from his belly

Wash Racks: area set aside for bathing of animals

Wax: colostrum coming from or coagulated on mare's teats just prior to foaling

Waxing: showing evidence of wax

Wean: remove the foal from a mare so it can no longer nurse

Weanling: a foal that has been separated from its mother; usually 4'12 months of age

Weave/weaving: an undesirable vice where the horse stands and rocks itself from side to side, which in sever cases can result in strain to the front limbs

Web: measured width of the branch of a horseshoe

W.E.E.: Western equine encephalomyelitis

Well Let Down: means that the hocks are close to the ground with the first and second thigh being well muscled

Well Set: indicates that the conformation is good and the junction between the neck and head is correctly put together

Well-Sprung Ribs: a horse with a nicely rounded ribcage allowing plenty of room for the heart and lungs

Western Banding: a grooming technique using tiny rubber bands to make thirty or forty little pony tails out of the mane

Western: referring to riding with Western tack and attire

Wethers: the uterus

Whiffletree (whippletree): a device, usually wooden with metal rings or hooks, to which traces are attached; may also be double to hold two single whiffletrees

Whip Training: training horse to respond to touch of whip

White Line: white border between sole and wall of horse's

Windsucking: a highly undesirable vice where the horse grips a solid object between its teeth, tenses its neck muscles, and swallows air. In sever cases a horse will learn to do this without fastening on to anything, which can result in ingestion problems

Wide Web Shoe: horseshoe made of extra-wide stock for added strength

Wink: opening and closing of the mare's vulva exposing the clitoris

Withers: the part of the horse's spine where the neck joins the back. Wolf teeth. Small vestigial first pre-molar

Wood Chewing: a common vice that damages facilities and can cause abnormal wear of teeth and possible complications from wood splinters

Working Gait: in dressage, a gait that is regular and unconstrained, energetic but calm, with even, elastic steps

Worms: internal parasites

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