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What Are Chestnuts And Ergots?

Chestnuts and ergots are normal, healthy growths found on most horse's legs. No one really knows why they exist, and they have been a subject of curiosity among horsemen for quite a long time.

Chestnuts And Ergots

Chestnuts appear on the front legs of a horse above the knee, or on the back legs of a horse below the hock. They can be large, or very small. Some people call chestnuts "night eyes." Ergots are found on the back of a horse's fetlock but they are usually covered with hair and can't be seen. Some scientists believe that chestnuts and ergots may be remnants of the pads that were under the toes of a very early ancestor of the horse. Scientists believe that about 50 million years ago the first known ancestor of the horse, Eohippus, had four padded toes on the front legs and three padded toes on the back legs.

Chestnuts

Photo 1 A chestnut above the knee. This chestnut is about the size of a woman's thumb. Chestnuts can range from the size of a small fingernail to a couple of inches long or longer.	1
Photo 1a A close-up of the same chestnut that is in Photo 1. Chestnut patterns are unique to each horse.	1a
Photo 2 A different chestnut. This chestnut is not flat and fairly smooth like the one in the previous photos.	2
Photo 3 A chestnut on a gray horse. Although you cannot tell it from the photos, the chestnut on this horse is more than twice as big as the chestnut in Photos 1 and 1a on the sorrel horse.	3

Ergots

Both Chestnuts And Ergots...

• Can be trimmed without pain. While there's no real reason to trim them, some people just do it as a part of routine grooming. Chestnuts can be peeled off layer by layer. Ergots sometimes tear off close to the skin easily, or they can also be clipped off (hoof nippers are handy for this) or cut off with a knife. Do NOT try to remove either chestnuts or ergots entirely, and if you trim them don't go any deeper than skin level or above.

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At Cowboyway.com, we have ordered from Jeffers Equine longer than any other
company. We personally recommend their products, prices, and service.

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Fun Stuff To Know

• Eo means "dawn" and hippus means "horse," so Eohippus is "dawn horse."