Quarter marks are a type of ornamentation on a

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...

seen in certain types of exhibition or competition. Typically, these marks are found on the

croup Croup, also known as laryngotracheobronchitis, is a type of respiratory infection that is usually caused by a virus. The infection leads to swelling inside the trachea, which interferes with normal breathing and produces the classic symptoms ...

of the animal and are created by combing its

hair Hair is a protein filament that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Hair is one of the defining characteristics of mammals. The human body, apart from areas of glabrous skin, is covered in follicles which produce thick terminal and fi ...

in different directions, creating contrasting areas.Global Horse Culture: Quarter Marks
/ref> The classic design was created by hand-creating each square with a small brush or comb. However, in modern times, they can also be created quite quickly by use of a

stencil Stencilling produces an image or pattern on a surface, by applying pigment to a surface through an intermediate object, with designed holes in the intermediate object, to create a pattern or image on a surface, by allowing the pigment to reach ...

lain on a given area with the exposed hair brushed in a different direction than other growth.

Hair spray Hair spray (also hair lacquer or spritz) is a common cosmetic hairstyling product that is sprayed onto hair to protect against humidity and wind. Hair sprays typically consist of several components for the hair as well as a propellant. Ingr ...

or setting gel is often used to help the pattern stay in place. Commonly, quarter marks are made in a

checkerboard A checkerboard (American English) or chequerboard (British English; see spelling differences) is a board of checkered pattern on which checkers (also known as English draughts) is played. Most commonly, it consists of 64 squares (8×8) of altern ...

pattern, but many variations exist. In addition to highlighting the shine and health of the horse's

coat A coat typically is an outer garment for the upper body as worn by either gender for warmth or fashion. Coats typically have long sleeves and are open down the front and closing by means of buttons, zippers, hook-and-loop fasteners, toggles, ...

, some designs are intended to help define the musculature of the horse or simply as an identifying or fun mark. Use of modern stencils allows for creation of fanciful shapes such as stars or hearts. Quarter marks tend to go in and out of style in the

horse show A horse show is a judged exhibition of horses and ponies. Many different horse breeds and equestrian disciplines hold competitions worldwide, from local to the international levels. Most horse shows run from one to three days, sometimes longer ...

ring and are seen more in certain regions than others. 2june 2007 613-crop

Quarter marks are frequently seen on

police horse Mounted police are police who patrol on horseback or camelback. Their day-to-day function is typically picturesque or ceremonial, but they are also employed in crowd control because of their mobile mass and height advantage and increasingly in t ...

s when performing ceremonial duties. One well-known example is the

Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal and national police service of Canada. As poli ...

, who, on ceremonial occasions, decorate the hindquarters of the animals with a maple leaf shaped design.The application of a quarter mark by RCMP before a performance

References

{{reflist Equestrianism