Parts of a Horse Hoof – Wall, Sole, Frog and Bars

All 13 parts on the diagram

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From the side 5

Coronet The band at the top of the hoof. Here the skin ends and the wall begins. New wall grows down from just below it.
Periople A thin layer of soft horn over the wall's top edge. It gets wider at the heels and joins the frog.
Toe The front part of the wall. The wall is longest here.
Quarter The side part of the wall, between the toe and the heel. A hoof has one on each side.
Heel The back part of the wall, where it is shortest. Here the wall turns sharply inward to form a bar.

From below 8

Hoof wall The hard outer shell of the hoof. It is the part you see when the horse stands. From below it is the rim round the edge.
White line A thin line of softer horn. It joins the sole to the wall.
Sole The slightly arched floor of the hoof. It makes up most of the underside.
Bars The wall turned inward at each heel. The two bars run forward beside the frog and fade into the sole.
Frog A wedge of tough, springy horn between the bars. Its point is toward the toe.
Central sulcus The groove along the middle of the frog, between its two ridges.
Collateral grooves The deep groove on each side of the frog. It lies between the frog and the bar.
Heel bulbs Two rounded, soft cushions at the back of the hoof. They are above the heels and behind the frog.

How this list was compiled: Every name checked on 2026-09-30 in at least two of these: S. Sisson, The Anatomy of the Domestic Animals, 2nd edition, 1914, the section The Hoof, https://archive.org/details/anatomyofdomesti00siss; R. C. McClure, Functional Anatomy of the Horse Foot, University of Missouri Extension G2740, https://extension.missouri.edu/publications/g2740; Wikipedia, Horse hoof, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_hoof. The sources list says which source gave what. Detail lines are in our own words. Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-09-30 from plain geometry; nothing traced. Licence: own work

How it works

These are the parts of a horse hoof in two drawings: the hoof from the side as the horse stands on it, and the underside as you see it when the foot is lifted.

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Side first, then the underside

Numbers 1 to 5 are on the side view: the coronet at the hairline, the periople under it, and the wall marked off into toe, quarter and heel. Numbers 6 to 13 are on the underside: the rim of the wall, the white line, the sole, the two bars, the frog with its grooves and the heel bulbs. Press Quiz me for the hoof anatomy quiz.

How the parts of a hoof fit together

The wall is one piece. It grows down from just below the coronet, and at each heel it turns inward to become a bar. The wall, the bars and the frog carry the horse's weight; the arched sole normally stays off the ground.

Toe, quarter and heel are not separate pieces: they name the front, side and back of the same wall.
From below, the wedge is the frog and the two narrow ridges beside it are the bars.

Questions and answers

What are the parts of a horse's hoof?

A hoof has three main parts: the wall, the sole and the frog. The wall is named by region as toe, quarters and heels, and it turns in at the back to form the bars. Add the coronet, periople, white line and heel bulbs.

What is the frog on a horse's hoof?

The frog is a wedge of tough, springy horn in the middle of the underside, with its point toward the toe. It sits between the two bars, with a deep groove on each side, and normally meets the ground first.

Where is the white line on a hoof?

On the underside, just inside the rim of the wall. It is a thin line of softer horn that joins the sole to the wall all the way round.

Where does the hoof wall grow from?

From just below the coronet, the band where the skin of the leg meets the hoof. New horn is made there all the time and the wall grows downward. The wall itself has no blood vessels or nerves.