To make the horse's armatures, I have to scale the anatomy of a horse drawing I've scanned into my computer from a book to the size of the horses I'm going to create. Now I could plot and draw out the layout of the horses anatomy. I would do that if I had an extra day to do that. I figure the books on anatomy are a tool, just like the wire tools I sculpt with. So why not use it to your advantage. So I do.
You'll notice in the drawing of the horse, just behind his rib cage there is a section of white. This is where I cut the drawing to adjust for the length of the horse. The artist who drew this skeletal drawing made the horses anatomy a bit short. The distance from the top of the horses head (between the ears)to the point of his shoulders, is equal to the distance between the point of the shoulders and the highest point of his hips. In the drawing he was shorter and therefore not equal in this measurement.
I start bending the copper tubing to the length of the horses head. Once again the head was shorter in the drawing compared to what it should have been, so I adjusted the length of the armature of the head.
There are formulas for the anatomy of every living creature. A horse is equal in height, from the bottom of it's hooves, to the top of it's shoulders, to the length, from the front of it's chest to the end of his body. Or in a human, the Greeks came up with a formula, thousands of years ago, that we still follow today. A man, for example, is 7 and a 1/2 heads to 8 heads tall. Ideally I make my figures 7 1/2 heads tall. This works for me.
I bend the tubing to follow the neck bones then the main part of the backbone. I bend it back onto itself where the point of the hips are. This gives me the ability to attach the rear legs properly.
I then follow the shape or outline of the thorax, or ribcage.
I don't use anatomical terms, because, quit honestly, I'm not educated in those. I'm self taught. I just know what is where. I ain't a doctor.. so to speak.