Finding the artery
The digital arteries run down the leg and pass over the back of the fetlock, one on each side, on their way into the foot. To check the pulse, stand your horse square and settled on level ground — a horse that has just been ridden or is stamping at flies will have a raised pulse everywhere, which tells you nothing about the foot. Crouch beside the leg, rest the flats of two fingertips lightly over the artery at the back and side of the fetlock and pastern, and wait. Press too hard and you will occlude the vessel and feel nothing; the touch you want is barely more than contact, letting the pulse come to your fingers. Most people find it easiest on the inside of the fetlock, but check both sides and both front feet.
What normal feels like — and what doesn't
In a healthy resting horse the digital pulse is weak and thready, sometimes genuinely hard to detect, and that faintness is exactly what you want. What you are feeling for is the contrast: a pulse that is strong, full and bounding — pushing up against your fingertips so you cannot miss it — means increased blood flow to that foot, which means inflammation somewhere inside the hoof capsule. Compare the feet against each other, because the pattern is diagnostic gold: a bounding pulse in one front foot points at a local problem in that foot, such as a brewing abscess, while bounding pulses in both front feet raise the spectre of laminitis. Heat in the hoof wall alongside the pulse strengthens the message.
Why this two-minute skill matters
Hoof problems announce themselves in blood flow before they announce themselves in obvious lameness. The horse with an abscess often shows a bounding pulse a day before it goes hopping lame; the laminitis case is most treatable in the earliest hours, when the pulse and heat may be the only signs. Owners who can check a digital pulse confidently give their vet precise, useful information on the phone — which foot, how strong, how much heat — and that shapes whether the vet says 'monitor it' or 'I'm coming now'. It costs nothing, takes two minutes, and is one of the highest-value habits in ordinary horse keeping.
Building the habit and the baseline
Check both front feet whenever you pick them out for a week or two, at rest, at the same time of day, and you will learn your own horse's individual normal — some horses naturally show a slightly easier pulse to find than others. Then fold the check into your routine a few times a week and always when something is vaguely off: a shorter stride, reluctance to turn, a horse quieter at the hay net. If you find a strong bounding pulse, heat in the wall, or any digital pulse change paired with lameness or a rocked-back stance, call your vet that day and describe exactly what you felt; keep the horse stabled on soft bedding while you wait for advice.
Noting your horse's normal pulse character and any changes in KinsLe's Pet Passport gives your vet a dated history to work from, turning 'his pulse seems strong lately' into something far more useful.