Equine anatomy with body painting: a model for the learning of topographic anatomy

Abstract

The teaching of anatomy faces new challenges due to the decrease in the number of hours dedicated to this course in the current curricula worldwide, and because today's students demand new methodologies and strategies that make learning more didactic, effective, and applicable to real professional needs. The body painting technique is a method that has been used for several years in human anatomy teaching, which has recently begun to be used in veterinary anatomy teaching. This article describes the elaboration of a horse’s live anatomical model by students of the veterinary anatomy course using body painting, within the “Exhibition and Contest of Anatomical Models, a six-monthly event held at the Faculty of Agrarian Sciences of the University of Antioquia (Medellín, Colombia). The model was made to show the academic community an alternative way of approaching topographic and surface anatomy with an applied focus through a more didactic and understandable methodology for the student. This article also shows the surface anatomy of various horses’ body systems through the body painting technique. This learning methodology has great acceptance among students and is currently used within the practices of the new curriculum of the Veterinary Anatomy course at the University of Antioquia.