The withers are the ridge between a horse's shoulder blades. Measure to the withers, high withers, pat the withers.
A horse's height is measured to that point rather than to the head, because it does not move when the animal raises or lowers its neck. A badly fitted saddle presses there and causes real pain. The word is always plural.
1nounwithersThe ridge between a horse's shoulder blades.
“She brushed the horse's mane and patted it gently on the withers.”
withers is a body part.
From an old sense of wither meaning against, because it is the part that pushes against a load.
Built from
From dialectal English wither (“against”) (compare wither-) s; see with. So-named because it is the part of the horse that pushes against a load. Compare German Widerrist (“withers”), from wider (“against”) + Rist (“wrist”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA