Horse Trivia

It is believed that the ancestor of horse family was already existed 50 million years ago in the North America.

Originally, it has four-fingered toes on each forelimb and three-fingered toes on each hind limb.

This creature is called Hyracotherium, also known as Eohippus, which is considered as the ancestor of Equidae and believed that it looked like a fox.

Then over 48 million years, it has been developed its limb and finally stood on a single digit.

Equus, the ancestor of the modern horse, begun running with its hoof.

In order to escape from the carnivore animals, the herbivorous animals such as the horse had to run as faster than its predator. It is crucial for horses to increase the number of steps (pitch) per unit of time and have stretched its stride.

The horse gradually evolved its body shape in order to survive within the given environment and the shape of its hoof also changed accordingly.

Over the time, the skin of its bottom of the toes could not resist of the pressure from the ground and hold its heavy weight. This triggered the evolution of the hoof.

Anyways, the horse hoof was originally a part of their skin and keratinised through the time.

Horse hoof is made of a protein called keratin.

Horse hoof can be separated into three sections. From the front side; Toe, Quarter and Heel.

The toe and the quarter are covered with a thick hoof wall, the inside of the hoof becomes the firm structure as a pedal bone is strongly combined with a hoof wall by the lobation layer.

The heel, on the other hand, has a thin hoof wall and it inside has soft structures such as the hoof cartilage and the plantar cushion.

When the horse places its weight on a leg whilst it is walking or running, the pressure resulted from the weight will be passed on to the bones, such as the first phalange, the second phalange and the third phalange, then to the hoof wall via periople.

Third phalange is in the circular shape in order to maintain balance when the load weight is applied.

There is an extensor tendon in front of the third phalange, this is to stretch the hooves forward and a flexor tendon on the back to bend the hooves backwards.

Deep flexor tendon, which is positioned behind the sesamoid, has become particularly susceptible to excessive burden.

The horses will not feel any pain on the hoof wall as there is no sensory nerves on its surface, however, there are nerves inside of the white line. Therefore the horses will feel the pain if you damage the periople and the other deeper structures of the hoof.

In addition, the inner fleshy part will feed the wall of the hoof, it also produces the keratin of the hoof wall.

When the horse places weight on a leg, the ground pushes the frog, the digital cushion of the heel side of the hoof, upward and the frog will be expanded.

It will go back to the original shape when the leg was lifted up from the ground.

This is called the blood pumping mechanism of the hoof.

Although there are veins running inside of the hoof, needs fresh blood and also must send the blood back to the heart, however, it is not easy to constantly circulate the blood all across its large body, particularly to the edges of their body like the hooves.

Therefore the blood pumping mechanism of the hoof helps to pump it back up the leg, helping the heart to work against gravity.

Thanks to this mechanism, the fresh blood will be circulated from the top to toe and it will be activated by exercising. (by pressing their hooves to the ground to pump the blood up.)

When a limb was swelled slightly, light exercise will be recommended to dissolve the swelling.

This is because the exercise will help pumping up more blood and the blood circulation will be improved as a result.

When the horse cannot walk it is life-threatening because the blood would not be circulated properly and the cells in the hooves will undergo necrosis.

Also each time this flexible frog comes into contact with the ground it acts as a shock absorber for a horse's leg.

This is why the hoof is also called 'the second heart' for the horses.

There are some common horse hoof diseases, it is important to pick the early signs and treat it as soon as you found it.

Daily cleaning of the hoof contributes to the prevention of any disease.

We are going to show you some typical example of hoof diseases.

It is a vertical split that occurs in the side (quarter) of the hoof.

The hooves become fragile and easily get cracked particularly with the dry air in winter.

These cracks usually occur between the widest part of the hoof and the heel. If the crack reached to the sensitive, internal structures in the foot, blood may be seen and the horse may lame with the pain.

To prevent the cracks, ensure to keep the hooves moisturised by applying the hoof oil regularly, especially in the winter.

Exercising on the hard ground may also cause the cracks.

As previously explained, the horse's blood pumping mechanism of the hoof helps circulating the blood smoothly across its body.

Therefore when the horse became unable to walk due to the injury, the blood cannot be circulated as it should be and this leads to the painful infection inside of is hooves.

This is called Laminitis.

The progression of the disease may lead to the bad joint of the hoof and the third phalange, the shape of the hoof changed and the third phalange will penetrate through the sole of the hoof.

Once it happens, it is difficult to stop as the horse has a heavy body. In the worst case, this disease can kill the horse.

This disease is known as Gidoh in Japan, however the term Hoof wall separation, Seedy toe,

Hollow wall may used commonly in English speaking countries to describe similar symptoms. The definition seems vary depending on the country therefore the symptoms may explained slightly differently. Here, we are going to use the example of Gidoh, commonly known in Japan.

This disease makes a hole inside of the hoof wall, normally starts at the toe and gradually progresses up the hoof wall.

The name means the 'ant's hole' in Japanese, as the infected area looks like ant's nest.

It is caused by corruption of the white line by fungi (molds) and bacteria result from the bad conditions of the stall and the lack of care on its hooves.

The fungus will be in tatters to eat inside and the hoof wall, similar to athlete's foo for human, the bacteria creates a cavity by dissolving horny from the surface of the hoof.

This is also caused by the injury which applies an extra pressure on the hoof apex and laminitis factors.

This is treated by apply appropriate medicines, cutting off the infected area and exposing the area to the air to kill fungi and bacteria.

Some of the tissue may need to be cut away then the hole will then grow out. However, it will take quite a while to grew it back again, so be careful how much you are cutting off. Also ensure to keep the stall clean not to get the bacteria back into it.

Thrush is a bacterial infection, often occur in the frog. The injected area will smell badly. It is caused as a result of unsanitary conditions and lack of care on its hoof.

The infected areas of the frog will be easily crumbled and very smelly discharge will come oozing. The horse may also lame and blood may be seen.

Horses with thrush are best kept in a dry and clean environment. Daily cleaning of the hoof also contributes to the prevention of thrush.

Bruised soles is inflammation and internal bleeding often result from the perception section of the sole of the horse's foot be pressed by standing on a hard object or the tip of hindlimb hoof hit the sole of the forelimb.

Horses with the shallow hoof sole, with bad limb posture and with the good depression of the hind limb would have a higher risk of getting this problem.

It is often occur in the forelimb. When it gets severe, symptoms are temperature, pus has formed in the hoof and acute lameness.

In order to prevent this, remove the pebbles and any other potential hazards from the pathway.

Daily cleaning of the hoof also contributes to the prevention of any disease.

You will get a chance to pick early signs of many common hoof problems if you observe and look after the hooves carefully.

◆　Keep horse's hooves clean

If you leave the horse's hooves unclean, small objects such as dirt, excreta (includes acid, alkali and ammonia) or any stones may have gotten stuck in the crevice of the central groove of frog and the collateral groove.

This may help the infected liquid penetrate into the inside of the hooves and contribute to the development of hoof disease.

Therefore it is crucial to always keep the hooves clean.

◆　Cleaning horse's hooves

If you notice higher temperature than usual while handling your horse's feet, it could be a sign for hoof problems.

It may not easy to know if its normal or not if you are not so familiar with the horse hooves yet, so it is important to establish what's normal by checking them regularly.

You need to clean the hooves regularly but they are particularly dirty after the excise or the horse was just let out from its stable.

Each time you clean your horse's hooves, make sure that you've cleaned the back side of the hooves as wells the hoof walls and check if you've removed any packed debris to gently clear the central groove of frog and collateral groove.

◆　Protect hoof from the dryness and wetness

We have dry cracking or rusting skin in the winter, and this is the same for the horse hoof and it gets cracked easily when it is dry - this leads to the Quarter Crack.

The hoof oil is used to prevent the dry skin; the equivalent as the moisturiser for us.

In summer, on the other hand, humidity made the hoof too soft and the risk of Thrush and hoof-wall defects will increase.

Ensure to apply the hoof oil on the hoof wall as well as its sole.