It all has to do with the terrain. I don’t
think you’d find the U shaped feet in the Rockies.
My guess, from your description of the hooves, is that the horses are in sand
most of the time. Horses in sandy terrain grow higher heels (from the
observations of Gene Ovnicek and others). The heels sink down into the sand,
so the mean hoof angle is still somewhere around 54 degrees, but on harder
terrain their hoof angles would be higher with those longer heels.
From:
ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Tom Sites Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2005 4:31
PM To: ridecamp Subject: [RC] Hooves
After a trip to the Outer Banks of NC and chasing down the
wild horses there (and very embaressedly getting stuck in a sand dune, cause
nobody told me before to take the air out of the tires and i didn't know)
, a unique question came to mind? The hooves were of a U shape, like a
mule, or horseshoes you throw at the pole and all the old shoes i've found from
antiquity.
My buckets of old shoes kept for a future project are more
like a C.
Where did the heels go to change a U into a C in the
evolution to a riding horse?
This is probably all very simple, and there has to be an
answer, and yet i fail to recognize it. ts
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