Hooves in The Natural State
Both wild and feral equid hooves have enormous strength and resilience, allowing any gait on any ground. A common example of the feral horse type is the Mustang. The Mustang is, in part, descended from the Iberian horses brought to the Americas by the Spanish, but most herds also have ancestry from other breeds. Therefore, the famous Mustang hoof strength is in part a result of natural selection and environment. Thus, it is proposed that other domestic breeds could develop similar hooves if raised under similar conditions.
The recent barefoot movement claims that such a strength can be almost completely restored to domesticated horses, when appropriate trimming and living conditions are applied, to such an extent that horseshoes are no longer necessary in almost any horse. If true, it would undermine the belief that "the horseshoe is a necessary evil."
The barefoot management system has not, however, gained a foothold among serious equine professionals, due to three factors: 1) increased strain placed on the hoof in sports, such as eventing and endurance riding, 2) the added weight of the rider and saddle, and 3) man-made surfaces, such as concrete, asphalt, and gravel, which can wear the walls down to the sensitive tissue over time.
Read more about this topic: Quarter Crack
Famous quotes containing the words hooves, natural and/or state:
“Peering, I heard the hooves come down the hill.
The posse passed, twelve horse; the leader’s face
Was worn as limestone on an ancient sill.”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“the San Marco Library,
Whence turbulent Italy should draw
Delight in Art whose end is peace,
In logic and in natural law
By sucking at the dugs of Greece.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“Some are petitioning the State to dissolve the Union, to disregard the requisitions of the President. Why do they not dissolve it themselves,—the union between themselves and the State,—and refuse to pay their quota into its treasury? Do not they stand in the same relation to the State that the State does to the Union? And have not the same reasons prevented the State from resisting the Union which have prevented them from resisting the State?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)