It seems like their legs are too thin for the amount of weight that they need to support to stand, let alone run or even jump. How are broken legs not a much more common issue for animals that size when humans that are too tall have to use canes in their 30s?
In: Biology
Their bones are *very* strong. You rarely see beef leg bones in the meat section because there’s not much meat there (relatively), but take a look at “soup bones” if you can find them…the bones are easily 5-10cm across with walls well over a cm thick. Compared to even the strongest human bone, they’re *massive*.
Bone damage due to aging isn’t usually an issue for cows…they don’t die of old age much.
Horses, especially race horses, can and do break their legs and it’s a very bad thing when they do. But they, just like cows, have extremely strong bones (and tendons and ligaments) relative to ours.
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