What are they made of? Is there a rough equivalent body part for humans? Are there differences between hooves on different animals such as cows and horses? Why can wild animals get by without hoof maintenance while farm animals do?
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A farrier once told me that horse hooves are just like our fingernails. We need to trim them or they get dirty and uncomfortable. Just like it doesn’t hurt to trim our fingernails it also doesn’t hurt the horses.
They’re analogous to finger or toe nails. They are mostly made of keratin, the same stuff as nails, hair, and claws.
The nails on your hands!
The only difference in hooves on cows and horses are how many “toes” they have to grow from.
Just like how humans have 5 nails per arm
They are all made from keratin, so is your hair.
Wild animals keratin is more robust compared to animals that wear shoes, which allows them to grow softer. The difference is the use of the shoe. If you leave a farm animal long enough without shoes, their hooves will get stronger like a wild animals
Same thing can happen with the nails on humans hands!
Hooves are like fingernails. They’re made of the same stuff. Some animals are split hoofed and others have a single hoof. Single hoofed animals like horses have the large nail around the outside and then the soft frog in the center.
In a natural setting, an animals hoof nails will wear down through use, and the frog area will get cleaned out through washing and walking on grasses. Many animals of course will also suffer from cracked hoofs and frog infections in the wild and die.
Farm animals don’t have a varied enough landscape nor enough exercise to maintain hoof health naturally so the owner or a farrier will assist.
Any horse that is shod also needs extra care, as the nails won’t wear down at all and will need a regular trim and re-shoeing.
Fun fact. Horse’s foot is actually grown in a way that it stands on its middle finger’s nail. So it is always showing you an upside down middle finger when you look at it
>What are they made of? Is there a rough equivalent body part for humans?
Your nails! They’re made of Keratin, exactly the same. The only difference is that hooved animals evolved to walk on their nails, so they thickened to act as feet.
>Why can wild animals get by without hoof maintenance while farm animals do?
It’s generally due to natural wear-n’-tear.
In nature, they’re running on dirt. That causes a very specific amount of damage. In nature, hooves wear away at about the same rate as they grows back
Domestic animals tend to be dealing with different things tho. If they’re not actively running, they need their hooves trimmed because they’re not getting worn down.
If they’re a work animal tho, or they’re walking on harder surfaces, that’s gonna wear down their hooves faster than normal; which is one of the reasons why we give horses horseshoes.
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