As someone who has their nails done a lot, I can definitely feel at least minor discomfort with the filing and when I’ve had a hole drilled in the nail for dangly nail art. I find it incredible how the horses don’t seem to feel a thing when they’re having straight up iron nails hammered into their feet/toenail. And the scraping away of the fleshier part of the foot has got to be at the least uncomfortable. And when they are practically searing the hoof with the hot horseshoe. Do horses just have no nerves in their feet?
In: Biology
You can cut or bite your nails down quite far before you feel pain.
Horse hooves are basically giant toenails covering the whole foot. You can trim or hammer nails quite far in to them without causing pain.
The horse will feel it, the same way you can feel your fingers when you cut your nails, but it’s not pain – it’s just pressure and movement.
Go too far though, and it will hurt. Same goes for horses. People that put shoes on horses and do those hoof-trimming videos know how far they can safely cut or hammer nails in to the hoof without hitting sensitive flesh.
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