why applying a horseshoe to the hoof doesn’t seem to cause pain or even discomfort to the horse

Question

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

Answer 1

Of course they have nerves in their feet (it’s hard to walk without feedback about what you’re stepping on) and there are parts of the hoof that will bleed, get infected and cause serious problems when stones or nails get lodged in there, etc. (There are multiple YouTube channels which show medical hoof care, and you can see the animals limp in pain because of hoof damage. Don’t watch if seeing oozing pus turns your stomach.) But they don’t touch any of those when putting shoes on a horse.

The part of the hoof they file/hammer/burn is really thick and able to absorb shock. The hooves have to be tough enough to support half a ton of horse when galloping on uneven ground, so the things done during shoeing are no big deal.

Our nails are not a good comparison, because they’re not made for putting our entire body weight on.

In our case, the heel and bottom of the foot are incredibly tough. In horses, those parts are actually quite delicate. (relatively)

What part of the foot ends up being tough depends on whether the animal walks unguligrade (like horses, cows, pigs, walking effectively on the very tips of their toes), digitigrade (walking on their fingers/toes with the heel not hitting the ground, like dogs and cats) or plantigrade (whole sole contacts the ground, like humans or bears). There are some edge cases, like elephants, which technically are digitigrade but basically have built-in wedge shoes.

(On a related note, the reason some people think certain animals have “backwards” knees is because they think the ankle on the hind legs of unguligrade and digitigrade animals is actually the knee.)