WEBVTT - From the Vault: Hooves, Part 1 0:00:06.200 --> 0:00:08.840 Hey, welcome back to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. This 0:00:08.920 --> 0:00:11.480 is a Vaald episode. It is Saturday, after all. This 0:00:11.640 --> 0:00:13.960 is going to be the first of our two parter 0:00:14.240 --> 0:00:17.720 on hooves. Yes, this is going to be Hoo's Part one, 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:20.560 which originally published six ' eight twenty twenty three. 0:00:21.040 --> 0:00:27.000 Enjoy Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:28.640 of iHeartRadio. 0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:37.040 Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My name 0:00:37.080 --> 0:00:38.160 is Robert Lamb. 0:00:37.960 --> 0:00:40.280 And I'm Joe McCormick, and today we are going to 0:00:40.320 --> 0:00:45.280 begin a look at the hoof, the animal hoof, specifically 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:48.720 the horse hoof. Rob how did you get interested in this? 0:00:49.240 --> 0:00:52.200 Well, I was in New York last week with my family, 0:00:52.360 --> 0:00:56.040 went to the American Natural History Museum, and I was 0:00:56.120 --> 0:01:00.560 looking at fossils and bones, and I was captain by 0:01:00.640 --> 0:01:04.000 some of the some of the bones of the horse 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:07.559 and started thinking about the hoof and just how strange 0:01:07.680 --> 0:01:11.720 the hoof is. Yet yet at the same time, we 0:01:12.120 --> 0:01:14.440 kind of take it for granted, because even if you 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:17.559 are not a person who lives among horses and cares 0:01:17.560 --> 0:01:21.840 for horses, horses are everywhere in our imagery and our 0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:26.000 iconography and our entertainment. You can scarcely be a video 0:01:26.040 --> 0:01:29.399 game player at all without having mounted a horse or 0:01:29.480 --> 0:01:31.679 lost a horse, or accidentally driven a horse off a 0:01:31.680 --> 0:01:34.720 cliff or up a wall at some point. So I 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:37.479 was really taken by this, Like I had not really 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:41.000 in my life set aside any time to just consider 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:43.200 the utter weirdness of the horse hoof. 0:01:43.680 --> 0:01:45.960 I almost feel like the weirdness of the horse hoof 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:49.880 is embodied in the sound of the horse galloping and 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:52.720 how different that is from the sound of the movement 0:01:52.720 --> 0:01:54.520 and most other animals you'd think about. 0:01:55.440 --> 0:01:58.040 Yeah, I mean, it's like the drumming of fingers on 0:01:58.880 --> 0:02:03.360 a table, right, Like that's that's that's an attempting direction 0:02:03.520 --> 0:02:06.520 to go in anyway. Yeah, I feel like it's it's 0:02:06.920 --> 0:02:08.920 all too easy to take the hoof for granted, even 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:11.000 in literature. You know, I was thinking, well, we can, 0:02:11.400 --> 0:02:13.560 we can kick off this episode with a nice little 0:02:13.680 --> 0:02:17.800 quote or a little reading from something that kind of captures, 0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:21.239 you know, our current level of fascination with the hoof, 0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:24.960 But I really wasn't able to find much. Now again, 0:02:25.639 --> 0:02:30.480 horses and hoofs are just throughout human literature. They're everywhere, 0:02:31.480 --> 0:02:35.079 and there are you know a lot of literary references 0:02:34.680 --> 0:02:38.840 to the to hooves and the sound of hooves. One 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:42.760 poem in particular, in particular that I found that I 0:02:42.840 --> 0:02:45.440 ultimately didn't like well enough to feature in the Cold Open, 0:02:45.639 --> 0:02:48.799 but it's still notable, is The Hoofs of the Horses 0:02:49.080 --> 0:02:52.240 by William Henry Ogilvy, who lived eighteen sixty nine through 0:02:52.320 --> 0:02:56.040 nineteen sixty three. I don't know if you're familiar with 0:02:56.080 --> 0:02:58.959 this poem, Joe, but it's just all about how much 0:02:59.000 --> 0:03:01.880 you just absolutely love the cadence of horse hooves. 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:04.440 No, I was not familiar with this poem before you 0:03:04.480 --> 0:03:07.040 did share it with me. It is it's an almost 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:12.080 comical level of appreciation for horse hooves, an attitude very 0:03:12.160 --> 0:03:14.560 much of I'll stop thinking about the sound of horse 0:03:14.560 --> 0:03:17.200 hooves when I'm dead, or maybe I won't when I'm dead. 0:03:17.240 --> 0:03:19.880 I'll still dream of them even in the grave. It's 0:03:19.919 --> 0:03:23.480 also it goes with the F plural. I looked it 0:03:23.560 --> 0:03:26.560 up to see is there any difference hooves versus hoofs, 0:03:27.080 --> 0:03:29.519 and it seems like no, I both have been used 0:03:29.560 --> 0:03:32.639 in English. I think hoofs with the F plural is 0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:34.040 more archaic. 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:36.320 Usually this is one of those poems that you know, 0:03:36.360 --> 0:03:39.040 sometimes I read a really good rhyming poem with great cadence. 0:03:39.080 --> 0:03:40.680 And you know, I'm like, why don't we rhyme our 0:03:40.720 --> 0:03:44.040 poems anymore? You know, all poems should rhyme. This is great. 0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:46.680 This is the opposite end of the spectrum for me. 0:03:46.800 --> 0:03:49.640 Like this one's just kind of goofy, Like it starts 0:03:49.640 --> 0:03:52.360 off the hoofs of the horses. Oh, witching and sweet 0:03:52.720 --> 0:03:56.160 is the music Earth steals from the ironshod feet, Yeah, 0:03:56.240 --> 0:04:00.360 et cetera. So it's not to my liking, but I 0:04:00.400 --> 0:04:03.040 can understand where someone else might love it as much 0:04:03.040 --> 0:04:04.720 as this man loved horse hoofs. 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:08.760 Well, it also commits the ultimate sin of rhyming above 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:12.480 with love. That's you can't you can't come back from that. 0:04:13.800 --> 0:04:16.600 But again, this is not the only account of hoofs 0:04:16.720 --> 0:04:20.120 or mention of hoofs in literature. Shakespeare writes of horses 0:04:20.240 --> 0:04:24.120 quote printing their proud hoofs in the Receiving Earth. Other 0:04:24.200 --> 0:04:27.920 quotes speak of the violence of the hoof, a thing 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:31.000 that imprints the soil or even the flesh of those 0:04:31.120 --> 0:04:34.479 fallen in war. Here's a bit from the Jackery, a 0:04:34.560 --> 0:04:38.080 fragment by Sidney Lanier who lived eighteen forty two through 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:43.520 eighteen eighty one, midst of the crowd, Old Grisgrion, the maimed, 0:04:43.920 --> 0:04:47.240 a wretched wreck that fate had floated out from the 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:51.360 deer storm of battle at Potchi. A living man whose 0:04:51.480 --> 0:04:55.520 larger moiety was dead and buried on the battlefield, A 0:04:55.560 --> 0:04:59.400 grizzly trunk, without arms or legs and scarred with hoof 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:03.839 cuts of or cheek and brow lay in his wicker cradle, smiling. 0:05:04.400 --> 0:05:06.760 And then later on in the same scene, the protagonist 0:05:06.880 --> 0:05:10.680 comments that quote, there is no face of man or 0:05:10.800 --> 0:05:15.320 woman here, but showeth print of the hard hoof of war. 0:05:16.080 --> 0:05:18.000 Well, I think that's fair. As much as we can 0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:20.520 admire hoofs from afar, I don't think you want to 0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:22.920 come into contact with one by way of force. 0:05:23.560 --> 0:05:26.000 No, no, absolutely you didn't absolutely do not want to 0:05:26.040 --> 0:05:28.800 be kicked by a horse on one level, just for 0:05:28.880 --> 0:05:33.560 sheer strength and power of said kick or or the 0:05:34.000 --> 0:05:37.800 weight of said step. But also yeah, the hoof as well, 0:05:37.839 --> 0:05:40.279 explain is it's not an instrument you want make in 0:05:40.320 --> 0:05:44.280 contact with your body with force or speed. Now, there, 0:05:44.320 --> 0:05:46.360 of course many references to the hoof and the works 0:05:46.360 --> 0:05:50.480 of Cormick McCarthy, The none that I could remember or 0:05:50.600 --> 0:05:53.120 search up that really goes in deep on the weirdness 0:05:53.120 --> 0:05:56.800 and wonder of the horse hoof. Still, here's a favorite 0:05:56.839 --> 0:06:00.840 from Blood Meridian quote under the hoof of the horses, 0:06:00.920 --> 0:06:06.120 the alabaster sand shaped itself in whorls, strangely symmetric, like 0:06:06.240 --> 0:06:09.960 iron filings in a field. And these shapes flared and 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:14.320 drew back again, resonating upon that harmonic ground, and then 0:06:14.400 --> 0:06:18.000 turning to swirl away over the plaia, as if the 0:06:18.160 --> 0:06:21.359 very sediment of things contained yet some residue of scentience, 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:24.240 as if in the transit of those riders were a 0:06:24.320 --> 0:06:27.839 thing so profoundly terrible as to register even to the 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:32.839 uttermost granulation of reality. Wow. Yeah, so great line. But also, 0:06:33.000 --> 0:06:35.359 you know, Cormack doesn't result doesn't really go in hard 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:38.480 on just how weird it is that horses are strange 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:43.760 mammals running around on highly evolved like finger bones, Like 0:06:44.279 --> 0:06:48.080 there's a there's a weirdness to the hoof that you 0:06:48.120 --> 0:06:50.360 know that he doesn't he even doesn't get into because 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:52.480 it's just such a part of, say, the tapestry of 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:56.599 the American West. You know, in the case of his Westerns, 0:06:57.080 --> 0:07:00.640 it's also possible that I'm forgetting some some key line 0:07:00.680 --> 0:07:03.359 and another of his book, maybe the you know, the 0:07:03.680 --> 0:07:07.400 All the Pretty Horses or one of its sequels. But nothing, 0:07:07.560 --> 0:07:10.560 nothing came to mind or in search when I was 0:07:10.640 --> 0:07:12.240 thinking about it just the other day. 0:07:13.040 --> 0:07:15.880 Well, maybe here is an amazing place to start if 0:07:15.880 --> 0:07:20.040 you want to consider the more granular anatomy of the 0:07:20.080 --> 0:07:23.280 horse's foot and the hoof. So look look at your 0:07:23.320 --> 0:07:26.760 hands there, you know, you get human hands and extend 0:07:26.880 --> 0:07:29.720 the middle fingers on both of your hands. Obviously not 0:07:29.800 --> 0:07:30.280 if you're. 0:07:30.360 --> 0:07:31.440 In prospectible thing. 0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:37.080 Yeah, yeah, in you know, discreetly extend those two middle fingers. 0:07:37.200 --> 0:07:42.640 These are the analogous bone structures that evolved in the 0:07:42.680 --> 0:07:46.040 horse to become the part of the horse's body that 0:07:46.240 --> 0:07:50.760 makes contact with the ground. So when horses gallop, they 0:07:50.800 --> 0:07:56.640 are galloping on adapted versions of your middle fingers. So 0:07:56.720 --> 0:07:59.040 you just imagine run out that middle, your two middle 0:07:59.080 --> 0:08:01.360 fingers in front, your two middle toes in the back. 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:05.560 Those got really thick, really strong. Everything else kind of 0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:08.520 shrank back and receded in a way. We can talk 0:08:08.600 --> 0:08:11.040 later on about whether it makes sense to say that 0:08:11.080 --> 0:08:13.880 the horse still has those other fingers in some way 0:08:13.960 --> 0:08:17.640 or not. But basically that the part of the leg 0:08:17.720 --> 0:08:20.520 that is making contact with the ground and supporting the 0:08:20.520 --> 0:08:23.040 weight of the horse is the middle finger. 0:08:23.680 --> 0:08:26.680 Yeah, which is just absolutely bonkers when you stop and 0:08:26.760 --> 0:08:27.440 think about. 0:08:27.200 --> 0:08:30.360 It, it is. And the genus to which horses belong 0:08:30.880 --> 0:08:35.800 is unique in this regard among the ungulates. So all 0:08:35.920 --> 0:08:38.920 of the four legged vertebrates on earth that live on 0:08:39.040 --> 0:08:43.120 land share a common ancestor that had five toes on 0:08:43.280 --> 0:08:46.760 each foot had four legs and five toes on each foot. 0:08:47.080 --> 0:08:50.200 That's our heritage, and we walk around on two legs now. 0:08:50.240 --> 0:08:53.200 But we are still we're still part of that evolutionary lineage. 0:08:53.720 --> 0:08:56.040 We still have five fingers on our hands and five 0:08:56.120 --> 0:08:58.839 toes on our feet to show for it. But some 0:08:58.920 --> 0:09:02.560 of our cousins in this lige have undergone more radical 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:07.480 transformations in the bone structure of these distal regions of 0:09:07.520 --> 0:09:12.040 the limbs, the ends of each limb. Hippopotamuses, for example, 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:19.600 have four toes. Rhinoceroses and tapers have three toes. Camels, deer, sheep, goats, 0:09:19.600 --> 0:09:23.120 and cattle have two toes. But there is only one 0:09:23.240 --> 0:09:26.440 group of animals existing today that has evolved to have 0:09:26.559 --> 0:09:30.640 a single toe that contacts the ground on each foot. 0:09:31.080 --> 0:09:34.360 And that is horses, or more precisely, the evolutionary group 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:37.920 to which modern horses belong, which is the genus equus, 0:09:38.000 --> 0:09:43.000 which includes horses, zebras, and donkeys. And the scientific term 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:48.959 for having only one toe is monodactyly. So these monodactyls 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:52.000 are out there running around on their middle fingers. That 0:09:52.320 --> 0:09:55.120 when you hear hoof beats, that's what you're hearing, the 0:09:55.160 --> 0:09:55.960 middle fingers. 0:09:56.559 --> 0:09:59.800 And you know, again, this is super weird and glorious, 0:10:00.360 --> 0:10:02.280 But at the same time, it would be a mistake 0:10:02.400 --> 0:10:05.320 to think of this as a kind of simplification, you know, 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:09.120 because the horse hoof we'll be discussing here is anything, 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:13.880 but it's a complex structure composed of hard cornified structures, 0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:18.400 living tissues, tendons, ligaments, and more. You know, they are 0:10:18.800 --> 0:10:22.160 the various bones we're going to be discussing. We should, 0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:24.960 you know, also not make the mistake of overestimating the 0:10:25.000 --> 0:10:27.480 strength of the hoof, because yes, it's a highly evolved 0:10:27.480 --> 0:10:30.480 anatomical feature that serves a horse very well in its 0:10:30.559 --> 0:10:34.280 natural environment, but they are still susceptible to injury and illness, 0:10:34.440 --> 0:10:38.839 and you know, the ravages of aging plus domestication by 0:10:38.920 --> 0:10:43.400 humans has of course augmented the horse's natural environment and 0:10:43.480 --> 0:10:46.280 also changed the sort of regular wear and tear that 0:10:46.320 --> 0:10:50.360 they might endure on set hoofs. So to just doing 0:10:50.400 --> 0:10:52.160 what I'm gonna do is going to provide kind of 0:10:52.200 --> 0:10:56.080 an overview of the different parts of the main outer 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:58.480 and inner parts of the horse hoof of the foot 0:10:58.520 --> 0:11:01.240 of the horse. Not in a way that will just 0:11:01.280 --> 0:11:05.920 completely bombard the listener with horse terminology, but hopefully get 0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:09.080 across some of the complexity here. And if you are 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:11.520 a horse person, and I don't know, maybe you're listening 0:11:11.559 --> 0:11:15.280 to this podcast whilst you attend to the hoofs of 0:11:15.320 --> 0:11:19.680 a horse, well you might have some added information to 0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:22.360 write into us about. If you're not a horse person, 0:11:22.679 --> 0:11:24.959 then I think you might find some of the terminology 0:11:25.040 --> 0:11:29.120 kind of surprising, I know, not being a horse person myself. There. 0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:32.360 I remember the first time I read Cornick McCarthy's Blood Meridian, 0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:34.920 there was there was a bit that really threw me 0:11:35.000 --> 0:11:39.040 for a curve. It goes as follows. Quote he got 0:11:39.080 --> 0:11:41.880 down and drew up the horse's leg. The frog of 0:11:41.880 --> 0:11:44.880 the hoof was split and bloody, and the animal's shoulder quivered. 0:11:45.040 --> 0:11:47.440 He let the hoof down the sun was about two 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:50.280 hours high, and now there was dust on the horizon. 0:11:50.760 --> 0:11:52.679 I don't know what that means, but it doesn't sound good. 0:11:52.760 --> 0:11:54.600 The frog of the hoof. 0:11:54.920 --> 0:11:59.800 Yep, the frog of the hoof. So the frog is 0:11:59.840 --> 0:12:04.440 a is a key part of the outer anatomy of 0:12:04.520 --> 0:12:08.480 the horse's foot. This is a wedge shaped mass on 0:12:08.600 --> 0:12:11.600 the bottom of the horse's foot that you know, I 0:12:11.640 --> 0:12:14.880 suppose kind of looks like a dark frog. According to 0:12:15.080 --> 0:12:18.080 Robert C. McClure at all in a paper titled Functional 0:12:18.120 --> 0:12:21.320 Anatomy of the horse Foot. This was for the University 0:12:21.360 --> 0:12:25.280 of Missouri, the frog is one of the flexible parts 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:29.199 of the hoof's external structures. It normally makes contact with 0:12:29.240 --> 0:12:32.400 the ground first and then it kind of like pushes 0:12:32.440 --> 0:12:35.960 into the digital cushion, an internal mass of flexible material 0:12:36.040 --> 0:12:39.520 above the frog that contributes to the formation of the 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:43.479 heels and serves as one of the primary shock absorbers 0:12:43.520 --> 0:12:44.600 in the horse's foot. 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:48.480 This is an interesting balance to observe with the hoof 0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:52.319 here in that it has a so the outer mass 0:12:52.320 --> 0:12:54.880 of the hoof that you will have observed before, you know, 0:12:54.920 --> 0:12:58.200 the hard part is a hard carat in structure, and 0:12:58.280 --> 0:13:02.319 yet the hoof also has to remain somewhat springy and flexible. 0:13:02.480 --> 0:13:03.760 You don't want it to be like a piece of 0:13:03.800 --> 0:13:07.720 concrete that might be really hard but insufficient impact, is 0:13:07.840 --> 0:13:08.840 rigid and cracks. 0:13:09.520 --> 0:13:12.360 Yeah. Yeah, again, it would be a gross simplification to 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:14.320 think of a horse as just running around on like 0:13:14.440 --> 0:13:17.480 wooden stilt legs, you know, like that. Its hooves are 0:13:17.559 --> 0:13:21.200 just like solid things. It's a lot more complicated than that. 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:23.880 Now you might be wondering, well, why do they call 0:13:23.920 --> 0:13:25.360 it a frog? You may be looking it up to 0:13:25.400 --> 0:13:28.240 see just how much like a frog it, you know, 0:13:29.120 --> 0:13:31.920 to what degree it resembles a frog. I've seen it 0:13:32.559 --> 0:13:35.800 sort of described a couple of different ways that either 0:13:35.920 --> 0:13:39.160 it does roughly look like a frog, and that perhaps 0:13:39.160 --> 0:13:41.960 there's this added level of well, you find it under 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:44.560 the hoof in the same way a frog might be 0:13:44.640 --> 0:13:48.200 found under a rock or leaf. I don't know. Maybe 0:13:48.679 --> 0:13:52.000 I've also heard that it really more accurately resembles the 0:13:52.040 --> 0:13:56.200 pelvic bone of a frog, which apparently was carried for 0:13:56.280 --> 0:13:59.680 good luck by horsemen. And this also might be tied 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:03.000 to traditions of the horseshoe, which we're not going to 0:14:03.040 --> 0:14:05.080 really discuss in this episode, but we may get to 0:14:05.400 --> 0:14:08.800 in a subsequent episode these of horseshoes as lucky charms 0:14:08.840 --> 0:14:09.280 as well. 0:14:09.800 --> 0:14:12.480 Interesting. Okay, I just looked up the pelvic bone of 0:14:12.520 --> 0:14:15.480 a frog. It kind of looks like the wishbone on 0:14:15.520 --> 0:14:16.040 a chicken. 0:14:17.320 --> 0:14:18.520 So yeah, I don't know. 0:14:18.559 --> 0:14:20.280 And I'm looking at the frog of a hoof Now 0:14:20.360 --> 0:14:24.240 it's sort of V shaped. I mean, you have to 0:14:24.280 --> 0:14:26.280 stretch your mind a little bit, but I could see that. 0:14:26.840 --> 0:14:29.320 Now the frog is apparently made up of the same 0:14:29.360 --> 0:14:31.720 material as the hoof wall. More on what do we 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:33.400 mean by hoofwall in the second, But you can think 0:14:33.400 --> 0:14:35.520 of like the outer hoof as you see it, but 0:14:35.680 --> 0:14:39.120 it's more moist a certainly if it's healthy, apparently something 0:14:39.160 --> 0:14:42.800 like fifty percent moisture or thereabouts. Now, And that's not 0:14:42.800 --> 0:14:46.040 to say that the hoof wall itself is dry. In fact, 0:14:46.160 --> 0:14:49.480 the hoof wall or the proper hoof that you see 0:14:49.520 --> 0:14:51.080 if you're just looking at a picture of a horse, 0:14:51.880 --> 0:14:55.000 it's in fact covered with material that prevents moisture loss. 0:14:55.320 --> 0:14:59.320 And with domestic horses, hoof paint is sometimes added as 0:14:59.360 --> 0:15:02.920 well to help contain moisture. So again, even the hardest 0:15:02.920 --> 0:15:06.000 part of the of the horses hoof cannot be really 0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:09.000 thought of as just this you know, like you rock, 0:15:09.600 --> 0:15:13.400 you know, hard substance like it's in these These are 0:15:14.000 --> 0:15:17.160 you know, organic structures, and there is moisture to. 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:19.240 Them, and with the keratin basis, I think you could 0:15:19.240 --> 0:15:21.320 probably think about it more akin to like a like 0:15:21.360 --> 0:15:24.200 a horn or like a thick fingernail exactly. 0:15:24.360 --> 0:15:28.200 Yeah. Now, the frog, interestingly enough, is also a scent gland, 0:15:28.640 --> 0:15:31.200 along with the chestnut of the leg and the airgut 0:15:31.240 --> 0:15:33.840 of the fetlock. This is one of the reasons that 0:15:33.920 --> 0:15:36.880 dogs can tract horses as well as they can. Plus 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:38.880 is apparently one of the ways that horses sniff out 0:15:38.880 --> 0:15:42.040 each other in the field. I had no idea, Yeah, 0:15:42.080 --> 0:15:44.200 there's a hole, there's a whole just un right underneath 0:15:44.200 --> 0:15:47.320 the horse's hoof. There's a whole wonderland of weirdness. Well, 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:49.520 this is funny because we were just talking about beavers, 0:15:49.560 --> 0:15:53.000 which apparently, you know, their scent glands and scent markings 0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:55.280 play a big role in their their behavior and how 0:15:55.280 --> 0:15:58.400 they interact with the environment. So, but I had no 0:15:58.480 --> 0:16:01.720 idea that was true of horses. Yeah. Now, as we'll 0:16:01.720 --> 0:16:05.160 discuss in a bit, horse hoofs, the hard part of 0:16:05.200 --> 0:16:08.160 the hoof grows throughout their life and has to either 0:16:08.200 --> 0:16:11.400 be worn down or trim down. This is where professional 0:16:11.440 --> 0:16:16.640 farriers come into play with domestic horses, and not only 0:16:16.640 --> 0:16:19.400 do they have to trim the hoof proper, but they 0:16:19.400 --> 0:16:21.920 also have to trim the frog as it keeps growing 0:16:21.960 --> 0:16:24.520 as well, and if not maintained, you can lead to 0:16:24.560 --> 0:16:28.760 some infections conditions like thrush and so forth. I'm also 0:16:28.840 --> 0:16:30.880 told by horse and dog people in my family that 0:16:31.000 --> 0:16:34.920 dogs absolutely love it when their friendly neighborhood ferrier gives 0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:39.600 them some hoof or some frog shavings to eat. Joe, 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:41.080 has this ever been your experience? 0:16:41.800 --> 0:16:45.160 No, I never had a dog get this particular treat, 0:16:45.160 --> 0:17:00.760 but I can imagine it's in the ballpark. 0:16:56.400 --> 0:16:58.640 All right. So moving outward from the frog, it pushes 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:01.080 against the digital cushion, and when the foot is on 0:17:01.120 --> 0:17:03.880 the ground, the increase in pressure and change and shape 0:17:04.359 --> 0:17:06.520 in the digital cushion and the frog. It kind of 0:17:06.520 --> 0:17:09.679 works everything like a pump forcing blood from the foot 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:14.200 into the leg. And McLure stresses that quote exercise increases 0:17:14.359 --> 0:17:18.040 the blood circulation in the foot and favors good hoof growth. 0:17:18.440 --> 0:17:22.040 Lack of exercise dryness of the horny wall and poor 0:17:22.160 --> 0:17:25.520 nutrition inhibit hoof growth. All right, So let's get to 0:17:25.520 --> 0:17:28.080 that hoof wall. The hoof wall is exactly what it 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:31.000 sounds like. It's that tough, horny outside part of the 0:17:31.040 --> 0:17:34.680 hoof that's essentially a fingernail. I mean, if we're comparing 0:17:34.720 --> 0:17:37.720 it to what we've got going on, it contains no blood, 0:17:37.800 --> 0:17:40.600 vessels or nerves, and it grows continuously, so it has 0:17:40.640 --> 0:17:43.399 to be worn or trimmed off. And to be specific, 0:17:43.520 --> 0:17:47.040 the hoof wall grows out of the cornet located at 0:17:47.080 --> 0:17:51.199 the junction of the skin and the hoof wall. So 0:17:51.240 --> 0:17:55.119 if you're just looking at a picture of a horse's foot, 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:58.080 like this is where hoof ends, and like you know, 0:17:58.400 --> 0:18:02.480 the hairy part of the leg begins now along with 0:18:02.520 --> 0:18:04.960 the frog and the bar, which is part of the 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:09.280 wall aka bars of the wall bordering the frog. It's 0:18:09.480 --> 0:18:12.000 a key weight bearing part of the hoof. The wall 0:18:12.119 --> 0:18:14.600 is made up of the toe in the front, quarters 0:18:14.600 --> 0:18:18.840 on the sides, and the heel. Now the interior of 0:18:18.880 --> 0:18:21.680 the hoof inside the hoof wall. You can almost think 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:24.240 of it as kind of like this little kind of 0:18:24.359 --> 0:18:29.359 U shaped walled city is the sole separated from the 0:18:29.359 --> 0:18:32.800 wall by the white line or the golden line where 0:18:32.840 --> 0:18:36.280 the inner wall and the sole joined together. The sole 0:18:36.400 --> 0:18:39.200 does not make contact with the ground and it primarily 0:18:39.240 --> 0:18:43.120 protects the inner structures beneath it. So these are all, 0:18:43.240 --> 0:18:45.320 you know, things with the exception of the of the 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:48.080 digital cushion that we reference like, these are all things 0:18:48.119 --> 0:18:51.080 that you would see if you were a if you 0:18:51.119 --> 0:18:55.119 were just attending to a horse's foot, if you you know, 0:18:55.480 --> 0:18:59.600 we're checking out a horseshoe or what have you. Now, again, 0:18:59.640 --> 0:19:01.439 the hoof of a complex structure, and I'm not going 0:19:01.480 --> 0:19:04.960 to attempt to cover every detail of it. Instead, hopefully 0:19:05.280 --> 0:19:07.159 we can cover the key parts of the intern out 0:19:07.240 --> 0:19:09.720 or hoof here and provide like a decent audio snapshot 0:19:09.720 --> 0:19:11.840 of what it consists of. And I realize, even with 0:19:11.880 --> 0:19:14.800 all the terminology we're going through, it still might make 0:19:14.840 --> 0:19:17.760 sense to look up a diagram to see exactly what 0:19:17.760 --> 0:19:21.760 we're talking about. Now. Internally, it's of course essential to 0:19:21.800 --> 0:19:26.159 cover the phalanxes and valanges, essentially the finger bones that 0:19:26.200 --> 0:19:29.720 make up the hoof, and the first of these to 0:19:29.760 --> 0:19:35.080 cover really is the famous coffin bone, which is also 0:19:35.119 --> 0:19:39.359 known as the petal bone or the distal phalanx or 0:19:39.440 --> 0:19:44.280 P three. It's contained in the hoof capsule and provides 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:47.239 its shape. It contains no bone marrow, but it has 0:19:47.240 --> 0:19:49.399 a lot of blood vessels. And the name apparently has 0:19:49.440 --> 0:19:52.040 to do with the fact that it's entirely seated within 0:19:52.080 --> 0:19:55.320 the hoof wall, in the interior of the hoof, as 0:19:55.359 --> 0:19:58.000 if it were positioned within a coffin. It does not 0:19:58.119 --> 0:19:59.480 look like a coffin per se. 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:02.480 The fact that it seems to be positioned within a coffin, 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:04.919 shouldn't that make it the corpse bone rather than the 0:20:04.920 --> 0:20:06.719 coffin bone or the cadaver bone. 0:20:07.119 --> 0:20:09.679 You would think, You would think, I don't know. I 0:20:09.680 --> 0:20:13.399 couldn't run down any additional information on where this comes 0:20:13.400 --> 0:20:15.800 from other than just like you know, the built up 0:20:15.920 --> 0:20:20.439 lingo of horse people over time. So if we have 0:20:20.480 --> 0:20:22.080 horse people out there listening to the show that have 0:20:22.160 --> 0:20:23.760 more insight on this, certainly right end. 0:20:24.040 --> 0:20:25.040 Oh, please be gentle. 0:20:27.920 --> 0:20:29.680 Whether you're used to working with horses, of course they're 0:20:29.680 --> 0:20:32.800 gonna they're gonna be gentle. Okay. Now, more broadly, the 0:20:32.880 --> 0:20:35.440 pedal bone is the bottomost bone in the front and 0:20:35.560 --> 0:20:39.160 rear legs of horses, cattle, pigs, and other ruminants. Then 0:20:39.200 --> 0:20:44.199 there's the navicular bone, so named because it's shaped like 0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:47.200 a boat, and looking at images of it, at least 0:20:47.200 --> 0:20:49.720 from the horse, I thought it also reminds me a 0:20:49.760 --> 0:20:53.720 bit of a whale's tail as well. But I'm to 0:20:53.800 --> 0:20:55.879 understand it's named this because it looks kind of like 0:20:55.920 --> 0:20:59.600 a boat. It's also known as the distal sesamoid bone. 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:04.600 Most mammals have a navicular bone in their feet. Then 0:21:04.600 --> 0:21:08.080 there's also the short pastern bone or middle phalanx. Its 0:21:08.119 --> 0:21:11.240 positioned to top the articulating joint of the pedal bone, 0:21:11.960 --> 0:21:14.960 with only the bottom portion extending to the hoof capsule, 0:21:15.359 --> 0:21:18.480 essentially a fingerbone. So I don't know to what extent 0:21:18.600 --> 0:21:23.720 all of that accurately conveyed the complexity and the beauty 0:21:23.880 --> 0:21:27.359 of a horse's hoof, of a horse's foot, but I guess, 0:21:27.880 --> 0:21:30.280 if anything, it should remind you like the horse hoof, 0:21:30.560 --> 0:21:34.280 easy to draw, but far more complicated than you might think. 0:21:34.520 --> 0:21:36.600 Well, another way to look at it is like if 0:21:36.640 --> 0:21:39.959 you look up a diagram of the bones in the 0:21:39.960 --> 0:21:43.840 horse's hoof, it's not just like a straight bone down 0:21:43.880 --> 0:21:46.119 to the ground ending in a nail. There are actually 0:21:46.119 --> 0:21:49.320 a lot of bones, little bones crammed up in there, 0:21:49.560 --> 0:21:50.960 kind of in the same way that you would see 0:21:51.000 --> 0:21:53.600 a lot of little bones making up the human hand, 0:21:54.040 --> 0:21:56.360 except in the case of a horse, it has been 0:21:56.400 --> 0:22:01.600 streamlined into one more continuous vertical structure or column, with 0:22:01.680 --> 0:22:04.080 the different bones kind of supporting each other in that 0:22:04.200 --> 0:22:07.239 column as opposed to in the hand the way these 0:22:07.280 --> 0:22:10.680 bones are kind of fanned out. Yes, Now, Rob, before 0:22:10.680 --> 0:22:14.560 we got recording today, you sent me a picture of 0:22:15.760 --> 0:22:19.679