Master In Animal Sciences Gets Schooled On Horses

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mattstaff
Jan 3, 2021 2:00 PM EST

This "master in animal sciences" proceeded to get schooled in an enlightening Tumblr thread about how horses and their legs work. They previously assumed that horses could get around just fine on three legs without prosthetics, and were also 80% sure that people could not ride on them if they had three legs. Queue the educational Tumblr moment. 

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    Text - horses (and horsey creatures) for certain can get around just fine on 3 legs, no prosthetics needed (depending on which leg is missing), just so long as you don't ride them (I'm 80% sure you can't ride them if they've only 3 legs). Umm, what? You have a master's in animal science and you think that? It must not be in anything horse-related.. Well you gon' learn today! First, a quick lesson on equine anatomy. They walk on the last bone of a single toe. This is different from a human, in wh
    via u/jaytix1
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    Joint - Radius and Ulna Metacarpal II or medial "splint" bone Carpal bones Metacarpal II or "cannon" bone Metacarpal IV or lateral "splint" bone Proximal phalanx or "long pastern" bone Intermediate phalanx or "short pastern" bone Distal phalanx or "coffin" bone
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    Joint
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    Text - Additionally, a horse's head accounts for 10% of its body weight; therefore, a 1000-lb horse has a 100-lb weight on the end of a 2-3 foot long pivot point, which in itself weighs several hundred pounds. This is another aspect of their anatomy that varies significantly from a dog or cat, whose heads generally weigh 5% or less of their body weight, and their necks are not nearly as proportionally long or heavy. A horse carries approximately 60% of its weight on its front legs. Imagine havin
    via u/jaytix1
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    Horse - Lame Horse | My Horse Has A Sore Front Leg Second, let's talk about the mentality and habits of a horse. They are prey animals. A prey animal that is unable to run (and horses with only three legs cannot run - see video of Barbaro below) is innately vulnerable and stressed. Warning - graphic video below. Skip this video if you do not want to see a horse attempting to run with a severely broken leg. ...
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    Horse - Barbaro Injury Preakness Stakes May 20 2006
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    Text - Horses' guts are also designed to roam around 20 hours of the day grazing (they only sleep 4 hours per day, generally). This becomes much harder with only 3 legs, especially if the missing leg is a front limb and must support that heavy head and neck leaning forward to graze. They also, generally speaking, do not lay down to sleep, so their remaining limb would not get any rest. If the missing limb is a hind leg, they are also automatically missing half of their "stay apparatus," which is
    via u/jaytix1
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    Text - Equine Stay Apparatus (hindlimb) - 3D Veterinary A. : IVALA Imagine sleeping, but one of your legs has to entirely hang off the side of your bed. It would be uncomfortable, and you might fall out of bed. Congrats, you're missing part of your stay apparatus. Should the horse decide to lay down to sleep, it would be significantly more difficult for the horse to get up if it only had 3 limbs. If you've ever seen a horse stand up from laying down, it's already a barely-coordinated, ugly-looki
    via u/jaytix1
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    Vertebrate - Wild Horses Rolling and Getting up Watch later Share Third, let's talk about an awful condition called "support limb laminitis." Laminitis is a condition where the vascular support structures (blood supply and cushioning) of the hoof get inflamed. We don't really understand what causes it, but we know there are certain things that predispose a horse to getting it. At best it is just very painful; at worst, those support structures break down and the bone inside the hoof rotates and
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    Text - LM So - how does this relate to amputation? Well, one of the main things that we know can predispose a horse to laminitis, is a period of time where the horse is bearing more weight on one limb. This is called support limb laminitis because the limb that is supporting more weight develops laminitis. It usually happens when the horse is lame (painful) on one limb so it spends more time standing on the unaffected limb. Back to Barbaro - he is one of the most famous cases of fatal support li
    via u/jaytix1
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    So - if the top equine specalists in the country and owners with all the money in the world are unable to successfully manage a three-legged horse, the average horse owner and vet surely won't be able to.
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    Text - Regarding prosthetics, @lizziedoesvetpath has done an excellent synopsis of why they aren't viable in large animals here, but basically it boils down to a combination of all of the above, plus what's in her synopsis, plus the fact that you can't take a prosthetic off of a large animal due to their sleeping habits, and prosthetics are painful and animals can't understand why they have to undergo pain in order to be able to walk around, unlike humans. So basically, the only thing that was c
    via u/jaytix1

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