Horses are man's oldest and most loyal companions, and they have a deep bond with them as they fight side by side and run through the fields.
However, horses' toes and legs are extremely fragile, and if they are injured, they often die.
There was a brave horse in Switzerland who broke his leg at the Tokyo Olympics, and his owner had to euthanize him.
This makes people wonder why a horse must die if it loses a leg if it loses a leg.
Horse legs are very special
The legs of horses may seem elongated, but they actually have a delicate and complex structure, which is the result of long-term evolution.
The ancestor of the horse, the first horse, originated on the North American continent 55 million years ago, only the size of a fox, in order to adapt to the open grassland environment, after a long period of natural selection, the horse's legs gradually evolved from the primitive four toes to a single third toe, which is now the horse's hoof.
This makes the horse's legs slender and elegant, making them ideal for running.
However, this seemingly perfect evolution also brought problems, as horses had extremely slender leg bones, the thickness of sugar cane, and almost completely devoid of muscles below the knees.
Therefore, the horse's running explosiveness actually comes from the strong thigh muscles, which pull the tendons and ligaments to drive the horse's legs.
As you can imagine, such a fragile horse's legs are difficult to withstand the huge body weight and running impact.
In fact, it is very common for horses to have broken legs, and some horses even die of sudden fractures during competitions.
The structure of the horseshoe also increases its vulnerability, and the cuticle of the horseshoe has a layer of connective tissue called the "hoof lobe" inside the cuticle, which acts as a shock absorber.
However, it is no less fragile.
When the horse's standing center of gravity changes, the normal contact pattern between the hoof bone and the hoof is disrupted, and if this is done for a long time, the hoof bone will continuously irritate the hoof, resulting in "laminitis", which can cause great pain to the horse.
To make matters worse, the horse's hind legs also function as a blood circulation, and the horse's hooves are structured like a pump that helps the heart push blood through the body.
Once a horse's leg is severely damaged, this function that promotes blood circulation is lost, and the metabolism of the whole body is affected.
The horse's evolutionary path has resulted in a pair of light, fast, fragile and sensitive limbs, which also gives the horse excellent running ability, but it also dooms them to great difficulties when facing trauma.
The structure of the horse's legs is both a skill and a weakness of the horse, which shows the mystery of the evolution of life and reminds us that we should be cautious about life.
Horse Running Genes and Injury Puzzles
On the grassland, horses are typical "escape" animals, they are vigilant, often stand up to sleep, and flee when they are in danger, and this escape nature is due to the evolution of horses.
The ancestor of the horse, the Archaeopteryx horse, was small, toeded-toed, and lived in the jungle, and 50 million years ago the climate changed and the vast savannah appeared, and the Archaeopteryx migrated here.
At that time, the ancestors of horses were small and multi-digy, and were able to move briskly through the woods, but later on the climate changed and the vast grasslands appeared, and these small multi-dacty mammals had to run to avoid predation in the open area.
As a result, the horse's ancestors evolved a single-finger hoof that was more suitable for running, and at the same time the limb bones became thinner and lighter, and the body became larger because of the abundance of food to defend against predation.
Such a running structure is very advantageous in the wild, and the horse can quickly escape from danger.
Domesticated horses, on the other hand, were mainly used for work and transportation, and their ability to run was particularly important, and in order to meet human needs, the hooves continued to evolve to become stiffer and more suitable for running.
Taking it a step further, horses' escape instincts stem not only from evolution, but also from their personalities.
Horses have a lively personality and like to run and play, and the equestrian instructor pointed out that horses are like children, full of curiosity, and will instinctively run away when they see strange objects.
Experienced riders will first familiarize the horse with the environment, interact with the horse more, and cultivate feelings before the horse can let down its guard.
The social nature of horses also affects their behavior, and horses are social animals and like to walk in groups.
When one horse in the herd is frightened, the other horses will run with it, and the leader of the herd plays a key role in influencing the entire herd.
If the leader horse is not alarmed, the other horses will settle down, so it is important to pay attention to the group effect when training horses.
Studies have also shown that a horse's mood and health can also affect the escape instinct.
According to veterinary research, some horses become anxious and more easily frightened due to illness, and some older horses or those with arthritis also reduce activity and running.
Therefore, the horse's escape instinct comes not only from the inheritance of ancestral evolution, but also related to the horse's personality, sociality and health status.
It is difficult to save Maxima from a broken leg
Horses are graceful, agile animals in nature that possess slender limbs and can run very fast.
However, this advantage is the main reason why horses face difficulties after injury.
The leg muscles of horses have very low coverage, which is basically skinny and bone, and lacks muscle protection, so the leg bones of horses are very fragile, and once a fracture occurs, it is often a comminuted severe fracture, which is extremely painful for the horse and extremely difficult to heal.
Veterinary research at the University of Illinois has shown that unilateral recumbent positions in horses can cause severe ischemic injury to the ipsilateral limb, and that frequent turnovers are feasible but make surgery more difficult.
Due to the lack of muscle protection, the bones of the horse's legs are fragile, and the wound is prone to infection after breaking, which is a serious threat to the health of the horse.
To make the treatment even more challenging, the horses have a total of 205 bones, 80 of which are concentrated in the legs.
The complex and delicate bone structure makes fractures more comminuted, and surgical repair is extremely difficult.
In contrast, elephants have strong limbs, which are good for spreading the pressure of their body weight, and they can continue to survive even if they lose one leg.
Even if the leg is successfully amputated, the infection problem has drastically reduced the horse's chances of survival.
When a horse's leg is fractured, the broken bone can puncture the muscle and become infected by external bacteria, which can then endanger the whole body, and the horse's leg blood circulation is already weak, and the infection can lead to ischemic injury, making bone recovery more slow.
It can be said that for horses, there is little hope of surviving after being injured, and they can only wait for death and treatment in the same place, and the protracted pain and torture are unbearable.
So when horses break their feet, humans tend to choose to end their suffering, which is perhaps the most merciful outcome a horse can get.
In fact, it is not entirely impossible to perform surgical treatment after a broken leg in a horse, and some animal hospitals and veterinary specialists will try to perform leg breaking surgery on a horse, but the process is extremely complex.
The horse is first given general anesthesia, which carries many risks, as the surgeon needs to carefully remove the broken bone and restore the bone to its original position as much as possible, which requires a high degree of surgical skill and can take several hours.
After surgery, the horse will need to wear a restraint device and physical therapy to help with recovery, and the entire treatment cycle may last more than a year.
To make matters worse, even after the recovery period is over, the horse's broken leg is likely to fracture again in the future.
Some well-wishers are also working hard to develop related technologies to reduce the cost of prosthetics and improve the success rate of assembly, and they hope that this technology will be used more in ordinary horses in the future, not just high-value racehorses.
Some are also working on new drugs that can reduce the pain of horses, or create simulation environments through virtual technology to distract horses.
Despite the current limitations of treatment, humanity has not given up on efforts to save these graceful creatures, and perhaps with technological advancements and efforts, horses with broken legs will be able to return to the green grass and show their grace again.
What we look forward to is not only the treatment of horses, but also the soft side of human nature.
Disclaimer: The process and pictures described in the article are from the Internet, and this article aims to advocate positive social energy and no vulgar and other bad guidance. If it involves copyright or character infringement issues, please contact us in time, and we will delete the content as soon as possible! If there is any doubt about the incident, it will be deleted or changed immediately after contact.