youd think horses were one of those animals that has horrible health due to humans breeding unhealthy animals to achieve a certain look but no they really are just naturally that fucked up
horsesā lungs bleed when they run at a certain speed
if their diet is too rich / low in selenium their hooves fall off
excuse me
The reason they have such poor health outcomes after breaking or otherwise injuring their legs is because their legs are actually hyper-specialized fingers; and as in human fingers, there is very little muscle supporting the bone, just a lot of cartilage and tendons and whatnot. Youād think an animal that literally evolved to run away to avoid being eaten would have ALSO evolved sturdier running appendages, butā¦
I fucking hate this post, itās 1 AM I donāt want to know that horse legs are giant fucking fingers
Ok I cannot let this slide horse legal are not fingers, they are LEGS. I'm gonna give the OP of that comparison benefit of the doubt and assume they meant horse legs have anatomy analogous to fingers (or bird legs, for that matter) in that the muscles that control their movements are centered away from the actual joints they moveāI don't know why this would be in horses, though. In birds it's to keep as much body mass concentrated near the center as possible, as that makes flying easier. Maybe running is similar? It seems to be a model in lots of running prey species, which suggests the purpose is to allow for better acceleration perhaps at the expense of endurance? I'm just spitballing here.
But my main point is: HORSE LEGS ARE NOT FINGERS THEY ARE LIMBS LIKE ARMS AND LEGS the fingers have all been fused into the foot bone look at how the joints bend and examine the feet of some some prehistoric ancestors it's p obvious
