Horses don’t have toes because in the wild they had no need to grasp or climb anything. That said, there are many other reasons why they evolved to have hooves.

So for Equine and Horse-riding enthusiasts out there, here a few reasons why Horses have Hooves.

Even Equine weight distribution

Hooves balance the horse perfectly for optimum distribution of their weight when running, which allows them to trot, canter or gallop at their top speed on nearly any terrain.

Horses simply got heavier

This caused the horses to need a larger middle toe to balance properly. So somewhere along the way they evolved to have all their toes as one single hoof.

When Horses were smaller they had 3 fully functioning toes, back when they were similar in size to a large dog.

Horses have vestigial bones from when they had toes. Their hooves formed to protect the soft tissue in their feet from the force of them running as their weight grew to around 300 to 500 kilogrammes.

The heaviest horse recorded a weight well over a metric tonne - a whooping 1,524 kg! 

So why do miniature Horses and Shetland Ponies have Hooves then?

While it would make sense for smaller variants of Horses to have toes, yet they do not.

The reason for this is that they were selectively bred, to be small from larger Horses, so still have Hooves. This is mainly because selective breeding will cause a change much faster compared to natural evolution.

Although, if horses evolved to be small again, there would not be much need for them to regain toes because their lifestyle simply does not demand it in their modern habitat.

Conclusion

So let’s recap on some of the reasons why Horses have Hooves:  

• Horses evolved hooves to absorb the impact of running

• Hooves aid in running across different terrains

• Hooves improved their balance as Horses grew to become heavier animals

• Even distribution of weight while running helps Horses to run faster

• Miniature Horses and Shetland Ponies have hooves because they were selectively bred from regular horses, so did not evolve separately  

I hoof, I mean I hope you learned learned something from CDS Equine Blog today!

Thanks for reading,

Jake.