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[–] 149 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (64 children)

Wait what's the deal with the horses? I want to feel good about myself today.

Edit: Wow, those bastards have it rough.

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  • [–] 195 points 2 years ago (38 children)

    Their genetics have sacrificed nearly every aspect of basic resiliency for maximum speed on the plains. Most of the work caring for horses is keeping them from accidentally killing themselves. Full disclosure: I worked as a stable hand as a child in exchange for riding lessons. Will never ever own a horse.

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  • [–] 71 points 2 years ago (30 children)

    What preditor was so fast horses had to evolve to that extent??

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  • [–] 80 points 2 years ago (19 children)

    Big cat. You're aware of the cheetah? Just picture that but not in Africa

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  • [–] 39 points 2 years ago (18 children)

    You know what really caught me up: where are horses native to?

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  • [–] 67 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    There are wild horses on the Mongolian steppes.

    All other horses are domesticated. Even the free horses in USA and Australia are descendants of domesticated horses.

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  • [–] 28 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    Us. They basically tried to beat pursuit predation by outrunning the distance humans will be willing to track over.

    It did not work, they went extinct in North America because of how much it did not work.

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  • [–] 13 points 2 years ago* (3 children)

    Large predatory flightless birds probably didn't help either.

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  • [–] 11 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Human. Not for food, but because they always choose to breed on the Porcshe over the Toyota Hilux for racing.

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  • [–] 12 points 2 years ago*

    The wording here makes it sound like we hunted horses for the specific purpose of having sex on them, and honestly, I'd probably be running as fast as a car if that kept happening to me too!

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  • [–] 63 points 2 years ago

    Same for rabbits. The are basically as much lean muscle that can fit on the lighest possible skeleton.

    If you pick up a rabbit wrong, they can snap their own back with the momentum from kicking their back legs.

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  • [+] [S] 50 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)
  • [–] 94 points 2 years ago (9 children)

    Sometimes they will die because they can’t puke. Also broken legs are usually fatal even with vet care.

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  • [–] 114 points 2 years ago (8 children)

    To add on why broken legs are fatal: its because horses are so big, that even with a sling, they cannot support themselves well on 3 legs. And lying down is also not an option as their own weight will crush their internal organs if they stay down for too long.

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  • [–] 27 points 2 years ago

    Also, don't they need to run to move food through their digestive tract? Or to force themselves to cough if they have something stuck in their lungs? I think there is some sort of dependency of basic functions that relies on the movement of their lungs/stomach going back and forth while running that they can't easily do if they just stand in one place all day

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  • [–] 77 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    The term healthy as a horse is mostly survivorship bias

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  • [–] 30 points 2 years ago (10 children)
  • [–] 17 points 2 years ago (7 children)

    Humans have multiple toes because our ape ancestors used their toes like fingers. Having multiple, separate toes is probably bad for survival unless you're using toes to manipulate tools.

    Animals that have distinct toes include apes, geckos, mice, raccoons and similar animals which need them to grip onto surfaces or to manipulate things. There are predators which have separate toes because they're a place to mount claws: eagles, cats, etc. There are animals that have separate toes with webbing between for swimming. But, for a lot of animals, separate toes aren't really useful, so they've evolved away: elephants, rhinos, giraffes, horses, cows, etc.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Yeah, but at least most of those still have multiple toes to spread the weight around. Horses decided to get rid of that completely.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Spreading the weight around using toes doesn't seem to be a useful strategy. It's also not something that humans do. Human toes are not at the weight-bearing part of the foot. And, while I'm sure toes are somewhat involved in agility, having individual toes doesn't seem to be. In fact, if you look at apes like gorillas and chimps, it's pretty clear that our toes have been getting shorter and less important as we've been evolving as upright-walking creatures who don't live in trees. Instead, the sole of the foot, which used to be much more like the palm of a hand, has been getting longer and sturdier.

    If you have separate toes, you have multiple fragile things that can break or be torn off. If you have one mega-toe it's going to be sturdy. That's probably why the heaviest animals have the fewest / smallest toes.

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