Mother Nature's crucible is a refiners fire. Life's overwhelming desire to be has gifted the wild horse with incredibly perfect feet. Horse meat is high on the carnivores' totem pole of meal choices, and a horse without sound feet is an easy meal. So, the genetics for lousy feet were weeded from the Mustang herds long ago.
I was reminded of this fact today while out trimming Kate's feet. Kissin' Kate Barlow, our Sulphur herd Mustang has the most beautiful feet of any equine that I have ever examined. And they are hard as steel. It takes all my strength to cut through them with my long handled nippers, and the sharp teeth on my file feel like they are grabbing sheer substance as they bite the dense keratin of Kate's hooves.
But Nature didn't just give her a set of Mustang Steels to protect her life. Nature gave her works of art. Them's some beauts!
