Horsey Question!

[mike1222]

I once heard an explanation as to why horses, when they are standing still for any length of time, always only keep 3 hooves flat on the ground with the 4th one cocked at an angle - unfortunately I've forgotten the explanation, but I seem to recall that it had something to do with blood circulation.  Can anyone enlighten me?!

[New Forester]

Yes, when standing still for long periods horses do rest each hind leg alternately, propping it on the point of the hoof.  They remain standing on both front legs, but there will be little weight on the one opposite the resting hind one -- they are putting the weight on alternate diagonals.  Of course if they rested more than two at once they'd fall over...

I'm sure they do it for the same reason that we would -- just for comfort, to ease the joints and as you say the circulation.  They only lie down when very relaxed and if there is somewhere comfortable to lie.

 

Cattle generally either stand on all four legs or lie down -- their balance is much poorer than that of horses.

[Earthlady]

New Forester: your answer gave me a flashback to student days and an American friend who introduced us to the "sport" of cow-tipping. Can't remember ever actually testing this out, but she told us that you could over-balance, or tip, a sleepy cow just by giving it a two-handed push on its side. The mental image is superb but is it true, do you think?

[New Forester]

Well, you'd have to get near enough without it waking up...  Then, yes, it might be possible, though I think it'd most likely stagger and get up.  It might be a bit annoyed.

 

The way I usually cast youngish calves (up to about 80 kg) in the field is to catch a hind leg, and hold on like grim death (avoiding getting kicked off, or kicked in the belly).  Then someone else picks up the front leg on the same side and the calf falls over.  Then you sit on its neck, holding or tying a hind leg forward.  None of this works unless you remember that calves are bomb-proof and you can't hurt them -- but even then it's not easy.  Oh, and if it's very young its mum may be trying to kill you...

 

When they're bigger it can't be done without ropes.  Instead we immobilise them in a crush (a metal cage), but it is possible to thread a rope around a bovine in a particular way, pull it tight, and it has to lie down.  Or you can grab the horns and twist its head to the side, as demonstrated very neatly (no pun intended) on Michael Palin's prog the other day with a rather small yak.  Ours don't have horns though, and they probably weigh four or five times what that yak did...

[New Forester]

Then there's hen soothing.  You catch a hen, hold it tight, make it lie down and sooth it gently, if necessary covering its head for a bit.  If you get it right, you can quietly leave it and it will stay there, hypnotized.

 

Or squirrel fishing -- as heard on Home Truths (may JP rest in peace).  You take a digestive biscuit to the park.  You tie it to a bit of string, and find a tame squirrel.  When the squirrel picks up the biscuit, very gently you pull on the string.  It does not want to let go, and apparently you can actually lift it up by its teeth and swing it round.

 

Then there's the traditional way of catching monkeys, which I believe does work (macaques have been extinct round here for 100,000 years or so, so I can't try it).  You get a log with a small hole in it, just big enough for a monkey's hand.  Very ostentatiously you walk over to it, and put a nut or stone in the hole.  The monkeys are watching, and they cannot help coming over to look.  In goes the hand, and grabs the nut.  You surprise the monkey, and it tries to run with the nut -- but can't get it's fist out of the hole!

[trudileach]

Hi Mike, Horses are 'flight' animals (as opposed to 'fight' animals) and can rest alternative hind legs because evolution has decreed they can sleep standing up in order to be able to take flight should danger occur. They can lock a 'stay adjuster' mechanism in their front legs so that they don't fall over whilst asleep.  They only rest a hind leg and never a front leg unless they are lame.

The same process of evolution decrees that they have long faces with eyes placed high so that whilst eating grass they can be watching for preditors. If you see a number of horses lying asleep in a field there will always be one of their number standing to keep watch, if you stay observing for long enough you will see another one of them get up to take their turn at watching so that the previous guard can relax and sleep.

Far too much information for what your original question asked but as you might have guessed I am a bit of an 'anorak' when it comes to horses!