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marked with this icon A horse's heart pumps blood down to the foot. Inside the foot, blood passes through a network of capillaries where it nourishes the living tussues of the hoof. Now the blood must return to the heart. However, after passing through all the fine capillaries, the heart cannot supply enough pressure to push the blood all the way back up the limb against the force of gravity. Getting blood from the heart to the foot is easy. In addition to the pumping mechanism of the heart, the blood is being pulled down to the foot by gravity. So how does the blood
in a horse's foot get back to the heart, against the force of gravity,
once the foot has absorbed all the "blood pressure?"
The simplified answer to this question is that every time a horse
picks up its foot, puts it back down, and bears weight on it, the
foot itself pushes blood back up the leg to the heart.
For a detailed explanation of how this works you can read this guide
to Functional Anatomy
of the Horse Foot by Robert C. McClure, Department of Veterinary
Anatomy, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Missouri-
Columbia. BLOOD CIRCULATION in the horse's foot is dependent upon movement. When you lock a horse in a stall, you restrict the horse's movement. A lot of scientific research suggests that stall confinement can be detrimental to a horse's health: >
From Feeding Young Horses
for Sound Development, "In one study of young horses, exercise
did not influence the number of OCD lesions, but the most severe
lesions were observed in stall-rested horses." > To Stall, or Not to Stall? (Requires registering with TheHorse.com to read the full article. >
Clinical
Anatomy and Physiology of the Normal Equine Foot. |
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