Walking on Tiptoes

Have you ever watched a ballerina en pointe as she moves across the stage on the tips of her toes? What animal do you think she looks like? Most people compare ballerinas to graceful swans, but the animal she’s most like when she’s dancing on her toes is actually a horse!

If you look at the inside of a horse’s hoof, you’ll find one very strong, very thick finger or toe bone. This is the same bone that you have in your middle finger or toe. The soft part of the outside of the hoof, called the frog, is a lot like the squishy parts on the heel and ball of your foot. They act like a cushion to protect the bones underneath, and a bit like springs or shock absorbers when you’re running. The outer part of the hoof is like a very strong, very thick fingernail.

So horses are actually walking around balanced on their toenails!

But why do horses only have one toe? Millions of years ago, the ancient ancestors of horses were only about the length of your arm. They lived in forests, and had four toes on each foot. They were plant eaters, and often had to run from sharp toothed predators that wanted to eat them!

Gradually, over millions of year, the other three toes of this animal’s descendants became smaller and smaller. The smaller the toes were and the higher the wrist was off the ground, the faster the animal could go to get away from predators. Eventually, these descendants started to look like the horse we know today!