Healthy, well-maintained hooves can remain strong and functional for decades—supporting horses from their first wobbly steps to their final years.

Hellhole Mare was, actually, an angel of a horse. A cherished favorite among equine hoof scientists who study Brumbies—Australia’s free-roaming feral horses—the tough but gentle bay had given birth to at least 15 foals before becoming so thin and weak that researchers opted to humanely euthanize her.

When the scientists, with heavy hearts, examined this beloved matriarch, they discovered “skin and bones” and toothless jaws, says Chris Pollitt, BVSc, PhD, head of the Australian Equine Laminitis Research Unit at the University of Queensland.

One part of her body, however, showed no signs of age whatsoever—the very foundation she’d been standing on for nearly three decades. Her feet. “Nicely beveled along the edges, strong heels, no laminitis, perfect,” says Pollitt. “You’d think they’d been trimmed by a professional.”

For Pollitt and his colleagues Hellhole Mare epitomizes the equine hoof. “She was nearly 30 years old, but she had the feet of a 5-year-old,” he says, having lived in what Pollitt considers an ideal environment for natural hoof care in an unridden and freeroaming horse. “This tells us that if a horse’s foot is properly cared for, it will be perfect when the horse reaches the end of its life.”

Horse Hooves In Utero

Hooves form remarkably fast, becoming easily recognizable within 65 days of gestation, says Simon Curtis, PhD, FWCF, Hon-AssocRCVS, a farrier in Newmarket, U.K. That’s before limbs have bones, he says.

To prevent uterine damage from fetal kicks, an unborn foal develops a gelatinous horn covering. This protective layer, called the eponychium or deciduous hoof, is derived in part from the sole and white line.

The basic hoof structure fully forms before birth, Pollitt says. But because unborn foals’ hooves never bear weight, their suspensory apparatus—where the coffin bone hangs from the front hoof wall via lamellar structures—remains underdeveloped. The lamellae, which help distribute weight and support hoof function, also do not fully develop before birth. In fact, he explains that because of that lack of weight-bearing, the embryonic hoof’s first and second lamellae form a distinct crisscross pattern, positioned almost perpendicular to each other.

The First Five Months

Healthy foals usually make a wobbly stand on their hooves within the first hour of birth, and they shed their eponychium within a few hours. Pollitt says such weightbearing triggers immediate loading of the suspensory apparatus. Within a couple of days, lamellar structure angles already reflect their new loading—taking on the oblique form they maintain for the rest of the foal’s life