That’s it. Any horse, any time period, any peoples, did they fit a shoe that helped the horse to swim in water?
(Was thinking about how horses are pretty good swimmers, maybe due to their power and hoof shape. Could they be better?)
Flippers wouldn’t help really given how horses actually swim, they kind of kick back with each of they’re legs in a sequence similar to a trot. Their hooves already have a bit of a hollow which likely helps with swimming. Honestly though horses are pretty good swimmers, because they have huge lungs which helps them stay afloat with ease
Regular flippers would not help.
But some little hinged wings on the sides of each hoof could work.
They fold down on the upstroke flat against the hoof, then fold out horizontal with the downstroke.
I could never imagine a horse swimming
Well…spit… growing up on the ranch we had between 13 to 18 horses around all the time. Everything from Arabians to some workhorses.
Now we only shoed them in late summer for the fall when we were working cattle.
Now swimming is an interesting topic. During the hot days in the summer we would hop on a few hoses bareback and race across in the ponds.
You would think the massive workhorses with their oversized hooves would win. Poweful, strong animals with big flippers on the bottom. Unfortunately they were the slowest in the water. They were stiff and inflexible, dumb and slow. They tended to swim a few feet, decide it was too much work, turn around and find some nice grass to eat.
Now the Arabians with the smaller stature and dainty little hooves were by far the fastest in the water. The fastest was horse named ugly. He was a swayed back ill tempered little guy with a massive chip on his shoulder. He just had to be first everywhere. He was almost as vicious as the Spawn of Satan aka “Shetland pony”. Now Spawn of Satan didn’t like the water because brimstone and water don’t go together so we never got him to swim.
What’s curious is after they were shod and their hoofs trimmed down, they all seemed a wee bit faster. I guess the smaller hoof works better for their swimming mechanism.
Thanks for sharing your lived experience. Your characterisations of each horse gave me a good laugh.
That is very interesting that they would be quicker after being shod. Not sure why that would be. Less apprehensive of kicking something underwater perhaps.
I don’t know what accent you intended to communicate, but I definitely heard it in my head
I thought he was a fraud until he spit.
Oh, I thought this was going to be about refurbishing and reselling horses.
‘It’s got solid bones, but the inside’s a mess’
My expectation was that one might rotate an equine on an axis other than yaw.
I’m going to use this as a confusion-inducing insult:
Yeah whatever, horse flipper.
I’d watch that show
Give em some of these withe the neck rest. Imagine amphibious roman chariots. Or a horse powered pontoon boat.
There’s a lot of cool images here https://liberalarts.tamu.edu/nautarch/nwl/lake-champlain-projects/hoofbeats-over-the-water-ina-research-on-horse-powered-ferryboats/
They are cool images, what a concept!
I did not previously know that horse-treadmill-ferries were a thing.
seahorse intensifies
Hehe, thanks Charlie.
False advertising. These are clearly unicorns.
God dammit…I gave you a good faith upvote, and then clicked the video for what I assumed would be an amazing horse swimming video.
…dammit Rick Astley! Stop dressing up like a unicorn!
Instructions unclear, there is now a banana in my ear.
…I miss old youtube.
You are the bo-nana king.
He doesn’t need flippers if he rides the magical leopluridon.
Goddammit you got my hopes up
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Incredible. I have no idea, but I love this post. Keep it up.
Thanks, when showerthoughts take on a life of their own.
This is the exact question this subredd- er, community, excuse me, was made for
I think you’d have better luck with a small, rear-mounted outboard motor.
Thanks for the incredibly funny mental picture!
I’m doubtful that giving a horse flippers would even help them swim considering how long their legs are.
And the movement they make doesn’t benefit from flippers.
Humans can shift their body forward and kick their legs which flippers can amplify.
Wait tho. That two-legged rear kick thing horses do may just need a uni-fin mermaid thing to create a true sea speed stallion.
I think my neighbor has a horse? I guess I could ask.
Ooh! Keep us posted!
The horse said “neigh”.
