Evolutionhas a fishy manner of leave the residue of preceding adaptations in unknown position on animate being ' soundbox , and chestnuts on horses ' ramification are a fine instance . Nobody ’s quite trusted what horse chestnuts exactly are , but they ’re believed to be a end leave behind from sawbuck ’ five - toed ancestors .
For a long time , it was believed that mod horses had one toe on each foot , having evolved down from five digits . However,2018 researchargued that the fingerbreadth reduction had been exaggerate , and that actually all five digit remain part present in the forelimbs of modern grownup horses .
Whether you like your horses five - toed or one is your business , but we ’re on a mission to make you painfully aware of the crusty nodule that sits a small further up horses ’ legs . Say hello to the knight chestnut .
Horse chestnuts on the front and hind legs. Image credit: Paula Jantunen,Public Domain
To the uninitiated , sawhorse chestnuts await like crusty brown growths that can develop on the front and back leg of a knight . They can start off small-scale and grow bigger in size , and finally peel off without much resistance .
You might think it sort of sounds like a misplaced nail ( which , by the room , a lot of seals have ) , but there are a few ideas as to what buck chestnuts once were . One idea is that they ’re the vestigial stay of a scent gland that ’s find in similar animals likedeer . " Vestigial " is the name yield to feature that were once outstanding but have fallen out of exercise in the line of evolution , like the human tailbone .
The good news is that while they may expect a fleck sick , horse chestnuts growing on legs are n’t a headache beyond cosmetics . They are benignant growing that lean to fall off on their own . They are sometimes helped along by horse owners who may ease their removal with the app of oil and , accord to some sodding videos on TikTok , like to feed them to their blackguard .
sawhorse chestnuts lean to sit above the stifle and , count on the horse mixture , may be present on all four peg or just the front 1 . According toCaribu , they were once call “ night eyes ” as it was once thought they helped horses to see when it was dark .
ergot are another crusty mystery to be found on the leg of knight . These small callous bumps are found on the undersurface of a horse ’s fetlock joint ( for the non - equine - be given , that ’s what you might assume to be the fauna ’s ankle , but is in reality more comparable to the ball of a human ’s fundament ) , and are more common in horses with “ feathers ” . Before you run off thinking that Pegasus has been encounter , “ feathering ” on sawhorse are n’t real feathers , it ’s the name given to horse cavalry with coolheaded 80s - manner haired flare for legs .
If you want plume , depend no further than the shining and unambiguously structured plumage of theworld ’s most dangerous bird .
