Cross Breeds

In the wild how do horses deal with?

things such as thrush, rain rot, their growing teeth and hooves? From what I've seen in animal cruelty cases, neglected horses seem to have cases of these things so I was wondering how do they handle this stuff naturally.

Public Comments

1. Often, in the wild, these problems have to resolve themselves. Some of these problems are manmade and come from horses being confined with poor care and feed. In the wild, horses are moving around all the time. I'm told that they seldom have intestinal worms for that reason. As for their feet, I'm sure they keep them pretty worn down. For more accurate information on wild horses, you should try the BLM Horse and Burro website.
2. Rain rot is hardly an issue, same can be said about thrush because these horses are on the move constantly and would hit higher ground where the water would not be that deep for rain rot or thrush. Remember these horses are foraging, which means that they would intake pebbles ect which would assist in grinding the teeth down as well and the hard ground would wear hooves down. Horses who were not tough, didn't survive, hence those that had the thougher genes, passed them on to their get and their decendants. Domesticated horses as a rule have been bred for our pleasure, NOT for survival. Small stalls and pastures along with grown feed contribute to the mix and unless your horse was originally bred in the wild, turning one loose to survive on their own nowadays would be a cruel thing to do to any domesticated horse. Hope this helps you understand the difference between abuse and being "wild".
3. Sharp teeth are usually ground down by stones and pebbles, as well as sand/dirt taken in while grazing. Teeth also have more of a tendency to become sharp by the extra chewing needed to grind down grain and is more of an irritant when the bit is involved. Rain rot may develop in wild horses from time to time, but between rain, wallowing in lakes and running around, it is not a problem. Wild horses are also not as likely to get thrush. Thrust is a combination of heat and wet. A horse kept in a muddy pen is likely to get thrush. A horse in the wild will move out of the mud to dry pastures. Hooves are also kept trimmed through moving on rocks and the like. They also break away after a certain point. One of the most interesting things I saw was a filly I owned that was not touched by people until I got her - she lived on a breeding facility, so I would not exactly call her wild - but for a few months, I did not introduce a farrier to her, waiting to get her more tame. Her hooves would start to get long and I would start to worry - next thing I knew, the hooves would break at the exact point they should and she would have lovely, perfect hooves again. Keep in mind also - horses in the wild have an average lifespan of 15 years, much shorter than domesticated horses. Mustangs adopted will live longer, due to human care, but their wild brothers and sisters will not live as long.
4. In the wild the thrush and rain rot have to basically resolve themselves, the horse is uncomfortable but life goes on. As for growing teeth and hooves; wear and tear. Wild Horses travel on hard surfaces almost all day long keeping their hooves at a good length by wearing them down as they travel and its basically the same with growing teeth when horses aren't traveling they are eating course grass that helps keep their teeth short but in captivity the ground horses walk on and the food they eat is much softer and does not have the same results.
5. as humans we cause most of the problems with our horses by trying to treat them like a human.we tend to keep them in stalls where they stand in their own waste and no matter how clean we keep them they still will stand in the waste causing thrush.we feed them grain and hay that is devoid of the natural substances that allow the teeth to wear at a good rate to keep them worn down and help in breaking the sharp points off.most of the bands of wild horses live in arid or semi arid places(dry high desert or mountainous regions) and they tend to migrate to the higher country when the rains hit so things like rain rot and other skin problems dont appear but they still get fleas and ticks which can cause some problems but they tend to work themselves out thru nature.they tend to walk on coarse sand and rocky ground which keeps the hooves naturally ground down and if the hoof grows too long the will break off and look terrible but will trim themselves down.you wont find contracted heels,thin walls and other hoof problems associated with captive horses,they still will have an abcess or a rock bruise but rarely become lame from it.i dont keep my horses in the barn and it is open so they can go in and out as they please but they prefer to be in the pasture.i only have to trim their hooves three times a year and after every trim i have to send my nippers out to get resharpened because the hooves are so thick and tough.my horses are fed in pasture also when they need extra feed and they are floated once a year.i dont treat my horses as pets and i dont consider them as slaves,they are allowed to be horses in the pasture and only called on when i need their help around the ranch.i consider them as co-workers and friends and work willingly with me.
6. I have a mare that I bought completely wild 2 years back. None of her descendants had ever been handled, fed, had treatment or anything of that kind. In 2 years she hasn't had to have her feet trimmed once, she's cut herself and it has healed ten times faster than an ordinary 'domesticated' horse, and she doesn't need food despite how poor the grass is in our field at the moment. I think wild horses just have some special survival genes in them.