why are horses so delicate and why do they break things in their body?

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There are many, many reasons.  How they are fed when in the womb, as a foal, weanling, yearling, etc. can affect the strength of the biological tissues.  How the horse gets exercise and the amount of exercise (too little is as harmful as too much) also affects the strength of the bones, tendons, ligaments and muscles.

Their legs are really a bit too "thin" for their weight.  If the horse does not have enough decent nutrition at the right time (and too much is just as bad or worse than too little) the bones do not form correctly, leading to weak places.  These weak places break more easily than properly grown bone.  Over feeding of wheat bran may also weaken the bone.  Lack of exercise, especially for a stalled horse also weakens the bones, tendons, ligaments, tendons, and muscles, as well as weakening the lungs of the horse.

Improper conditioning, especially excessive jumping when young (under 4) can lead to severe leg problems.  The race horse conditioning of long yearlings, early two year olds has some validity, but if the horse is raced too early in the conditioning process it can lead to great harm.  It takes MONTHS to thicken the cortex (outer layer) of the bone, if the horse is raced earlier it can be bad news, either immediately or in a year or two, often from micro-fractures on the surface of the bone.

Horses did not evolve to play our games.  Race horses are carefully conditioned and trained to run faster than wild horses ever ran.  Wild horses did not regularly jump 4'.  This is why it takes around 5 years to develope a good jumper.  While wild horses may prance and do airs above the ground they did it just for a few minutes, not for hours in a little ring.  Conditioning a top dressage horse can take as long or longer than a top jumper.

And there are many other reasons.

And then there is LUCK. 

Because their bones quite small, and they are often unfit.  They are often fed extruded feeds, and never really move as young horses (they are rarely kept in large herds of same sex any more.).

If I had a good answer, my magnificent Maggie would still be with us... 

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