Oh, I thought this was going to be about refurbishing and reselling horses.

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.

Yes, here's a video when this was done in 2008.

seahorse intensifies

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

Incredible. I have no idea, but I love this post. Keep it up.

Me, wondering how much money you can make buying horses on the low and reselling them with a fresh coat of paint: 🤡

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/

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.

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.

In historic times, people knew horses were land animals. So, I expect we will see this invention in about two more weeks.

I was trying to figure out what they meant by swimming houses for a minute.

I'm doubtful that giving a horse flippers would even help them swim considering how long their legs are.

I think my neighbor has a horse? I guess I could ask.

https://youtu.be/74kqIRP5U28