Chapter 52: What? This Isn't a Branding Iron, It's Compressed...

Horses are odd-toed ungulates. To put it simply, horses walk on a single toe, and the nail of this toe directly contacts the ground.

Hooves are the organs horses use for walking, located at the end of their digits. Evolved from skin, hooves have a structure similar to skin, with an epidermis, dermis, and a small amount of subcutaneous tissue. The outermost "hard shell" is called the hoof wall, formed by the keratinization of the epidermis.

The hoof wall is the part that directly contacts the ground. It has no blood vessels or nerves, naturally feeling no pain. Horseshoes are nailed onto the hoof wall.

The reason centaurs "lose their hooves" is that the bottom of the hoof wall gets worn down.

"Do you understand up to this point?" Lister asked Huaishite while trimming the uneven edges of the hoof wall with pliers, gesturing on Farule's hoof to explain its structure.