Horses are very valuable, but also very fragile; at any given time, one in six top equine athletes are lame in some way. Because horses are ‘flight’ animals, a lame horse will go to extraordinary lengths to hide its injury. Wild horses evolved this trait to help prevent an injured animal from being singled out from the herd as easy prey. This behavior can have disastrous consequences for domesticated horses and their riders: Because horses are so adept at masking injuries, it is challenging even for experts with decades of experience to recognize subtle lameness, while diagnosing the precise cause of the injury is harder still.
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