I have never met a horse whose hooves didn’t tell me a story long before the rest of their body did. The more time I’ve spent around barns, arenas, and trailheads, the more obvious it becomes that hooves act like a living record of stress, diet, workload, pain, management, and even emotional tension. When I walk into a stall or lead a horse into the sunlight, the very first thing I look at is the feet, because they speak louder than anything the horse can show me in the saddle.