Horses are hooved animals, which means they are ungulates. This means cows, goats and other hooved animals are also ungulates. These protect the animal's toes, allowing them to run very fast! Hooved animals can have all sorts of different numbers of toes. If they have an even number of toes, they are called artiodactyls. If they have an odd number of toes, they are perissodactyls. Horses have one toe protected by their hoof, making them a perissodactyl just like rhinos and tapirs. Rhinos have three toes, which is the most primitive perissodactyl form. Some rhinos used to be pony sized, does this mean that one of them could have been a unicorn? Perhaps. Many early unicorns are said to be cloven (2) toed, however, putting them in the artiodactyl category. There are many that deviate from that description however.
Some ancient horses differ. They have anywhere from 3-1 hooves for the most part, except for Hyracotherium since it had 4 toes in the front. According to most sources, the side toes eventually became useless to the horse through its evolution so they eventually only were used during fast running or jumping. The central toe eventually became the dominate toe of the horse since it made them faster.
Evolution of the horse - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Horse | American Museum of Natural History
Living Relatives of the Horse
Western Horse
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