Let’s talk about the horse here briefly.

A horse is a large, powerful, half-ton animal evolved to stand upright on four legs and run for long periods of time across open grasslands. Four delicate, sensitive legs.

Any injury to a horse’s leg can be fatal. A cut in the wrong place. A pulled tendon. Infection. A fracture. Horses can’t be kept in leg casts. They can’t walk with nerve damage or ligament tears. They’re too heavy for amputation, can’t have a leg bound up to heal, because they cannot balance themselves on three legs. They can’t hold themselves upright. If they go down, the weight of their body can slowly crush them to death; nerve and organ damage results from prolonged periods on the ground.

This, if they get a leg injury, even mild ones, they have to be euthanized. I think there are some extreme interventions that can happen now, but are so expensive and crazy they’re usually only used for very valuable racehorses.

This animal was run - RUN - across miles of pavement without shoes. No horse without shoes should ever be even walked for a significant period of time on asphalt. That’s not some light bruising to the bottom of its feet. Remember the hoof is basically fingernails fused into a thick pad. That’s having the hooves absorbing the pounding of high speed and hard surfaces, causing shock injuries all the way up into the tendons and bones. Have you ever had shin splints? That’s mild compared to what this horse is likely going through.

This guy was a scumbag of the highest order.