White Hooves Vs. Dark Hooves

Some say horses with white hooves are weaker than ones with darker hooves. This is not true though, as hooves are merely always the color of skin pigment (color of skin) above them.
Basically: a horse with a white skin above the hoof will have a white hoof on that leg - if a horse has a darker colored skin pigment above his hoof, that hoof will have a darker colored hoof on that let.
There is are also two sayings (which aren't true) that tells people 'advice' on buying white-hoofed horses.

The first one:
One white foot - buy him.
Two white feet - try him.
Three white feet - look well about him.
Four white feet - go without him.

The second one:
One white foot - buy him.
Two white feet - try him.
Three white feet - deny him.
Four white feet and white on the nose - knock him in the head and feed him to the crows.

As you can see here, the first five hooves are completely white (from left to right). That means that beneath the white hair, there is white skin pigments (as usually is for white hair). Then the last hoof (bottom right) is dark where there is darker hair (with darker skin pigments underneath), and white where the white hair is (with white skin pigments underneath).

This hoof is white; therefor it has white skin pigments above it.

 

Lameness for a Horse

The hoof is one of the most important part of a horse – without all four legs, a horse is considered lame, and can’t be ridden nor move around as well as it could with all good legs.

    When a horse’s hoof comes in contact when the ground (say, when it is walking), the frog of the hoof will immediately shoot the blood in the leg back upwards. Then the blood comes back down – that’s how it circulates, in a way.

    One of the causes for lameness is how a horse moves when grazing. When grazing, equines will often just move their fore legs so that they can cover the general area that they’re in easily. Then the blood doesn’t circulate as well in their hind legs.

But, lameness isn’t always very serious. Many times it just resolves itself with rest.

One way to tell your horse is lame is if it isn’t moving like it usually does, or doesn’t stand like usual.

    Here are more ways to tell:

-The easiest way to see if a horse is lame is to have him trot. If he isn’t moving smoothly, then he is probably lame in one of his front feet. If one of his hind legs is lame, he will put more weight on the other leg.

-Another way to tell is to have your horse trot in both directions on a hard/asphalt surface. The lame leg will have a softer sound than the others, and the other leg will sound louder than the others because it is taking more weight.

-If your horse is moving at a stumbling gait when asked to trot, he is most likely lame in either both front legs or all for legs.

-Your horse can also show reluctance to move, and throwing his head when trotting.

Set up an appointment with your vet if your horse acts lame for over two days or so.