Brief Thoughts on Holding with Hooves · 3:01pm Oct 18th, 2014
We've all seen ponies holding objects with their hooves, but how is this possible? Some postulate a thumb-like digit that is normally hidden within the hoof, but this does not fit well with their build. The answer that I believe best fits is of course magic, but exactly what type? Unicorns are frequently seen manipulating objects with telekinesis, but I don't see why this ability should be limited to them when all races have magical potential. The only difference is that pegasi and earth ponies do not have a horn to project with, therefore they have to actually touch the object that they wish to hold. I call this tactile-kinesis. Just as telekinesis allows unicorns to hold objects, tactile-kinesis will let non-unicorns pick up mugs, hammers or muffins simply by touching them and willing them to be lifted. Unfortunately it doesn't have the subtlety or versatility of telekinesis, so pegasi and earth ponies still do more complicated things like writing with their mouths, and naturally they cannot carry things and walk on that hoof at the same time. Nevertheless, it enables two races with no manipulative digits to be a full tool-using species.
EDIT: As pointed out by OncaLupe, tactile kinesis could also explain how ponies readily hold things on their head and in their mane, or even hold things with their tail.
This has been a Fun Fanon Fact. (FFF#2)
Mmm... Muffins...
Also, tactile-kinesis has been my head-canon since I read Change of Life.
We all know that all three tribes do have magic, Unicorns being the most noticalbe of the three. And one common thing they all do is picking up with hooves so by general agreement there's a second field that they use to hold things in their hooves. Otherwise, why door knobs?
I see it as a cross between Velcro and magnetism that can be turned on and off at will, and will grab on to anything the pony wants and has placed its hoof next to.
But I'm wondering about the strength of it. In the Apple family reunion episode, hammers are wielded in the mouth for instance.
Also, I think that they have strong wrists, allowing them to pin things like a saw between the lower foreleg and the hoof, just as we saw when they "raised this barn" :-)
I don't believe in the use of a hidden thumb.
You know how only the edge of hooves is hard, and the center is soft?
2541027 I am aware of this, and if the frog of the hoof had similar properties in an MLP pony, granular jamming could work up to a point. The biggest problem would be that it would have to protrude beyond the hard hoof, thus preventing the hoof from performing its main function, and forcing the pony to walk on a more sensitive surface. The bigger the object that needs to be picked up, the more it would need to protrude. Of course it's possible that it may be extruded at will, which is a neat solution, but one that we don't see in action, whereas we do see magic in common use. Therefore I believe that tactile-kinesis is the better fit for this ability.
I remember a fanfic that linked it to the hammerspace that ponies seem to use, and that is now my headcanon. "Hammerspace" by Alaborn, I think it was.
Tactile-kinesis has been my headcannon for a while as well, though I call it a Kinesis Field. It would also explain why ponies can carry things on their heads/backs so easily, and do things with their tails (and in Pinkies case, mane).
2542695 An excellent point!
I do believe this ability has conclusively demonstrated in the show. In the episode Rainbow Falls, Rainbowdash has his team practicing passing the horseshoe baton for the race. Fluttershy holds onto the horseshoe but looses her concentration and drops it. I don't think this would happen if she is physically griping the shoe. Magic takes concentration and once she lost that, the shoe dropped.
Although I think that earth ponies would have this ability far in advance of the other races. Otherwise how would you buck just the apples down and not break the tree. Or how would Big Mac would get enough traction to move a house trying to get to Cherilee.
"Magnets! How the heck do they work?!"
Except replace magnets with hooves... Or don't, and drive the pedantics crazy pointing out the ways magnetism and magic are different.
This has been the basics of my hoof-related headcanon for some time. It just makes sense. Ponies are creatures of (or at least full of) magic, this is made pretty explicit. And while you could just blame the stylized art for "not seeing" some physical means of gripping objects, applying Occam's razor is much more satisfying.
Some ponies are probably better at it than others, or better in different ways. I figure you could do some pretty impressive sleight of hoof tricks, too. Imagine "palming" an object and making it crawl up your sleeve. Or spinning a baton against the end of the hoof, or rolling a held ball or can in place (same effect, just in either the same or different directions)... Basically the limiting factor would just be practice, although some might find it harder than others.
I was just having a similar discussion elsewhere, so I thought might add an addendum theory of mine.
The thing I like about the theory of tactile-kinesis is that I think it makes for a nice counterpoint to real world biology. In mammals, structures like hooves/nails as well as antlers/horns are all made out of keratin. Now according to most legends a unicorn's horn is instead made out of a magical substance called "allicorn". So if the latter were also true in MLP then it might logically follow that "alicorn" is found not only in the horn of a unicorn, but also in the hooves of all ponies. As such, while the shape and concentration might make the horn a more efficient and versatile magical channel, all ponies would be able to invoke similar if lesser abilities through their hooves. This would explain not only tactile-kinesis, but also pegasi cloud walking (which can be replicated with a unicorn spell), and earth pony agricultural affinity by way of constantly channeling magic into the soil as they plow their fields.
Further more, hair also contains keratin in real mammals. So continuing the "alicorn" equivalency, this could also explain how cutie marks are able to magically appear on a pony's flank, and why when powered up with rainbow power the M6's cutie marks expanded across their entire coat. Likewise it's might also be why characters like Luna and Celestia have ever-flowing ethereal manes, due to the higher concentration of "alicorn" the substance in their bodies and perhaps why there type of pony is called the same thing.