After reading through this comment thread, I have come up with new headcanon.
Pony hooves are like (or are internally made of) cornstarch non-Newtonian fluid.
There, problem solved! Enjoy your both-sensitive-and-hardy hooves.
(Either that or it’s instinctual magic. Fuck, I don’t know. Because hey, that makes as much sense as, well, magic and their entire society existing in the manner it does.)
@Xamrin
it’s highly implied that the bottom outer-front edge of even the girl ponies are hard, i.e. pinkie and rarity ‘making their hooves shiny’ in some episodes. though if it’s cartoonishly convenient the whole thing can be soft as a mashmallow it would seem haha. I always wrote them like that though, a hooflike outer edge with a clean, soft, supple underside - I don’t really understand why people are comparing them to real horse hooves either, these characters are only inspired by real equines, nothing more. i mean, look at the snouts… look at the EYES… why do you think the hooves would be the same?
Considering that MLP hooves are flexible and can twist and bend, then that means they’re soft (not as hard as a rock as some people think). These aren’t RL hooves, so the comparison is invalid.
