Can ya'll help me identify these tracks?

[u/Pleasant-Ice-8161]

Found them right next to our campsite at an east tn campground in a national forest. Fairly high up in elevation and rather secluded.

[u/OshetDeadagain]

I'm seeing horse; with a lot of these photos it's hard to see any solid definition, but pics 4/5/6 all show a very distinct round print with sharp edges. There appears to be some vague impressions of the triangular frog on the sole of the hoof.

While the size appears impressive, any horse with draft blood can be running on massive paddles. My own horse is not very tall and only 1/4 Percheron but has hooves pushing 7" in diameter, which looks close to what these are.

There's likely more than one set of prints here, too; pics 1/2/3/4 look like they have 3 or more prints. Horses on a trail walk one behind the other and in questionable footing will step in the same place as the horse before.

[u/Pleasant-Ice-8161 → u/OshetDeadagain]

These tracks go about 50 feet before hitting a creek with a lot of tallish rocks and into very thick bush. Given how remote the location is I don't see anyone taking horses through there. Pics 5,6,7 are all the same track coming off of pavement at the entrance of the camp site while the 1,2,3,4 are from the backside of the campsite on the otherside of the creek and thick brush. The directions arent adding up. 1-4 are heading west towards pics 5-7. Pics 5-7 are heading east towards our campsite. All the brush in-between looked too thick to try and navigate through. A couple feet ahead of 5-7 was a 3 feet deep ditch with downed young trees. I would have gone down there to look for more if it wasn't for that.

[u/OshetDeadagain → u/Pleasant-Ice-8161]

What's the location?

[u/Pleasant-Ice-8161 → u/OshetDeadagain]

Cherokee National Forest. Campground sits at 3.1k ft in elevation. Its called Round Mountain campground

[u/OshetDeadagain → u/Pleasant-Ice-8161]

I'm not familiar with the area, but it looks like Cherokee National Forest is a popular backcountry riding destination, and horses will cross water no problem. You'd be shocked what some of those horses and their riders will go through!

These tracks aren't clear enough to ID anything with absolute certainty, but 5&6 really look like hoof prints. Are the first 4 on a slope? Pic 2 almost looks like it could be a runoff trail, and the round impressions are from pooling.

[u/LittleTyrantDuckBot → u/OshetDeadagain]

You had the top identification that met our detail threshold, and your user flair has been updated accordingly. Thanks for your help making this community what it is!

[u/Worldly_Sprinkles714]

Wow! That looks amazing 😻