Listen for the rhythmic clip-clop of hooves. If unicorns spoke words while running, they would be excellent at poetic meter, for their hooves would measure the cadence. -- Piers Anthony, Split Infinity (1980) Margaret Mallett, in The Primary English Encyclopedia (2001), suggests that the galloping of unicorn hooves sounds like coconut shells. However, it will be more realistic to expect a subtler vibration (unless you have chosen a tropical location for your unicorn encounter, in which case the sounds you hear when the beast's hooves connect with the turf may actually be coconut shells). Husks aside, consider this more subdued example: The sound of his hooves against the stony floor of the cave was like distant silver bells. (Bruce Coville, Into the Land of Unicorns, 1994) Consider, too, this account of a soft, muffled sound: Behind us, the unicorn canters; I can hear the hoofclacks on the concrete, not a clippety-clop