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Re: [RC] [RC] Confirmation- reply to Tuni - desertrydr1The TENDENCY toward high/low MAY be genetic, but there are also a lot of other factors that can play into it. It can be influenced by feeding practices. It can also be caused by the grazing problem. I denied this for a long time. I have a PB Shagya filly who broke her neck as a baby. She uses the extreme one forward/one back stance. It didn't affect her feet for at least 2 years, but lately I have noticed that her front feet are definitely different sizes and shapes. In her case, the front-placed foot is too low, but the back-placed foot doesn't have a high heel. It's normal. I have noticed that on some breeding farms, almost all of their horses have it, even ones who are totally unrelated. If you can find a pic of Bey Shah that shows his feet, he had the high/low syndrome. And he produced about a 1000 offspring. It's not considered a fault in the show ring, and a lot of breeders just have the check ligament cut so you may not even know the horse had a problem. It is NOT strictly genetic, however. My mare has it, and she had 3 foals. None of them had it. Nothing is as simple in the case of high/low as one definitive cause. All three of these issues (feeding, genetics and grazing stance) can influence it, together or singlely. But I'll wait for Heidi or another vet to chime in. jeri
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