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[RC] high/low or club foot - Marlene Moss

I am pretty confident that some high/low situations are caused by the way a horse grazes.  I know there are other causes of course.

 

I had a gelding (colt at the time) that had normal feet when I got him at 18 months and within 6 months was clubby on his right front.  We tried trimming and even shoeing, but nothing really helped.  The breeder fed out of high stall feeders and I had him on pasture or hay from the ground.  When he turned 4, both his neck and head grew longer and the club went away on its own.

 

I got an 8 year old Bey Shah mare that was fed out of a high feeder and had normal feet (and they hadn’t been trimmed in a long time, so I know it wasn’t that they’d just evened her up) and within several month of pasture and eating off the ground with me, she was also clubby.

 

We got a 3yo AQHA mare from auction – she looked very t’bred, not quarter at all – that was clubby.  Looooong legs and relatively short neck.  I decided to try feeding her out of a chest high feeder and during the time we had her, we were able to reduce the difference between her hooves from about 6-8 degrees to 2-3 degrees difference.

 

Also, I was always of the opinion that there was a real difference between horses that were club footed and those that were just high/low.  A vet told us that he didn’t make a distinction.  In either case the tendon is shortened.  I still make a mental distinction though – I’m not so worried about a horse that has a small angle difference that allowed the tendon to shorten, but I would be more leery of a horse that was born with a shortened tendon which caused the hoof to grow at steeper angle.  I think then you more often see both fronts clubby.  Or maybe I have no idea what I’m talking about!!

Marlene

 

Marlene Moss

www.LosPinos-CO.com - Boarding, Sales and More

www.KineticEquineAnalysis.com - Saddle Fitting

 


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