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I think that it couldn't hurt to put some LSD on her and see what happens.  Beau has a crooked drive train (high-low heels in front, wiggy left stifle, higher on right side than left) that actually gets more symmetrical the more he's in work.  When I stop conditioning, he tends to fall apart a little more.  My mare also has a front leg that turns out a little and she gets ton of flare on that foot.  She's 18 y.o. and has done a few LD's over the past year (never used for endurance before) and the vet thinks that once she's recovered from whatever soft tissue injury that she had, there is no reason why I couldn't do a 50 on her.  And conditioning means nothing special - just the usual mostly trotting on the trail.  I could say I do arena work with them, but the arena work isn't enough to make a difference in their conditioning.

 

I think you'll be observant enough to know when to slow down on her work.

 

K.

On Mon, Sep 8, 2008 at 8:04 AM, Marlene Moss <marlene@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hi,

I've got a 3yo Egyptian filly that is spectacularly put together except for her right hind leg.  From the fetlock down, the foot curls in a bit and the hoof is vertical on the outside and tends to flare on the inside.  It's not huge, and the hoof is "under" the leg, just not centered.  Since I'm lucky enough to have Gene Ovnicek in my backyard, I had him take a peek at her to make sure I was trimming her in the best way to help and get his opinion on what limits I should place on her riding career.  He wasn't overly worried about it and I was comfortable with that since I don't ask a horse to do something it doesn't want to do or can't physically perform.  He was the one that mentioned the term "windswept" to me, I hadn't heard it before.

 

We have just started doing a little light saddle work and all is going well.  She really is so well put together and moves very nicely with no indication that the foot is troubling her that I've gone from, "well maybe we'll focus on dressage and do light trail work" to "gee, I really hope this horse wants to do endurance because she can really move well".  She could do dressage too, but I get really bored only going in circles!

 

So my question is whether anyone has had any experience with a foot like this and how limiting it could be or if we do a good job building up strength slowly if she just might do well in spite of?  I can take a picture if someone wants to see how bad it is compared to something they've already dealt with.  Any ideas on building her up to deal with this would be appreciated as well.  Oh, and we're not jumping right into conditioning any time soon.  I'm just going to do a month to get her started under saddle, then maybe another month later this fall, then start up slowly in the spring when she's 4 with a goal of doing a ride late next summer at the earliest.  That's only if she's into it mentally, she is still a pouty child at times!

 

Thanks,

Marlene

 

Marlene Moss

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