Advise for pidgeon toes

[mushting]

Im getting a horse vetted on Friday and he has pidgeon toes that the farrier puts corrective shoes on I just wondered in peoples experience if it causes any problems or is it quite common etc anything I should be concerned about

hes 8, ISH, Gelding 15.3hh and we will be isong for primariily hacking.

Cheers

Karina

 

[YasandCrystal]

A horse with pigeon toes needs to have it's feet kept in good balance. This type of conformation fault can predispose the horse to ringbone. I know this as I have a pigeon toed filly. She has ringbone, however that was trauma induced, but on reading about ringbone it is said that pigeon toed horses can be prone, due to the stress placed on the fetlock and coffin joints. It's best to talk to the vet about it. If you want a horse for hacking this one may be fine at that level. You are probably aware that the farrier should not try to correct the conformation but work with it. Good luck OP.

 

[JillA]

My horse has pigeon toes due to his extremely wide chest, the base of his front feet is much narrower than the top of his legs - very little can be done in terms of foot balance etc. Because of the uneven stress on his fetlock joints he struggles on hard ground, and when he was first being ridden on went bilaterally lame because of roadwork. I bred him and am stuck with him but I wouldn't buy one with that problem - it depends on the degree though.