Camel/lateral walk in a youngster

[Mero]

Lovely little 18 month old, new to me, has a tendency to lateral walk and swing legs out a bit as he moves rather than moving straight. On your experience is this common in youngsters and are they likely to grow out of it?

As context, he has good underlying conformation but is in a real fugly stage, long legs, very short back and no muscle. He also had/has massively overgrown hooves having never been trimmed (or handled at all) so his hind balance was awful, almost rocking him back onto his heels. He gets his first proper trim in a few days as we have had to get him used to having his feet handled. I’ve taken a little off the toes with a rasp whilst training him to have his feet faffed with so they are still way too long but not pointy slippers and he is showing more natural walk steps.

Am I too optimistic to think that it could be caused by having really overgrown feet and he may straighten out as the hoof balance improves?

 

[Gloi]

Do you know the breeding?
It might be worth doing a test on her to see if she carries gaited genes if this carries on once the feet are sorted out and he strengthens up. Various companies do it and the price varies a lot between them. I paid £99
https://www.animalgenetics.us/equine/Equine Performance/Gait.asp
I did this on mine to test him before I started training him. He is AC carrying one copy of the gene and is gaited. Loose in the field he walks square on the flat and lateral downhill.

 

[Mero]

Do you know the breeding?
It might be worth doing a test on her to see if she carries gaited genes if this carries on once the feet are sorted out and he strengthens up. Various companies do it and the price varies a lot between them. I paid £99
https://www.animalgenetics.us/equine/Equine Performance/Gait.asp
I did this on mine to test him before I started training him. He is AC carrying one copy of the gene and is gaited.

He’s a Connemara so I don’t think genetically prone.

I hadn’t realised there were genetic markers tests gaited breeds but makes sense.

 

[Gloi]

He’s a Connemara so I don’t think genetically prone.

I hadn’t realised there were genetic markers tests gaited breeds but makes sense.

Hopefully he just needs to build up muscle then ?

 

[stangs]

No experience with this, but swinging legs out could be to do with overgrown hooves, especially if they were long enough to seriously affect his balance as you describe with the hindquarters. As for the lateral walk, I was always led to believe that that’s caused by tense back muscles - maybe his are tense because of the prior mentioned adjustments taken place for balance. So I would think it should decrease overtime as his feet improve. Possibly worth getting a physio out for him if there’s not much improvement after a farrier visit or two?

 

[ihatework]

It can be a sign of a neck compression. I’d get a decent vet to give a once over