Club foot/ballerina syndrome legacy in adult

smiggy

smiggy

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Ok, I know really what the answer to this is but.... Last night went to see a very sweet unbacked 4yr old. They had said on the phone that she was "a bit over at the knee" which wasn't really a concern to me. When we got there though, she had a club foot on that leg, at which point we were told that she had had ballerina syndrome as a foal. The club foot also had a flare as apparently she had just had a chunk cut out due to white line disease (I know I can hear you all thinking why are you even typing this!) The other front foot (it gets worse) had 3 large cracks, from the bottom, about 5cm long. She wasn't sound in walk and hobbling in trot, but the only surface available was a horrible gravelly drive.
But she was really sweet, do you think this could all be sorted with a good farrier and proper hoof care?
am thinking would at least need xray to see if pedal bone affected by club foot and white line?
I do really know should just walk but then you see on here loads of horses have club foot and still compete etc.
 
I'm not sure whether this could be sorted or not but no matter how sweet she is, why would you try when there are plenty of sweet AND sound 4 year olds out there?
 
it might be fine but I'm guessing you are looking at a 4yo because you want to crack on and ride? are you wanting to take on an extensive foot rehab with the money and time it involves? I would walk away tbh.
 
I would walk away. Alot of nice horses out there to be wasting time with this one. However,my top mare has a slight club foot and it has never affected her. My farrier reckons this is down to incorrect hoof management when she was younger and not her structure though as she is straight everywhere else. She competes and jumps at 1.20 level with me and I've never had any lameness issues. Had she of been a 4yo with conformation problems I think I would have walked away though.
 
One of my foals had the makings of a ballerina foot. My farrier advised walking him on a hard surface for 10 minutes a day (up and down the drive) which sorted it out.

I would walk away from this horse - think you will spend a lot of money and end up with a field ornament.
 
Walk away - why buy something that young with a known problem that could cause all sorts of issues and problems later on (or could already have all sorts of issues and problems just waiting to surface).

My horse has a club foot - off fore - he has navicular in both fronts, but it's much worse in that foot . . . he damaged his suspensory - guess where? Off fore. He has accommodated his way of going for years, despite having remedial farriery, regular bodywork and being in very correct work, but he has finally broken permanently I have just retired him and he's only 17.

I wouldn't touch another one with known foot issues with a bargepole. There are plenty of perfectly sound 4-year-olds out there - and an awful lot of them are very sweet.

P
 
WALK AWAY. Unfortunately this horse clearly hasn't received the correct rehab early enough to correct the problem or it did but didn't work... IMO if they have such deformities at that age, when they have done the bulk of their growing, there is very little you can do to correct it...
 
Speaking as someone who has a lovely mare with a club foot, I too would be in the walk away camp. We have hugely improved her feet but it is a constant battle and not a situation I would put myself into again.
 
CBFan said:
WALK AWAY. Unfortunately this horse clearly hasn't received the correct rehab early enough to correct the problem or it did but didn't work... IMO if they have such deformities at that age, when they have done the bulk of their growing, there is very little you can do to correct it...
Click to expand...

Exactly and add the fact the seller told you a pack of lies to get you to view the horse, no doubt hoping you would fall in love with it....!
 
I'm another who says walk away. If it was going to be fairly easy and not too expensive to correct, why haven't the current owners done it before selling? Also, you mention white line disease and flare but I think you have it the wrong way round or the owners do, if it's them who told you). Flare would predispose to white line disease wouldn't it? As the white line gets stretched by the flare. And having a chunk cut out of the hoof to treat white line disease wouldn't cause the rest of the hoof to flare, I don't think, not if it was healthy. Not sure I would trust these owners, it's not a good start that they think it's ok to not mention severe lameness on the phone and let you have a wasted journey. I'd have been annoyed.
 
We all know the old saying
No foot...no horse!

Walk away save yourself lots of heartache and money- it may well be manageable but it's lame when not in work so the chances of it holding up in work are even slimmer. A friend has a horse with slight club foot and small rotation at fetlock on that foot- the farrier says yes it will do the job for now but it will eventually breakdown.
 
I had a mini mare who developed quite severe ballerina syndrome as a young foal. My first ever post on here was looking for advice in fact. She had muscle relaxants and was fitted with resin toe extensions by my amazing farrier. By eighteen months she was perfect, you would never have known at all.

To my mind if this hasn't been corrected properly by now not only may it not be fixable, but even if it is, the unusual joint use may well leave a legacy of issues later on.
 
Thanks guys, you are all of course right, I was just a bit worried I was making a mountain out of a molehill
For what's it's worth, I think owners were misguided rather than deliberately misleading, genuinely don't realise the problem.
Will walk away :(
 
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