Hind fetlocks reaching the floor?

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caitlin95uk

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We have a new pony on our yard, that is a 10 year old girls welsh a pony that is on our yard for a bit, to stay fit and for her to grow some confidence and have some lessons.
she is a bit cheeky so has a young teenager on her twice a week to sort her out.
anyway we noticed today as she was stood still that on her hind fetlocks her pastern bone is almost a 90 degree angle!
and also as she walks her fetlocks drop to centimetres from the floor. with weight on her she is very very close to touching the floor with her fetlocks? is this bad conformation or is it an old injury as we could imagine if she were to rear or put weight on her hinds then her fetlocks could reach the floor.
she used to be a jumping pony as when people see her they say oh that pony used to win all the jumping classes round here.
anyone else got something similar?
 
Are both fetlocks the same? And, is she lame behind?

My horse who has a suspensory ligament injury has dropped fetlocks which i@m told will only get worse.
 
Without being alarmist - it could be that she is not sound in both legs behind which is terribly hard to pick up. However, I'm not an expert and there are probably other explanations for the dropped fetlocks. You could ask your vet - whilst they will not diagnose anything you could ask them what could be the cause, purely as a hypothetical question.
 
Apparently this is a conformation problem- I knew a horse like that a couple of years ago, she had really long pasterns and they were basicly touching the floor when she worked, the owner said that she was sound (backed up by the vet) but was almost certainly going to get tendon/ligament problems when she gets a bit older if she carrys on working.
 
If you analyse the 'cheeky' behaviour closely, can you be sure it isn't pain related? Whatever the cause, it is 'normal' and might well be hurting :-o
 
yess we have considered the naughty behaviour to be like that, but all she does is nap to the gate and prefers to follow the other ponies rather than listen to the rider on top.
 
I know that some foals are born with this but given exercise and time they tend to improve. However in a mature horse I would guess that it was a permanent conformation fault that can't be altered. As a result she probably has weak back pasterns, I don't know whether it could be pain she's exhibiting. get the vet to check her out :)
 
caitlin95uk said:
okay thankyou :) we are worried that if she trots on the road lets say or was to rear on concrete she could touch the floor and scratch the fetlocks.
thanks for your help. :)
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I'd be a bit more worried about the stress and strain on the fetlocks/pasterns and associated ligaments, muscles and tendons than a few external scratches.

How likely is she to rear up? If likely, I'd say there's pain there. Considerable pain.
 
Eriskayowner said:
I'd be a bit more worried about the stress and strain on the fetlocks/pasterns and associated ligaments, muscles and tendons than a few external scratches.

How likely is she to rear up? If likely, I'd say there's pain there. Considerable pain.
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Never has reared since the little girl got her and was sold to them as a pony that has never reared.
 
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