Horse standing on his toes at the back...

[PapaFrita]

As if he's thinking of having a wee, but not quite. His heels are just a tiny bit off the ground. I'm assuming this is comfortable for him but was wondering if it might indicate some sort of shoeing issue? He has fairly upright feet, especially one forefoot.

 

[Dressagebabe]

He could actually be relieving his tendons or suspensory ligaments! if he has low heels or long toes this can be a tell tale sign.

 

[nadinek82]

My horse does this. He has arthritis in his hocks and i think he does it to relieve any discomfort he has in them. If he does it a lot he ends up with sore muscles on the top of his bum and i need to get my McTimoney-Corley therapist out.

 

[PapaFrita]

I thought it might be something like that, but he's not got low heels at all. quite the reverse; he has quite upright feet.

 

[PapaFrita]

Hmm, perhaps he's sore somewhere else then.

 

[Dressagebabe]

We have a pony on my livery yard at the moment that my husband is treating with windgalls. The pony has very upright boxy little feet with good heels to the naked eye but when my husband x-rayed the feet the pedal bones were flat (should be about 5°) this meant that the heels were very low inside too!! It sometimes looks good from the eye but an x-ray can show differently. The pony had stretched suspensory ligaments due to the pedal bones being too low hence the windgalls coming up to protect the ligaments. She used to drag her toes all the time whilst out hacking, another sign of soft tissue tendonitis.

 

[PapaFrita]

How interesting. Was she just built that way or had something caused her pedal bones to flatten out like that? This horse is only 4-5 years old.

 

[Tia]

One of my foals was like this last year. Since the snow and ice has gone, she has stopped doing it, but I don't know if the ground had anything to do with it, to be quite honest. I had the vet check her when he was out for something else and he said nothing to worry about and that she would likely grow out of it, well she seems to have as she is 1 year old now. He thought that her fetlock joints were a bit hot and swollen and he gave her a shot of penicillin and left some with me - as I say I don't know whether anything had to do with anything as once the ice went, so did it. No help whatsoever, sorry.

 

[Dressagebabe]

She is a stocky M/W welsh X but with quality, she is beautifully balanced, even canters around in the field on the bit when playing with the others! beats everything at elementary dressage & Eventing. she is only 8yrs. I just wanted to show you that although sometimes their feet can look really good when we look at them an x-ray can show us something totally different inside the mechanics of the foot. We have put her on wedged shoes and taken the toes back even more than they are already, this can be done because the farrier can have the x-rays in front of him and see how far he dare cut back without causing damage to the pedal bone! Best wishes with your horse.

 

[merlinsquest]

Could be trying to relieve the pain of spavins..... my vet told me that horses with painful hocks can reverse up to walls and rest their bum on them so that they can raise their heels. this inturn takes pressure off the hocks....

 

[PapaFrita]

Oh that's interesting. I don't know a thing about spavins; do they happen to young horses? Does conformation pre-dispose a horse to spavins?

 

[merlinsquest]

Not too sure.... merlin was fine till he moved yards and then the work in the school meant that he started them.... too many circles.... he is close behind so maybe conformation has its part to play....

Sure they are caused by stress and concussion to the joints.... they can get them at any age, merly was 8

Good news is though that if its the case, they can often be treated and the horse back to normal