My horse has very upright legs will this affect her?

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JJtheJetPlane

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Hi everyone...After some advice or experiences please.. I bred my horse she is 17 hh ISH. She has quite upright conformation particually her pasterns. She is young and a bit to laid back and the other day out hacking at a trot she literally went flying landing on the floor. Do you think i should worry this is because she is so upright..I have asked my trainer and also farrier who see no problem..But its not there horse, and im a little concerned. Has anyone else had any similar experiences good or bad.? Do you think this will affect her performance.Thanks
 
Being up right usually leads to more concussion through the legs so they are considered to be harder on their legs than horses of a more 'normal' confo. My old horse has really upright pasterns and has just retired at the age of 24 so they can work to a good age but it has been a constant battle to keep him sound as he does like to go everywhere at 100 mph. He has arthritis is both front pastern and coffin joints and because of the angle of his front legs this has been the most problematic as it pushes the worse side of the joint together. The vet says that if the angle was better he prob wouldn't be feeling anything at all. When I had him I was careful on the ground,pads in shoes when needed and fed a joint supplement all year round.From your point of view the uprightness could give you quite a hard ride in terms of comfort as you can normally feel every stride and they can be quite jolty - also extension is normally harder than collection. My horse was a really extreme case and was close to an 80 degree angle from the floor so we were always going to be fighting a losing battle with him. You could also find that if she is young things may improve slightly as she carries on maturing - some pics might be useful so we can see how extreme or not is the problem.
 
Upright legs shouldn't cause her to fall over, that is more likely to be a baby/lack of balance issue. Or possible assocaited with her feet, to long feet can lead to tripping. Was she due to be shod?

In the long term upright legs (depends on her exact conformation, pic?) means that her 'shock absobers' won't work as well so that repeated work on hard ground or just general work will result in greater wear and tear on her joints over her life time and make her more prone to certain forms of lameness.
I know many people believe that upright conformation makes them prone to navicular (? sorry I think thats is the bones in foot/lower leg condition I mean!) but I don't know of any hard evidence of this.
Another thing against upright conformation is that many believe it leads to uncomfortable/ jolting paces.

Of course none of this is a hard rule and it depends entierly on the horse, the work load and a million other things.One of the most comfortable horses I have ever ridden had very upright pasterns.
 
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