Pigeon-toes?

[domane]

Am I right i thinking that a horse with slight pigeon-toes that dishes in it's movement could be helped with corrective trimming and specialist shoeing? Does anyone have any stories with positive outcomes? Just wondering whether it was a cure or a managed problem?

Many thanks

 

[intouch]

Need to know more about the horse - what age? Weight, breed? Some youngsters can have Pigeon-toes which correct with good trimming and fitness.

I've an elderly mare who is overweight and not as fit as she could be, when she is relaxed her elbows stick out which make her look dreadfully pigoen-toed, but when she's up and running she's fine.

A bit of body work might help too.

 

[soulfull]

some can be helped but NOT cured by shoeing. Most pigeon toes comes from higher up so can't be helped. Also you don't want to start changing too much as it will cause too many tendon problems

 

[NELSON11]

My horse has an inward rotation on the left fore but it comes from his elbow so it is the whole limb really.

He does dish with this limb although the foot lands flat and balanced. My farrier has ensured he has always had spot on foot balance since a youngster and he is now shod in front, he is 4 and was backed in June so they just ensure he again is balanced. Sometimes a slight lateral extension can aid this, but it won't cure it.

Your farrier/vet are the best people in my opinion to advise you on your horse and if/what corrective trimming/shoeing is best

 

[Orangehorse]

My horse has slight pigeon toes, in fact his front leg conformation is a bit wierd. I had a farrier who did the most fantastic job of shoeing him and he didn't look pigeon toed at all, and I showed him successfully. However, he then developed a swelling on the outside above the knee. I had the vet out with the farrier to decide if anything could be done, but the vet agreed that the farrier was doing a good job and she thought it was caused by a knock.

My eyes were drawn to this lump every time I looked at my horse. I wondered if the knee was being "torqued" and I decided to have the shoes removed for the winter, and beyond. Well, the lump on the knee disappeared and has never come back and his feet went through some really weird differences in growith and ended up looking almost correct. He had shoes back on but has Natural Balance shoes and his pigeon toes are once more quite evident.

 

[almorton]

pidgeon toes can be helped by proper farriery, but not corrected after 12 months old. the reason being, the growth plates have closed after a year old so no corrective growth can take place.
if you try to correct the horse after that age, you will end up breaking it!
however, good farriery should take into account the horses conformation and shoe accordingly

 

[intouch]

Just for interest, From Dr Deb Bennett

The Schedule of Growth-Plate Conversion to Bone

The process of converting the growth plates to bone goes from the bottom of the animal up. In other words, the lower down toward the hoofs you look, the earlier the growth plates will have fused; and the higher up toward the animal's back you look, the later. The growth plate at the top of the coffin bone (the most distal bone of the limb) is fused at birth. What that means is that the coffin bones get no taller after birth (they get much larger around, though, by another mechanism). That's the first one. In order after that:

Short pastern - top and bottom between birth and 6 months.
Long pastern - top and bottom between 6 months and one year.
Cannon bone - top and bottom between 8 months and 1.5 years
Small bones of the knee - top and bottom of each, between 1.5 and 2.5 years
Bottom of radius-ulna - between 2 and 2.5 years
Weight-bearing portion of glenoid notch at top of radius - between 2.5 and 3 years
Humerus - top and bottom, between 3 and 3.5 years
Scapula - glenoid or bottom (weight-bearing) portion – between 3.5 and 4 years
Hindlimb - lower portions same as forelimb
Hock - this joint is "late" for as low down as it is; growth plates on the tibial and fibular tarsals don't fuse until the animal is four (so the hocks are a known "weak point" - even the 18th-century literature warns against driving young horses in plow or other deep or sticky footing, or jumping them up into a heavy load, for danger of spraining their hocks).
Tibia - top and bottom, between 3 and 3.5 years
Femur - bottom, between 3 and 3.5 years; neck, between 2.5 and 3 years; major and 3rd trochanters, between 2.5 and 3 years Pelvis - growth plates on the points of hip, peak of croup (tubera sacrale), and points of buttock (tuber ischii), between 3 and 4 years.
And what do you think is last? The vertebral column, of course. A normal horse has 32 vertebrae between the back of the skull and the root of the dock, and there are several growth plates on each one, the most important of which is the one capping the centrum. These do not fuse until the horse is at least 5 ½ years old (and this figure applies to a small-sized, scrubby, range-raised mare. The taller your horse and the longer its neck, the later the last fusions will occur. And for a male - is this a surprise? - you add six months. So, for example, a 17-hand Thoroughbred or Saddlebred or Warmblood gelding may not be fully mature until his 8th year - something that owners of such individuals have often told me that they "suspected").