Rising 3yo gelding with long pasterns -need advice on foot care and wondered how bad you think they are?

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redferrari

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I have a rising 3yo gelding. Had him vetted and all that came up was that his pasterns are fairly long. My vet wasnt too concerend and said as long as you have a good farrier and get his foot balance right- he'll be fine!
I have recently moved areas and have a new farrier. He's fairly young but has a really good reputation. What do I ask him to do/ what do I look out for to make sure my gelding foot balance is correct?
Also, will he be able to do some lower level jumping in future? Will attach pictures of him so you can see what his pasterns look like. Tino 1.jpg
 
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Those are really not photos to try and judge a horses conformation from!!! You’d probably advise shooting from the bottom one 🙈😬🤪

But in general, no horse is perfect and if slightly long in the pastern was the only vet finding I wouldn’t be overly concerned. Indeed I had similar comment on an expensive event yearling and proceeded.
 
those are terrible photos to judge anything from I'm afraid, can you get one with him stood square? I don't mind slightly long slopey patterns as they make horses a comfortable ride. Those look long and upright although it may be the photo. Realistically there is nothing you can do about the pasterns, and to be fair, some of the worst put together horses stay sound forever, so there's a lot of luck involved.

Just make sure his foot balance is spot on. I might even be tempted to have a set of xrays done before he starts serious work at 5 or 6, if those photos are how they look. That will let you make sure the internal structures are in perfect balance with the feet.
 
ihatework said:
Those are really not photos to try and judge a horses conformation from!!! You’d probably advise shooting from the bottom one 🙈😬🤪

But in general, no horse is perfect and if slightly long in the pastern was the only vet finding I wouldn’t be overly concerned. Indeed I had similar comment on an expensive event yearling and proceeded.
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Thank you. This makes me feel better. In terms of your young event horses foot balance does your farrier trim them in a specific way?
 
No she doesn’t need anything specific on the front feet which is where slightly long in pastern. She has particularly nice well balanced feet.
 
I have owned far worse with no problems and no special treatment. The main thing is always making sure that the horse gets enough progressing exercise to help the body buttress any weakness. I wouldn't want a farrier to fiddle too much, at three the supporting structures have developed to compensate.

The response of bone, articular cartilage and tendon to exercise in the horse - PMC

Horses can gallop within hours of birth, and may begin training for athletic competition while still growing. This review cites studies on the effects of exercise on bone, tendon and articular cartilage, as detected by clinical and research imaging ...
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
 
I have a 4 year old with long pasterns and they're quite flexy, so there's a decent amount of drop at the fetlock at the trot and the canter. Standing square he doesn't look too bad.

That being said, I'm not going to pursue any jumping with him, although he wasn't purchased for that anyway. I also bought him as a yearling. I wouldn't purchase him now as a 4 year old.

Anyway, hoof balance is important. Especially making sure there's proper heel and that the toe isn't long at all. The worst thing would be a flat, underrun, and/or or long hoof, IMO.

I do focus on keeping the rest of his body strong and do a bit of posture work.

It's a crapshoot sometimes though. Beautifully conformed horses go lame or break down, and some poorly conformed horses do quite well for themselves, and vice versa.
 
I had a three year old who was worse in that her hinds were as bad as her fronts. She had raced and stayed sound.

I would advise you to do everything you can to get him strong, turn out on a steep slope if possible, work in hand before backing to get the core strong, keep the work consistent week on week, build it up slowly, and cross your fingers.
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Strengthening his body AND foot balance as others have said. It's not too early to dabble with a little postural work (see Annie Dillon on FB and her Fuego, just backing him now), Slow Walk Work group on FB is my current freebie recommendation, programme in the featured posts in the group and there's a free webinar this and next weekend.
 
Some of my soundest horses had the most awful conformation but were tough and stayed sound and hunted hard into their 20s. Sensible work, good food and a good farrier. Don't get too hung up on it honestly or you'll never do anything. Just be sensible, use your common sense. Whilst good conformation helps it is certainly no guarantee of soundness.
 
nikkimariet said:
I’m more concerned with the broken forward HPA, looks fairly post legged in stance already and fetlocks look slack with possibility to drop. Whats the breeding?
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This confirmation was originally from his trimmer- which is why my vet said I need a good farrier. Could be the pictures making it look worse. He doesnt have club foot or much of a broken forward HPA in real life. The only slight concern apart from long pasterns was his hind left hoof which with good trimming can be corrected. He is by Va Bene out of a Diamond Hit mare.
 
redferrari said:
This confirmation was originally from his trimmer- which is why my vet said I need a good farrier. Could be the pictures making it look worse. He doesnt have club foot or much of a broken forward HPA in real life. The only slight concern apart from long pasterns was his hind left hoof which with good trimming can be corrected. He is by Va Bene out of a Diamond Hit mare.
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I’d be interested to see some more pics, I’m not being facetious I find this sort of stuff very interesting.

IMG_7296.jpeg
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IMG_7298.jpeg

The pics you’ve used are a huge alarm bell for me, but some horses don’t stand up
Well and if you’ve changed the management of the feet then that may have had a positive impact.
 
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