wonky hoof x ray

[SEL]

More because its interesting really. My farrier guessed rightly that although her hoof is a quirky shape her bony column inside has sort of straightened itself out, so if you forced the hoof straight then you'd be causing all kinds of problems up the leg.

She was sound until recently when she misjudged her braking distance into a fence, but is now on box rest with twice daily walk outs. Once the month of a million storms has passed she can go into a pen.

Not optimistic about long term prognosis because now she's hurt herself I think compensatory patterns are putting more pressure on her wonky back legs, but if she can get back to light hacking then we'll take it

 

[ycbm]

Fascinating! Make that foot look right from the outside, and everything goes to pot inside!

 

[ester]

Interesting, any issues higher up?

 

[SEL]

Fascinating! Make that for look right from the outside, and everything goes to pot inside!

Which is precisely what my farrier said to the vet when she said the feet weren't balanced!

Interesting, any issues higher up?

Good question. When she was at the vets I did ask if they thought she had any SI problems but she was 100% sound after they nerve blocked the annular ligament on this leg and the check ligament on the opposite fore (which is a new 'I crashed into a fence' problem). I'm still debating over a scan but the vet doesn't think it worthwhile. She has minor KS just behind where the saddle goes on x ray but nothing major

We have wondered if she had a foal very young (her initial owner in her passport runs his mares and stallions together) but she had a large foal for a friend of mine without issue so it wouldn't suggest any pelvic problems. Once the feathers came off we could see some white hairs on both hinds which made me wonder if she'd had a fencing injury as a baby, but vet thinks its likely she was born with her hind foot wonky.

 

[Gloi]

I would say that the foot grows wonky because something higher up causes her to put more weight on the steeper side of the foot as she moves.

 

[Mynstrel]

We had one like that, he was slightly pigeon toed and when we x-rayed the inside of his dodgy leg looked like a wonky Jenga tower. Interesting and scary in equal measures given he'd been a showjumper, not sure how his leg had stood up to it (he was 18 at the time of x-ray).

 

[SEL]

It is interesting and scary in equal measures and makes me feel a bit uncertain about getting back on her from an ethical perspective. Vet says to crack on given she's had a robust work up and I'll never get a definite answer but now I know I'll always know...

 

[Errin Paddywack]

The shape of that foot looks just like my mare's worst foot, no idea what it looks like inside. She is horribly pigeon toed and when she walks towards you, you can see that the loading to the outside comes from higher up. She is only with me to retire but I don't think she had any soundness issues with her front legs, just her back ones.

 

[Mynstrel]

It is interesting and scary in equal measures and makes me feel a bit uncertain about getting back on her from an ethical perspective. Vet says to crack on given she's had a robust work up and I'll never get a definite answer but now I know I'll always know...

My husband said the same about jumping ours again when he saw that - whatever happened he was definitely on the easy list from that point on. The plan was still to do flat stuff with him because he needed something to do, just no more landing on it from a great height knowing how wonky the landing gear was. But as he'd jumped to age 18 and it'd never bothered him he obviously wasn't feeling it.

Like you say, once you've seen what's in there you can't unsee it no matter what anyone else says. It's a tough one.

 

[alibali]

That's very interesting, thanks for sharing. My previous horse was the same but less extreme. I got a new farrier who made a beautiful job of evening up his hooves, horse was lame within months. Went barefoot, horse wore it back to a slightly wonky foot. Sound as a pound on it for the rest of his life.

 

[Gloi]

My old pony was toe out in front and wore his feet like that. He wore through one side of his shoes really quickly and I changed to boots back in the days of the awful early easyboots that came off all the time. Despite that he was never lame except from squabbling and in full work until he was 28.

 

[PapaverFollis]

I suspect if you worked on straightening the hoof capsule gradually enough, the various structures would slowly move inside and the bones would stay aligned where they are. It's sudden changes that would probably throw things out of whack.
We're still straightening The Beast's wonky foot gradually. Time scale very long now! So millimetres at a time and constant trimming, rather than 6 week cycles. But it's getting there and she's moving better, much more confident landings etc. Not having the confidence to whack it all off in one go has probably been a blessing!

 

[SEL]

Tbh if I posted a video of her trotting round snorting with her tail in the air and feathers flying (before we zapped them) you'd never spot the quirky feet nor think "lame"

She self trims very effectively but her hooves are certainly unique to her. She's bored stiff after 2 weeks with just in hand walking and box rest and my gut feeling is she'll want to have a job it's just finding the right balance

I think she'd like more babies but I wouldn't want the risk of genetic wonky hooves!

 

[SEL]

I was thinking about this post reading @ycbm post about wonky legs. Straight legs here, wonky feet.

We're just about a year on and she's stayed hacking sound. Shoes with lateral extensions on her hinds because she was hammering down so hard on the roads her frog was getting squashed into a tiny lump and she was sore. My farrier has been a star and slowly, slowly worked with her hooves.

12 months on I am convinced that this relates to upper body problems - helps that I've been doing my equine bodywork diploma so the poor pony gets poked, prodded and massaged regularly. I will probably have some injections into the KS because she has a tendency to throw herself on the forehand and it might help build up the correct muscles. She's not reliably landing heel first on her forefeet judging by the wear.

Fortunately she's a great little hack and about as bombproof as you can get - so that's what she does. I wasn't entirely sure about riding her again but she jumped a puddle and bogged off with me this morning so as long as she's happy then we'll continue.

 

[ycbm]

Excellent news, I hope it continues.
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