Yearling with cow hocks

[Janetterose]

I have seen a TB yearling - absolutely beautiful and very very well bred - which has slight cow hocks both when stood and when moving. Given that I would like to show and breed is this a total no no?

 

[Peacelily]

yeah leave it alone - if you want to show then there's no point compromising on confirmation....you'll find another one I'm sure that ticks all the boxes

 

[Janetterose]

I've read that sometimes they grow out of them

 

[ColourFan]

Is he over-fed (too much weight on him)? Very bad for conformation ... can lead to cow hocks.
Has he been to a farrier? Unseen to hoeves or uncorrected hoeves can also lead to bad conformation, ie cow hocks.

If it is one of the above ... then he might be worth taking the risk, otherwise addressing the problem will help improve it but will not make it go away if it is a basic conformation fault.

 

[air78]

Yearlings often grow out of cow hocks as their inner thigh muscles develop, I've found

 

[Rollin]

There is a q on straight hocks on breeding forum. Look at Magic's reply and reference - very interesting and it says many horses have 'slight' cow hocks.

 

[Tnavas]

Youngsters do sometimes have the look of cow hocks and do grow out of it.

I was really disapointed at one stage with my first foal for this reason and the farrier told me not to worry that he would grow out of it and he has.

 

[Janetterose]

I've looked at the article that Rollin mentioned:
http://horses-arizona.com/pages/articles/legset.html

its good - it looks like she actually base narrow but cant find anything about the implications of that. Anyone have any idea?