Please pardon the poor angles. I didn’t take these, and I’m aware I’m asking for a best guess on bad photos.
Are these pasterns super long, or are we looking at mostly a shoeing issue that is making it look funny?
I am used to shorter, more upright pasterns, even with actually awful feet (think pancake neglect, not just imperfect).
Partially just training my eye, partially wanting to support a friend who is questioning their farrier.
You need better pictures, legs actually under the body, from far lower down than the existing pics, to be able to tell anything meaningful.
Fwiw, it’s a mixed bag as to whether long pasterns predispose a horse to more injuries. Some vets believe the opposite.
Agreed on needing better pics - these make it look like negative palmar/plantar angles may be afoot…
These are the others the person sent me - screenshot of a screenshot I’m afraid. Just the fronts.
I agree about the angles - hence why I’m entertaining the discussion. I am hypercritical of shoeing sometimes. Farrier is telling the owner that the horse just has long pasterns and that’s it. I’m skeptical.
Also @endlessclimb, I’ve only ever heard that long pasterns are “bad”. Especially for a jumping career. But I’m interested if there’s counter evidence. I am off to google!
The picture on the left, the pasterns appear long-ish but the angle doesn’t worry me. The picture on the right, that LF appears broken back, however it appears the horse is standing on a tiny slope which would put the angle lower naturally.
Honestly I’d want to see this horse stood up level on concrete or other smooth flat surface.
The first pictures you posted the hinds look NPA to me.
I would hazard that NPA behind is almost guaranteed. I have seen others in this barn but not THIS one in person.
I think the shoeing leaves much to be desired but I also think those are some pretty long pasterns.
Yes, slightly long. I’m also curious to know if the pastern angle matches the shoulder angle?
I bought my horse in 2001 and had him for 21 years. He had a 2 degree pad and Natural Balance shoes. We switched to Avanti shoes the last few years I had him, which solved his problem with occasional stumbles. He arrived with neglected hooves with long toes. The pad was prescribed by the vet (who retired in 2020 after 50 years in practice). He did an overall exam and x-rays. Our farrier was working on getting his toes and breakover corrected. The angle of the pastern bone should continue in a straight line through the hoof. The x-rays were taken in 12/21. He had a lump on his left knee that I knew would give out due to severe arthritis. I had to put him down in 7/22 when he lost the flexion. I knew I would lose him to the knee; it was a matter of when.
The pasterns look long on your horse, but that is the way he is built. Looking at the left front, the front of the hoof wall is curved and the heel looks low. If you look at each hoof you can see that the angles of the hoof walls are not consistent.
He had lameness evaluation by a specialist at New England Equine Hospital. I had him on a 4-week schedule with the farrier the last year I had him. The vet did x-rays of the fronts every few months so we could monitor the angles. This is the right and left fronts. You can see the angle of the pad between the shoe and the sole. Somewhere I have photos but I can’t find them amongst the zilllions I saved on my PC.
It takes upwards of a year for a hoof to grow out, so you have to be patient and rely on the farrier. If this were my horse I would have the hooves x-rayed so you can see what is going on.
Well, update. Vet was apparently out with the X-ray for someone else and my friend had some images taken of her horse.
The answer is “yeah those pasterns are long but his feet need work too”. To answer one question posed above, the pasterns look like they’ll match the shoulder if/once the hoof angles are improved.
So I guess, as is often with horses, the answer is “both”.
Unless the horse has something like DSLD where the fetlock is abnormally dropped, the pastern and hoof angles should look to be in alignment just like any horse. If not, then probably P3 is not aligned due to poor trim which then can make the pastern bones also look off.
My best show hunter had long pasterns. They can also make for more comfortable gaits. If functionally normal (not “soft” pasterns), I don’t worry about it. But the farrier work is a totally separate issue.
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