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Calf Kneed Horse - Personal Experiences Only

Hi, long time reader here. This is my first post. I am looking at a nice young green ASB for trail/dressage/a little bit of everything, who is slightly back at the knees. From my research, it appears that this is a very bad fault. And yet it is not uncommon. I am interested to hear about your own personal experiences, and how it has impacted the horse’s soundness. Thank you.

Years and years ago, I had a QH gelding who was calf-kneed, and not just a little. His workload was light (occasional jumping to 2’6", flatwork in the arena, and flat trails) and he stayed sound for the 3 years I owned him, from ages 3-6. I was young and he was cheap, so although I knew it was a fault I didn’t worry about it much because the rest of his conformation was very good and he was naturally pretty well-balanced/not overly heavy on the forehand. If I had to choose now between a horse with slight calf knees and the ridiculously straight hind legs I see on so many horses, I’d buy the calf knees every time.

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My horse is back at the knee. I’ve had him for 10 years now and I haven’t had any soundness issues with him. I just do dressage, so not high impact. He’s a Percheron. He has decent bone. I guess it also depends on how much the legs are affected, but we haven’t had any problems.

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I owned a mustang mare with calf knees, taught her to jump and evented her for a few years then sold her to a family. She’s still going strong at the lower levels and has never had an off day in her life. I passed on a horse when I was shopping a few years ago because although sound, he was back at the knee so bad his entire leg was concave. The seller also wanted more than he was worth at his age.

My first horse had calf knees.

I jumped him (mostly 3’6"), galloped, trail rode, etc…

His knees never gave him (or me) any problems.

He was also sickle hocked, and cow hocked. His hocks gave me a few problems (capped hocks) which were treated by me with cold hosing for a week or so.

All the decades I owned him I was SO GLAD I did not know what bad conformation was when I bought him. He was my angel from heaven.

One old time horseman told me that he found calf kneed horses to be more secure when going over really rough ground. I don’t know how accurate this statement was but I did not have any knee problems and that horse would carry me anywhere.

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Wow, so far very interesting. I just bought a young horse who I believe is slightly calf kneed. I can find very little information about it online, except that it’s baaaad - one of the worse leg deformities - and to be avoided, because it will always be prone to damage.

For all the sound calf kneed horses on this thread there are many more that don’t stay sound. That is why calf knees are considered such a serious conformation fault. Have you had a veterinarian look at the horse yet? A vets opinion is important as they will be able to see the horse in person and judge the severity of the fault.

If you buy the horse, buy it with the understanding that it may not stay sound. It is definitely a gamble. Good luck! :slightly_smiling_face:

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I had a horse who was slightly calf kneed. It wasn’t really bad, I asked my trainer about it. He said (here comes the hearsay!) that it’s mostly a concussion problem for horses loading those knees when extended, such as when racing or landing from jumps. The force of landing on a bent back leg can injure the front of the knee capsule. (here’s the end of the hearsay!)

That being said, my horse was a trail, jumping, some dressage horse who didn’t ever have trouble with his knees for the 11 years he was with me.

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I mean, it’s not as if all the articles that say calf knee is a serious conformation fault are trying to deceive you. It’s a conformation flaw that predisposes a horse to unsoundness, and this knowledge is based on 100s of years of breeding and knowledge about the physics of a horse’s gaits. But it’s not a guarantee of unsoundness, just a predisposition. So you’ll find plenty of anecdotes of horses that turned out just fine.

But this is a young horse, so you don’t know how he’ll do over time. If he were already 8-10yrs old, already doing the job you want to be doing, and still sound, then heck yeah, that’s the evidence you need. Go for it.

But since you don’t know how this young one will turn out, just make sure you have a plan and the budget to retire him, or be willing to adjust your riding ambitions to match his capabilities. That’s true of all horses, but becomes more important when you’re dealing with a known predisposition.

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