Crooked Legged Colt

[wyocowgirl]

Hello! So I bought a yearling sight unseen and when I picked him up I noticed he had crooked legs. His knees are still flat and not big, he’s toed out but it’s turned in the ankle slightly. He moves fine and lands soft but his feet do wear uneven. I got him to compete in reined cow horse/use at the ranch, but now I’m worried that he might not hold up to that level of riding. Worst case scenario I could make him a nice trail horse and sell him, but I was very excited to have a cow horse prospect. No matter what I’m going to have to train him to get my money back. I’ve included a link to a picture of his legs. I was just wondering what everyone does to prevent lameness in crooked legged horses as I’ve never owned one before. I’ve only had him a few days but I’m very good about keeping my horses on a 6 week trim schedule, and if my farrier thinks he’ll need shoes then I’ll do that as well. Are there any ways to exercise them to keep those joints strong or supplements to keep him on? I’m hoping with him being so young that if I do some preventative actions he’ll have a longer, happier life.

[URL=“https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OsCQSyJkvj5B2qnYBCvHGVx2kMxYdakx/view?usp=sharing”]https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OsC...ew?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-2aJWmlblgFqqAD9EZxekH9ZwV6YQmMY/view?usp=sharing

Here’s a video of him trotting both ways:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/8r1HMK4oriEgSzQn6

[candyappy]

Don’t worry just yet.

I acquired a yearling from a humane society rescue in Feb ( of this year) who toed out as well. Maybe not quite as much as your youngster, but I noticed it right off.

After watching him move in hand and then at liberty, I saw he was a nice mover and he didn’t paddle or have any obvious movement flaws to go along with toeing out significantly.

My farrier has done a " tiny" bit of special trimming but as he has grown and filled out, my youngster has straightened considerably and it is barely noticeable at all now and I bet you will see that as your guy grows and fills out ( in the chest especially) too.

Give it some time and don’t let your farrier be too aggressive.

[cnd8]

They aren’t as bad as I expected after reading your post. I’d keep going with your plans and just work closely with your vet and a quality farrier.

[Highflyer]

Yep, as he fills out he will likely improve a lot.

[cayuse]

What everyone else says :yes:. I have a mini that was like this, when he filled out he straightened out.

[B_and_B]

My farrier had an interesting comment on young toed out horses that are of the stock type (i.e. the chest will get a lot bigger). He feels that not correcting the toed out conformation is the way to go, unless they are actually interfering. As the chest fills out the toed out aspect will usually be reduced naturally. Least that was his take on it. We were discussing my old stock mare that I got when she was 17. She is painful too watch because she would naturally be straight, but aggressive correction when young for toeing out ended up giving her a weirdly twisted leg structure.
I would say, don’t be too aggressive in correcting it, keep their weight down, and give them plenty of time to grow and plenty of space to move! Cute horse!

[Arlomine]

To my eye, he is turned out at the knees as well. That’s much better than a deviation at the pastern only, and may indeed change the alignment as the chest widens.

[lorilu]

get x rays to see how the bones are really aligned - or mis aligned, possibly die to poor trimming… then have your farrier work closely with the vet to (if possible) slowly correct the deviations as the colt grows up and continues to develop.

[wyocowgirl]

You guys made me feel 10x better thank you! Some of my horse training friends were really scolding me for buying a crooked legged horse. I don’t have much experience with raising babies, I usually buy them as 2/3 year olds. I was very worried after getting him home that his legs might get worse as he grew. I knew that sometimes they are born crooked and get straight as they age. But he moves fine he doesn’t paddle so I was hoping that was a good sign. He is such a doll and has a great personality, I think he’ll be very easy to work with. I just want to give him the best shot at life I can. Thank you again everybody!

[goodhors]

He does not look crooked legged, though he does toe out. This is GOOD, because if his knees and toes were pointing straight ahead, he would end up severely toed in, as a muture horse with a big chest. His expanding ribcage will push his elbows outward as he gets older. This growth will rotate the entire leg column and get it pointing forward in time. Front legs are only attached to the skeleton with tendons, ligaments, muscle, which allows lots of flexibility and movement during growth.

What you want to look at is if the bones of leg are aligned. Dropping a string down the leg column should have the forearm, knee, cannon, pasturn, hoof, straight above each other.

I would give him time to mature, because I am sure his legs will rotate to the older horse “look” of straight legs. I would rather have my young horse toeing out now, over being straight legged now, then progressing to toe-in when mature and his eblows have rotated outward.

I would tell Farrier you do NOT want him correctivly trimmed at all! Just a flat trim, then colt can wear off hooves as he wants to. Corrective trimming is false thinking. It just makes toes LOOK straight, which makes bones wear unevenly, stressing the legs. He is not truly “corrected or fixed”. Not good for a future working horse, that you want lasting a long time.

He looks like a cute little horse! I like roans. Perhaps your friends have not looked at many young horses that are not “correctivly trimmed”. Never noticed that upper leg and toes don’t match! I think you will be happy you got him.

[B_and_B]

@goodhors Thanks for the explanation on how it works, that is what my farrier said. I just couldn’t remember it. That false correction is exactly what happened to my mare and is definitely part of what shortened her career as a barrel racer, but from what her previous owner said, it made her look right in an early career in halter. Now, she is an arthritic companion.

[wyocowgirl]

Thank you everyone! I added a video of him trotting that I took yesterday. He’s a pretty nice mover for being toed out. I was hoping that was a good sign. I do really like this little guy he’s so smart and has a super cute personality. I’m very thankful for all of your help!

[candyappy]

I think he will end up fine. What a pretty colored boy. Is he Blue Roan? My boy is a QH as well and your youngster should get a decent chest on him in the next 6+ months as he really grows, judging by the size of his butt now !!

[Kyrabee]

My mare looked similar when I got her as a coming 2yo. She still toes out a bit (now a coming senior lady at 18…left a bit more than right but neither really marked). She has never been lame except for an abscess a few years ago. All I did for her was frequent trims to keep her landing flat. WE did NOT try and straighten her up.

My problem with her when she was little was that damned narrow chest caused her to choke multiple times when the little piggy would bolt food as a 2 and 3 yo. By 4 she finally sprung and her chest widened and that ended thank goodness.

Susan

[wyocowgirl]

@candyappy

I think he will end up fine. What a pretty colored boy. Is he Blue Roan? My boy is a QH as well and your youngster should get a decent chest on him in the next 6+ months as he really grows, judging by the size of his butt now !!

Technically he is a grey but he definitely looks like a blue roan right now! He was born black but he turned grey very fast. He’s going to be a big boy (compared to what I’m used to LOL) he string tests to 15.3. He’s double bred hancock and he has Sun Frost as his paternal grandsire. I’m very excited about him he should be a big boy!

[lorilu]

@B and B

@goodhors Thanks for the explanation on how it works, that is what my farrier said. I just couldn’t remember it. That false correction is exactly what happened to my mare and is definitely part of what shortened her career as a barrel racer, but from what her previous owner said, it made her look right in an early career in halter. Now, she is an arthritic companion.

which is why I suggested x-rays. Hard to tell if the bones are aligned otherwise.

[Bluey]

Stop the second video at .32, seems that his pasterns are a tad long, have your vet evaluate that, see if he grows out of it.
That would concern me more than his legs at that age, as it puts considerable strain on the supporting apparatus.

He will fill in some in the body, and that tends to help straighten front legs that turn out, to a point.

Always remembering that pictures, videos, sure can be misleading to what you see in real life, especially at that age.

[candyappy]

@Bluey My youngster has longish pasterns too, but my vet wasn’t concerned.

[Bluey]

@candyappy

@Bluey My youngster has longish pasterns too, but my vet wasn’t concerned.

Many times they grow and thicken and hold up straight fine.
Mostly those came up on some TB’s.

Our vet used to tell us to just keep an eye on those few that had the kind of long pasterns that were overly flexible.
If at any time they had a little heat or swelling, we had it checked out.

[ThreeFigs]

What a cutie! As others have said, as he fills out and widens, his legs will straighten. Don’t get aggressive with corrections. We had horses at the ranch with much worse leg conformation who worked just fine. Don’t worry! Enjoy him!