I was curious as to the outcome of your mare.
I believe what you are referring to is a high/low heel which affects a great deal of horses but a club foot is actually a different diagnosis. A high/low heel should not require check ligament surgery and according to a lot of farriers and veterinarians, as Iāve learned having a horse with a pretty pronounced high/low heel, it is more likely an issue that lies in the back end of the horse but manifest in the front end.
ETA: Sorry, I didnāt realize this was such an old thread but I am also curious how this turned out.
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Voltaire retired at 12 or 13 due to injury though. And his foot was not even really bad when you look at photos of him. I do think there is a strong chance that a horse with a true club foot will have soundness issues eventually without the surgery.
In regards to the OP I would like to see a young horse with this history be in work for a period of time to see if she stays sounds under saddle because that is the real test, isnāt it? Sometimes uneven feet in young horses are from the neck and that does not show up until they are under saddle- things like that I feel better about if the horse is going.
Also I personally will also not consider a horse with very uneven front feet for dressage as they are too different side-to-side and that annoys me. Many dressage trainers and riders do not care as much, but for an amateur client or a less quick thinking rider may care as itās harder to teach someone to ride the horse twice- one way to the R and another to the L.
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Not to derail the thread, but @Warmblood1 could you expand a little more on your comments on high/low syndrome? I was reading some old COTH threads about it. One poster made a comment similar to yours, and I would like to know more about it.
I think youāll find a lot more information on the subject if you research limb length disparity. There are a lot of articles and varying view points on it with theories still being established. Esco Buff writes about it and has a book about it as well. I spoke to him quite a bit about it years ago when I was trying to figure out what to do with a gelding with a pretty pronounced high/low heel (though not a club foot). I couldnāt ever determine exactly a causation in the hind end but have since treated the hooves as two different feet without trying to match them and this has resulted in long term soundness. Itās not often an actual difference in length of leg although disparities are quite common in humans. Itās usually contributing factors such as an issue elsewhere in the body that may manifest and then the posture of the horse over time creates the difference in hoof shape. For example, I have a mare that developed differences in heel and hoof shape due to a stifle injury where she was loading one particular hind leg more and, therefore, loading a front leg more so than the other. The original issue could be a congenital issue or could be from injury.
Get her under saddle. You may need to have her in training for several months. Then increase her price. This way you know she will be fine and hopefully find a great home.
