Pigeon-toed prospect?

[trakehners]

I’m currently looking at an OTTB to buy as an eventing prospect, and I’ve found one that I like a lot who is very well-balanced with a nice shoulder and decent legs, with one little exception - he seems to be a tiny bit pigeon-toed. I didn’t even notice it until I sent the additional videos of him that I received to my best friend, who pointed out that he looks like he toes in, and upon rewatching the videos several times, I do agree with her, but it’s very slight.

He never raced and per the trainer’s assistant (and my perusal of his Equibase workouts), it’s because he was too slow and they aren’t in the habit of pushing horses that don’t enjoy their job when they have other horses that do. He’s almost three (per his actual birthday, not Jockey Club rules), so I don’t think there’s much that corrective shoeing could do for him at this point, so I was wondering (as I’m alright with conformation, but some of the finer points of it are beyond my current expertise): would you pass up a horse who has otherwise decent conformation and apparently has a good attitude simply because he toes in slightly?

For context: when I was a kid I had big dreams of going to Rolex, but at this point (as yet another adult amateur) my goal is just to make to the point where I’m comfortable rocking around Training level and able to go to local horse trials and have a good time. I’m not looking to be crazy competitive and I don’t really have high-level dreams - I just want to get back to eventing and enjoy myself. If I do buy him, he’ll have a few months of downtime and will be started back pretty slowly, so he’ll have plenty of time to grow up and I have no intention of jumping him for a while (like… until next summer. He would meet poles this year, but that’s it).

I’ve been in contact with the trainer’s assistant about him and was hoping to set up a vet check (I definitely will not buy him without a vet check one way or the other), but I’m not sure if I should avoid doing that and start looking at other horses just because of this, so… what would you guys do? I’ve dealt with club feet and a few other more significant conformation faults before, but toeing in is a new one for me.

Thanks in advance!

[Inese]

I own an OTTB that is pigeon-toed, and he is sound at age 15, still competing in 3’ jumpers, as well as mini-events, trail riding, dressage, etc. My farrier makes sure his feet are balanced and hooves hit the ground flat. No issues, no corrective shoeing needed. Video of 3’3" grid jump at https://youtu.be/NVj_Owou8NI

[goodmorning]

I just bought one - and she’s a chestnut TB mare :lol: Will just make sure that the farrier keeps things as balanced as possible, I would actually suggest no major attempts at correction just keeping the flares at bay & balance good. She is a lovely light mover & will be my next adult amateur Novice horse extraordinare I would also make sure the hoof is nice and solid, I have not had luck turning around Shelly thin-walled hooves despite the most valiant efforts, glue ons, and every supplement you can imagine.

If she interfered or paddled dramatically I would have passed because while the career isn’t too demanding, there are enough nice horses out there with better odds. A silly knock from interference is not something I need to deal with on my already limited time schedule & balancing act. BTDT.

[PNWjumper]

One of my best (ever) mares is pigeon-toed. She carried me through the 1.40m jumpers and competed at that level for 7 or 8 years. She then went on to carry my daughter around and has been doing that job for the last 7 years. She is now 23 and just took her first lame steps as a result of Cushing’s + an unfortunate puncture to the frog injury. But I can say that her pigeon-toed conformation never caused any problems and she has more miles on her than most.

[trakehners]

These are all the kinds of answers that I was hoping to hear.

Based on the other reading I was doing, it seems that the general consensus is that as far as conformation flaws go, toeing in is vastly preferable to toeing out, and again, it’s very slight with him. If he paddles at all it’s only a tiny bit (definitely not glaringly obvious in any way), but like I said, I’ve just never encountered a horse with it before in my personal experience, so other feedback is definitely useful!

I just got the all-clear from his trainer to set up a prepurchase exam on him so I’m going to give the vet a call this afternoon and hopefully it goes well. I won’t be able to go see him in person before I would theoretically be picking him up (assuming that my barn owner is available, because I’ll have to have him hauled here otherwise) due to my work schedule and family obligations (which allow for having a horse here just fine, but make a sudden seven-hour round trip to the other side of the state a bit difficult), so I’m going to be relying on the vet that was recommended to me by CANTER to be my eyes on this (outside of the videos I was sent).

He’s such a lovely horse outside of this (he might be a tiny bit straight behind, but he’s not even close to being post-legged) that I’m very glad to hear that other people don’t think this has to be a deal-breaker. Fingers crossed the exam has a good result.

[Auburn]

I have owned several, slightly pigeon toed horses in my lifetime. My Mo-rab took me through my “B” in Pony Club and could jump a 3’9" jumper course. She never had a soundness issue. My current boy, whom I am riding in the photo, is slightly toed in and he does just fine.

Have your prospect Vetted and if it passes, then definitely do not let being pigeon toed stop you.

[fordtraktor]

Especially if it is just slight I wouldn’t worry. One of my retirees is quite pigeon toed, he is 19 and totally sound. His owners just aren’t riding any more. He was a dressage horse.

[Mango20]

It wouldn’t stop me. My current horse is pigeon toed, paddles, and sounds like a tiny freight train when galloping. She’s currently going training level, is super athletic and has never been unsound in the 6 or 7 years I’ve owned her (yes, I’m knocking on wood right now).

[trakehners]

Thanks everyone! I’m still in the process of trying to set up that prepurchase exam (who knew it would be so difficult to get in touch with a vet :lol:), but it’s good to hear so many success stories.

I’ll be using the same farrier that my barn owner uses, and he’s very much a proponent of making sure the horses are shod exactly the way they need to be for the work they’re doing and has done quite well with my barn owner’s horse (who is apparently pigeon-toed too, not that I ever noticed until she told me yesterday given that he’s a rather wonky guy in general and his feet are the last thing you’re paying attention to when you look at him). Said farrier also works in conjunction with the farrier who does the specialty shoeing work for the big equine vet practice in the area, so I think he’ll definitely be able to make sure that baby horse (as I’ve been calling him, since I have no idea what I’ll be naming him, provided this works out) is having his feet done in the most appropriate way.

I’m getting antsy now because I really want to have this vetting done and get him here, but good things come to those who wait, I suppose (or at least I’m certainly going to hope so).

[eqsiu]

I had a mare pigeon toed enough that over fences her hooves were clearly outside of her elbows. She had a long lower level career and never had any issues. For me, pigeon toes are as negligible as being over at the knee a bit. They don’t seem to impact soundness much at all.

[Parrotnutz]

My dressage clyde/hackney cross (he also jumps) is very pigeon toed, but he x-rayed with very straight legs. My vet wasn’t at all concerned since his radiographs were good. He doesn’t paddle either.

[trakehners]

Well, good news! He passed his prepurchase exam with flying colors. The vet said he has clean legs and is a nice mover (which I knew from the videos, but it’s good to know that’s the case in person too) and is just generally built very well, especially for what I’m looking to do with him (aka, he’s not worried about him toeing in at all). He also said he flexed well, and I know a lot of people view the usefulness of that test as iffy at best, but it does make me feel better to know there weren’t any noticeable issues anywhere.

I just have to wait for my barn owner to get back to me so I can get in touch with the trainer again but hopefully I’ll be able to bring him home soon!

[Where_sMyWhite]

@trakehners

Thanks everyone!I’ll be using the same farrier that my barn owner uses, and he’s very much a proponent of making sure the horses are shod exactly the way they need to be for the work they’re doing and has done quite well with my barn owner’s horse (who is apparently pigeon-toed too, not that I ever noticed until she told me yesterday given that he’s a rather wonky guy in general and his feet are the last thing you’re paying attention to when you look at him).

This is key… shoe the horse to his conformation

I owned a pigeon toed horse for a few years. Knew it when I bought him. My farrier trimmed and shod him the way he wore his feet and never tried to “fix” the pigeon toed. As sound the day I sold him as he was when I bought him (He ended up being a horse that was just too hard for me to ride given my skills and experience, nothing to do with his feet.)

[trakehners]

@Where'sMyWhite

This is key… shoe the horse to his conformation

I owned a pigeon toed horse for a few years. Knew it when I bought him. My farrier trimmed and shod him the way he wore his feet and never tried to “fix” the pigeon toed. As sound the day I sold him as he was when I bought him (He ended up being a horse that was just too hard for me to ride given my skills and experience, nothing to do with his feet.)

Extra fun news - he’s coming home on Saturday! I’ll be in Kentucky for not-Rolex from Friday to Sunday, but my barn owner is doing me ten thousand favors and going to pick him up for me (I will be bringing her many gifts from the trade fair in thanks). Trainer’s assistant told me he was just shod this past Thursday, so he probably won’t be due for a bit, but our farrier will be out to the barn on May 20th so we’re going to get him to take a look at baby horse’s feet and see what he thinks about which shoeing cycle he should be on (two of the horses in the barn are on a 6-week, the rest are on 8 weeks) and how things look as far as maintenance goes.

At this point I’m just thankful that it seems to be a mild case, that we have a farrier who’s competent enough to handle it, and that so many people have dealt with this without it becoming a major issue (and of course I’m also thankful that he’s coming home!!!).