Plaiting/ropewalking in young horse

[4horses]

My almost 2 year old is plaiting/rope walking behind. He is going through another growth spurt and is tall and lanky with no chest. Definitely looks a bit base narrow. Doesn’t interfere when he’s moving.

I mentioned it to the farrier and he suggested trimming him a bit unlevel but I’m not at all certain that won’t make things worse?

Any thoughts? Given his lack of physical immaturity and lack of depth through the chest, I’m wondering if this is just a weird growth stage? I’ve started calling him my giraffe because he is all head, neck, and legs. I told my friends if he gets much bigger I’m going to need to upgrade to a 3 step mounting block.

Unfortunately finding a decent farrier is a whole other story. I finally called my vet to get a couple names. The last farrier no showed twice and barely uses his rasp at all. I wasn’t very impressed. Tried a different farrier for my older mare and that farrier really scooped the quarters while leaving the toe/heels long. I wasn’t too happy with that either.

[Bonnie2]

I wouldn’t worry about it at this point, but do watch it. Likely it’s his stage of growth, possible it’s his natural way of moving, possible he’s a little neurologic. Certainly don’t let the farrier “fix” his feet! Finding a good farrier is a whole other headache!

[luvmyhackney]

Close your eyes and ignore it. Probably a growth spurt thing. Don’t let the farrier trim uneven as then you will have even bigger issues later on.

[Bluey]

We called that the gutted snowbird stage.
As advised above, keep an eye on it and don’t worry as long as nothing else is affected, like legs getting crooked.

In a mature older horse, rope walking needs a vet exam.
On a scrawny looking youngster, just keep an eye on things, in case he is lacking something in his diet or had an injury, then more should show up.

[JB]

@4horses

My almost 2 year old is plaiting/rope walking behind. He is going through another growth spurt and is tall and lanky with no chest. Definitely looks a bit base narrow. Doesn’t interfere when he’s moving.

Not uncommon as alll the bones and soft tissues get “out of sync” with how they should be aligned

@4horses

I mentioned it to the farrier and he suggested trimming him a bit unlevel but I’m not at all certain that won’t make things worse?

I’d want to know a LOT more about what that means. If he means “unlevel” such that the new movement has the foot landing flat, then that’s how all feet should be trimmed. But if he means trim to force different movement, then no.