Sad to say I’m not talking about a foal. 
I got a rescue OTTB yesterday. He’s over 17hh and 6 years old. Never raced. (Gee, I wonder why?) Super mover, very sweet, just the nicest guy you could want. BUT: He’s got the worst club foot I’ve ever seen. Ever. I’m talking hundreds of horses over the decades. How the farriers ever let him get this bad is a mystery to me. Anyway, I’ve got a call in to the vet and the farrier. I trust them both implicitly. I’m posting on here because I’ve never dealt with this before. Is this as un-fixable/career ending as I’ve been reading? Is there any way to get that DDFT to elongate at this point to allow more normal hoof growth? FWIW - I would way his right front foot is at a 90 degree angle. If you are hoof knowledgeable, that should curl your hair.
http://www.thehorse.com/articles/13317/club-feet-in-adult-horses
http://www.thehorse.com/articles/32785/managing-the-club-foot
Have you seen these?^^
No I haven’t, Thanks!
Yikes. So prognosis is not good. Sad.
What is the prognosis? Sorry OP… Pictures? Did the vet take rads?
I was really surprised in that other thread some people were so ho-hum about club feet. It can and does affect a horse’s career. Sometimes it is manageable, it is rarely correctable – you can elect to do surgery but IMHO I have not seen it done on adults personally. Seems to me for mature horses it really is about bringing the heel down and trimming on short (4w) cycles. Since club feet implicitly affect much more than just the hoof, it’s certainly something to consider warily in a horse geared for performance… and yes, while some horses do just fine in performance capacities, it really has not been my experience that club feet are NBD.
I’ve worked with and taken care of several horses with club feet before of varying grades (most were 1-2) and they always seemed to have hoof issues related to the clubbed feet. Sensitive soles, quick to abscess/bruise, constant heel pain, DDFT and check ligament injuries…
But then you hear of these UL horses with significant flexural deformities doing just fine.
What did your vet say?
Vet hasn’t seen him yet. I just got him in the barn last night. I sent him a picture. Waiting to hear. But really it sounds like at best it would be a roll of the dice as to whether he will enjoy long term soundness. I don’t know that I want to go to the expense/trouble of x-rays, corrective shoeing, potentially surgery, etc. I have heard of UL horses doing well with significant flexural deformities, but it is really rare. I’m not sure it’s worth the heartache to me. (I’m not young anymore!)
Thanks.
With a good Farrier, you can do a lot with many club footed horses. They work, perform, show and compete to do well for owners, move evenly. You could notice unmatching hooves because each foot is shod to make it work as needed, not for good looks. In real life not that many folks even notice one hoof is clubby. These are feet not fixed with surgery.
Don’t despair until after horse is evaluated by Vet and Farrier. You might be surprised at the number of club footed horses they see and help. These days it is more of a surprise to find a horse with matching pairs of hooves, than seeing unmatched pairs of hooves. Not all club footed, various issues causing the problems.
I agree but want to point out very, very few horses have evenly matched feet - IMHO asymmetrical feet are quite common. Clubbed feet is a different pathology than asymmetrical feet - which I think you know, but in case any readers don’t.
I also think the bolded is important - OP, keep us updated and I hope it is NBD or fixable with the right farrier.
As with all things, a good farrier is absolutely worth their weight in gold.
Good of you to point out clubby and asymmetrical are not the same for readers. I was putting both in a more general catagory of “front feet don’t match” whatever the cause.
Guess I am getting too old because I remember when asymmetrical hoof pairs were the exception on a horse. I would not have ever purchased a horse with such hooves. I find it sad that a symmetrical horse, including hooves, is so hard to find among well-bred horses these days. These horses are “brought up the best”, yet lack in a basic quality like being symmetrical in body and hoof pairs.
Club foot is often genetic, you see it in certain lines of horses. But club foot can also be man made. Hope to hear good news from OP after the Vet visit.
I have seen the surgery done on an “adult” horse, it was 2012 and the horse was six. By the next year he was competing at 1m in Ocala. Still had crappy feet, glue on shoes, but the club foot itself looked quite good.
It all depends on the grade, but again, this horse was bad enough they elected to do the surgery on him as an adult.
Wow! Interesting. Thanks all. Vet won’t be out for a few weeks, but based on the photos I sent him this morning, he said I’m worrying for nothing. He will work with the farrier (who will be out next week) and thinks horse can have a long and productive life. Plus, as I am a dressage rider, he will be learning to carry more and more of his weight on his hindquarters which will take a lot of stress off the front legs over time.
I have a NCHA money earning cutting horse, who is extremely clubbed on one foot. In all honesty, it has never been an issue. He is 100% sound on it, even at the age of 21, and my former trainer still claims he the most athletic horse she has ever sat on.
Correct trimming helps, as do any changes to the foot made gradually.
Best wishes with your your new guy!
I know 2 horses with club feet. One was an amazing Polo horse till age 20 and the other one a good dressage horse (lots of shows) until 18. I guess it depends…
Thank you cutter and Manni! I’m really loving this young fellow. I’ll start riding him this weekend. (Letting him settle in to the new barn and routine.) I’ll keep you all posted on his progress! 
(And, if I can figure out how, I’ll post some pictures of the foot - before and afters…)
A farrier friend of mine often tells a story about a club footed horse he shod for many years. The owner was in a pinch and had someone else trim the horse. The “other” farrier felt the need to cut off the horse’s heels so that the feet would match. Unsurprisingly the horse became very, very lame. Original farrier was called back, cussed the “other” farrier and set to get it back to it’s normal clubbiness. Said horse fox hunted well into it’s teen years if not into it’s early 20’s. While a club foot is certainly not desirable, if managed well the horse could very likely have a long successful working life. Best of luck with your new boy!
12 or 13 years ago I was horse shopping. Looked at lovely 6 yr old mare with club foot. She was sound and showing first level dressage. Xrays, however showed that she had some coffin bone rotation when compared to xrays from two years prior. Later found out that her dam and full sister both had a club foot…This mare stopped showing several months after I looked at her; the sister showed much longer and I think through 4th level.
I wonder about the difference in farriers, management of the foot, severity of the club, etc. So I wouldn’t panic yet, but for sure get films done. It will help you know what’s going on and will help farrier too.
Good luck.
my experience is with a genetic Less-Than-Grade-One club hoof. The horse has been with me 21 of his 23 years and spent 90% of his lif trail riding barefoot; he amazingly has hooves like a goat and I only shod him when I would be riding in unknown rocky terrain. He has never been lame but over time the leg muscle on the opposite front has become half inch longer than the club hoof side.
It it is crucial to have your farrier work closely with your vet who, hopefully is more informed on hoof/leg issues than the average “bear” :). Even if that means carrying the horse to the clinic, the farrier meets you there, studies the X-rays with the vet, then trims the horse according to the vet’s instructions. If the farrier has too much ego to do that, find another farrier. I know all of this first hand from another, insulin resistant, horse that severely foundered.
you may have to have this horse trimmed every 5-6 weeks to keep the heels from growing into stilettos, so-to-speak. My club hoof guy is not trimmed by the farrier who does the foundered horse but they are both on a five week schedule and I would not want any more time to pass between trims. Especially now that we are in Spring and growth rate is naturally faster.
best of luck with him – he sounds like a sweet fella:)
