When horse was 2 (early Spring last year) he somehow hurt his knee, huge bump on inside of left front. Vet x-rayed and made diagnosis. Horse was very lame and put in medical paddock during the day with a friend and stalled at night. After some time horse was sound and allowed to return to regular turnout. In August I had another vet x-ray and he felt the prognosis was pretty good.
The horse will be 3 in July and these last couple of weeks has been what I thought was lame at the trot. Original vet x-rayed yesterday and said arthritis is developing in the knee and the left leg is shorter than the right because the growth plate closed on the left. He does not feel the horse is lame but that he moves head bobby because of the difference of lengths in his legs.
He also x-rayed the right front and the growth plate is still open. I asked about doing something to close it. Also asked about putting front shoes on, with the left front having a rim pad to even out the leg length disparity. The left leg does bow out.
Has anyone ever dealt with anything like this? Vet feels he may not ever be able to be ridden, certainly not jumped. What the heck am I going to do with a 3 year old gelding that can’t be ridden?
If he can’t be ridden and is going to need expensive therapeutic shoeing his whole life, personally, I’d put him down.
I know that sucks to hear, but if something happens to you no one is going to want this horse and he’s going to end up somewhere very, very bad.
It’s no one’s fault, got dealt a super crappy hand here. I’m sorry.
I have one that fractured the growth plate in his humerus as a weanling and also ended up with one leg shorter than the other. He is pasture sound only, so I haven’t really tried to ride him. But he wears composite shoes that are quite thick (due to laminitis, not his other lameness issues…horses), and I usually adjust for hight by rasping the one on the longer leg down. He moves much more evenly like this, so depending on the difference in leg length you may be able to compensate for it with a shoeing package.
Edited to add - if it wasn’t for laminitis he would probably be sound for light work with his shoes on, he looks 100% sound trotting around the pasture. He’s 16 and although he has some arthritis, it hasn’t been his biggest issue.
If the unevenness of gait is strictly mechanical due to “limb length disparity” (that’s the term you want to use for research), then there are a lot of club footed horses who deal with this just fine with appropriate padding on the shorter leg
You can’t force closure of a growth plate, but as a rising 3yo he’s close.
Putting him down has gone through my mind but I want to see if there is anything that can be done before I do something so drastic.
Would he be sound for driven work? Maybe that’s an option for him? I have no idea, but thought I’d mention it.
I don’t really see him as a horse who would be suitable for driving.
The farrier is coming on Monday to put front shoes on, so hopefully that will help him somewhat.
