a mare that has a conformation fault if the dam and sire of the mare did not? Specifically, one front leg that isn’t straight? What if it caused lameness that required special shoeing? The mare is well bred, gorgeous and a tremendous athlete. I think it may be a fluke but maybe not worth risking passing it on?
There’s more to the pedigree than dam and sire, so see if you can look farther back to see if anyone else has/had this issue.
How not straight?
Was this there from birth, or was it caused by farrier care, either caused by, or not corrected?
If she was born this way and it’s causing lameness without special shoeing, then 100% no, do not breed.
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Is the fault genetic, man made, or caused by an early accident (perhaps during birth)?
Also, is it one single problem that you can breed away from, or an accumulation of problems that would make that task harder?
It’s heartening that neither the sire nor the dam have the problem, but I would also try to find out if they have a history of producing it (other than this one time.)
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Some leg conformation (like angular limb deformities) is created in utero, by environmental factors, or by humans.
So for me, it would depend on the situation. If I felt the leg conformation was acquired and if it doesn’t impede her from carrying and raising a foal, I would be open to it. If I felt there was a chance it is heritable, I would probably pass.
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Many angular deformities can be corrected with proper farrier care as a foal. Lots of foals get zero farrier care. They just throw them out in a field and don’t try to fix anything. If they grow straight, great, if not, oh well.
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Personally I would not unless I knew with 100% certainty that the conformation flaw was in no way due to any inheritance. I’ve seen far too many conformational attributes (not specifically flaws) skip multiple generations but can be tracked throughout a 6 generation pedigree.
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This is what I believe happened. Pretty significant toe out that is temporarily corrected with good trimming.
Unless the mare overcame her conformation to have a serious sport career, she has a temperament you’d trust with your grandma, you can palp her without drugs, and you wave semen at her and she gets pregnant, I would find another mare.
There are a lot of nice mares with straight legs.
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Is the entire length of leg toe-out? Only from the knee or fetlock down? You are fooling yourself if you think a toe-out issue is “corrected” with Farrier trimming hoof to point forward. Leg bones no longer align in motion, putting stress and wear on smaller bone joint surfaces. Which often then leads to other leg issues.
Farrier trimming hoof to LOOK straight standing still is not really correcting anything. This is why experienced horse people look at the legs in motion, front, rear, from the side, to see how the leg travels “in the air.” Does horse throw leg inward, outward, or travel straight up and down from lift-off to landing?
Foals have a very short window of opportunity for hoof corrections to try be helpful, and often early “corrections” like toe straightening hurt the horse in the long run, instead of actually “fixing anything” except the look of hoof standing still.
I personally would not buy a young, under 4yrs, horse with perfectly straight front or hind legs. This age still has a LOT of growing to do. Toes out can self-correct as horse body develops, chest widens to push elbows outward, hips and haunches develop and muscle up. This young horse is NOT correctively trimmed, just trimmed flat, correctly! He wears off his hooves as he wants to, bones of legs stay aligned thru the entire bony column, using all the bony joint surfaces.
Breed her or don’t, you never know what she will give you. Take all her worst faults, the stallion’s faults, combine them, which foal can inherit. Can you live with that result?
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