Does anybody have a horse with a club foot?

Purdey33

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Feb 8, 2005
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Had my horse Jeff shod a few days ago and the farrier said he had a club foot :eek: He said it wouldn't affect him with the type of things we do (mostly nothing currently, but otherwise hacking around) but he wouldn't make a competative horse - jumping etc as he was likely to go lame.

This surprised me as he is an ex racer - done steeplechasing, point to point, hunting. I wouldn't have thought he'd have had any kind of a career with a club foot.

I've never heard of club foot in horses - has anybody got any knowledge of this?

Thanks :)
 
I havn't got one, but I know a little arab who does. He still moevs beautifully though, and it rarely effects his way of going, and he has quite a bad one. It's where the foot looks quite upright, and a weird shape - it'll look very differnent to the others. Usually it cannot be 'cured', but remedial shoeing can help. It is just a conformation issue.
 
i have met loads of ex racers with club feet.
i used to work for a lady who bred racers/jumpers all tbs, and had some x racers that she bought as youngsters, raced them, then gave them new jobs.
2 of her x racers had club feet, one was a very succesfull racer, one of her youngsters had a very bad club foot, she wouldnt be able to race, but would have been fine for riding club activities.
 
One of my friend's Arabs has a club foot. They do dressage and endurance; he's never been lame as far as I know. It really doesn't seem to be a problem, though I imagine there's different degrees of severity.
 
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