Ask the Vet - Conformation issues in horses and if they really matter
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- čas přidán 27. 08. 2019
- In this excerpt from the June 2019 episode of Ask the Vet ( • Ask the Vet - Conforma... ), Dr. Gray and SmartPaker Dan answer a question about horse conformation. We’ve all heard of a sickle-hocked horse or a post-legged horse - but as a horse owner or potential horse owner, what conformation abnormalities are ones you should be worried about and which ones should you not be worried about? Dr. Gray even gives an example of one specific, well-known issue that she’s heard described as a ‘beauty mark.’
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I love this, that she actually said long pasterns are good and thats something you hear way too often is that horses pasterns are too long for my liking etc. You never hear people complain about them being too short.
I’ve always been told a hunters bump is a bad riding bump it’s when a horse never get collected properly over time it accumulates.
The bump on the equine's rump is called a goose rump and the english think of it as vlbeing a positive conformatiom 'defect ' it's prized as a sign of a good jumper and usually comes with a long back and this also makes for a comfortable ride.
What up to date books, resources with illustrations, can show give the best information? I have Anatomy of the Horse, and a few, but they are older. There are "perfect" illustrations. However, like all anatomy illustrations, they don't give the many variations of a living thing. Some gave a few
"bad" examples.
Small imperfections could be fine, but others?
Ideas about everything have changed quite a bit over the years.
Thanks for the video.
Great topic Thanks (Food for Thought)
Any good reputable sources for us to keep reading?
What’s bad is when the pastern/fetlock touches the ground when they walk.
Yes it is but that’s a disease or injury because naturally they don’t do that in a healthy horse but long pasterns exist in all horses in the sport and athletic world. Saddlebreds, thoroughbreds, warmbloods, gaited horses, all have longer pasterns. Everyone likes a quarter horse build but those short pasterns and all the pressure on those small pasterns, fetlocks, and hoofs caused arthritis in many qhs and even fractures.
Saddlebreds rarely have issues and they have long pasterns . Usually they may get arthritis or ring bone after very hard use later in life such as Amish driven saddlebreds. However saddlebreds have strong obserbing pasterns and all horses in the sport world tend to have longer pasterns such as eventing, racing, or long distances. Thoroughbreds have longer pasterns to obserb the shock of speed and weight going into their slender legs, joints and feet. Often dropping all the way to the ground and snapping back up like a rubber band with no injuries most of the time at high speeds for longer distances. Saddlebreds always have good pasterns and feet. The vet and farriers often comment about how good my two saddlebred feet are. Saddlebreds have very strong pasterns. Often saddlebred have longer hooves naturally and should never be cut as short as qhs . Very strong hooves that rarely have any issues and even are strong bare foot. Ginger and khalessi could go on surfaces without really being ouchy at all and yes no surface bothered them really at all and they don’t have low heels so the two best things on a saddlebred I feel.
I’d say that’s the best most solid part in the saddlebred but qh horse people criticize them for their confirmation. Yet saddlebreds can do almost anything and are very durable horses that can go through rougher terrain very much like the Akhal tekes are build that way. The Akhal tekes were known for being able to go in rough rocky areas most horses couldn’t go. We had a hackney who was built like a tiny qh she got a really bad fracture in two spots in her fetlock and was put down . Short pasterns smaller feet she had trouble going through rocky or really rough terrain in trail rides but my sisters saddlebred could climb on a rock and could go through places the hackney could not. Also the hackney ran like a qh really fast in first burst of speed but tired out and the saddlebred slower at the gait but built up speed through each really long strong and ended up exceeding speed by the very end very much like how thoroughbreds are . She like never had issues with her fetlocks and I’ve not met too many saddlebred who didn’t. Even khalessi my saddlebred cross someone over used her as an Amish horse and she had bowed tendons but even that rarely bothered her. Saddlebreds have this resilience to them and they just never stop going.
Most gaited horses have long pasterns but Standardbreds have really strong pasterns and have really long pasterns however are genetically prone to degenerative diseases of the pastern and fetlock, so that’s the sad thing about Standardbreds but work very work with all the pressure to those areas for years before usually ever showing problems , hard long years up until like 15 - mid 20s still go strong but every once in awhile Moore’s will get a young standardardbred who developed degenerative really early and they are not even to their teens. Those are always sad cases I think. However saddlebreds rarely have issues and high ring bone and arthritis is the most common issue in saddlebreds and even that doesn’t stop them from working and being solid sometimes. Cuz they will still work hard. It’s usually in the hind they develop it as it seems most qhs develop arthritis in the front where the pressure grinds the most due to all the way being pressured on the front due to the up and down slopping straights qhs have. As saddlebreds and even thoroughbred like horses the weight is desperate because the horse is mostly level from wither shoulder to hips and hind quarters . With sometimes slightly higher withers, saddlebreds sometimes tend to be flatter lower in the hind quarters as thoroughbreds are actually butt high but their shoulders and withers are high so it disperses the weight more evenly and with long strides. Thoroughbreds build like a grey hound with large rib cage for long distance and speed, saddlebreds also have large but flat rib cages and narrow. Saddlebreds I feel are more durable then thoroughbreds by far but thoroughbreds are also made to endure an unusual amount of stress at an early age that other horses don’t experience the same way.
Best things is their legs and feet the strongest most solid part of the saddlebred .
People take one horse the quarter horse and expect every other horse breed to be “that”
It just makes people not see why some horses are meant to be differently built for a reason and are perfectly healthy without it being a “fault”
Most gaited horses are built with more of a sickle hock like straight but are designed too
Noob question. Cant long toe low heal be managed by trimming? Is that really a genetic conformation point?
Hoof shape and angle is genetic, it is largely based on the angle and connection of the bones in the hoof and pastern. It can be managed by trimming and in extreme cases corrective shoeing, but that won't change how the hoof grows and is connected to the rest of the horse.
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