Conformation and hoof health: How faults affect feet

Conformation and hoof health: How faults affect feet

A few aspects of conformation particularly impact the horse’s feet. One of the most important is straightness. On a horse with perfect conformation (you know the ones – you see them in textbooks, but they’re usually drawn in rather than photographed because they’re so hard to come by), you could draw a straight line from the points of their shoulders down to the ground, and that line would fall exactly in the center of the horse’s leg. In the back, hocks and hooves might turn out a bit, but in front, their knees, fetlocks and front hooves would point straight forward. Their hooves (at the sole) would be as wide as their legs are at the top.

From the side, the ideal horse will have a straight line going from the middle of the shoulder through the front of the knee to the middle-back of the hoof, and another line going from the point of the buttocks to the back of the hock and straight down the back of the cannon bone to the pastern.

One of the other most important aspects of conformation is proportion. To minimize the amount of strain a horse places on itself when it moves, it needs to be able to disperse the impact of landing across a bigger surface area. A long, sloping shoulder, for example, has more area for muscle to attach, and will mechanically result in a bigger stride and less concussion. When the shoulder is too short, the horse’s stride shortens, and the foot hits the ground with a greater impact.

When parts of the horse get too long, other problems can arise. Pasterns that are too long will put strain on the tendons and ligaments at the back of the fetlock joint because the pastern won’t be able to support the joint. A good rule of thumb is that wherever the horse’s leg has a joint, there needs to be sufficient leg underneath it to support it.

Conformation and hoof health: How faults affect feet

The ideal horse will probably grow and wear its feet down evenly because it will properly load its weight when it moves.  Although recent research has shown that a bit of lateral movement is the standard way of going for the horse, the horse with great conformation will move relatively straight and bear its weight in a balanced way, landing flat at the walk, and heel first at the other gaits, thereby making your job easy. Well, easier.

The less than ideal horse

There are lots of deviations from the ideal, and each deviation will create its own problems because each crooked part of the horse will cause strain on another part of the leg or foot. Even weight distribution is the key. When one part of the leg or hoof takes more weight than another, the concussion from the impact of a landing foot will strain those areas that take more of the horse’s weight. Not all at once, mind you, but over time, that repetitive strain will end up creating damage.

Here are some of the more common leg deviations, and the places where strain usually occurs:

Conformation fault What it means Where the pressure goes on landing Problems associated with these faults
Toe Out The horse’s toes are rotated out The inside front of the hoof Interfering with itself

Ringbone

Sidebone

Toe In (Pigeon Toed) Toes are rotated in The outside front of the hoof Ringbone

Sidebone

Coffin joint disease

Collateral ligament problems

Base Narrow The space between the horse’s feet is narrower than the space between its upper legs The outside rear of the hoof wall Heel bruising

Ringbone

Sidebone

Base Wide The space between the feet is wider than the space between the upper legs The inside rear of the hoof wall Heel bruising

Ringbone

Sidebone

Sheared heels

Bow Legged The shoulder and hoof line up, but the knees will be farther apart The outside of the hoof wall Ligament, knee strain
Knock Kneed Shoulder and hoof line up, but the knees are closer together The inside of the hoof wall Osteoarthritis

Tendon, ligament, knee strain

Calf Knees (Back at the Knee) The knee will be behind the line from shoulder to middle of hoof Excessive landing on the heel

Chip fractures in knees and fetlocks

Bowed tendons

Buck Knee (Over at the Knee) The knee will be in front of the line from shoulder to center of hoof – the knee will look like it’s bent, even when it’s straight Unstable, uneven pressure, usually on the front of the hoof Bowed tendons

Sesamoiditis

Stumbling

Check and suspensory ligament strains

Cow Hocked Like being knock-kneed, the horse’s haunches and feet will line up, but the hocks will be closer together Inside of the hoof wall Osteoarthritis

Bone spavin

Bone spurs

Sickle Hocked The hocks have too much angle, and are carried too far underneath the horse’s body Uneven loading patterns Bone spavin

Curbed hock

Plantar ligament strains

Post Legged The hock angle is too straight Tendency to land sharply, with too much concussion Osteoarthritis

Suspensory disease

Upward fixation of the patella

Bog spavin

Considerations when trimming and shoeing

Since hoof problems seem to go hand in hand with conformation faults, the first order of business is to improve the quality of the hoof before worrying about trying to change the horse’s way of going. There’s lots of debate on whether or not conformation can be “improved” through trimming, and whether a horse should be trimmed or shod to balance the foot, or to balance the whole leg. What everyone seems to agree on is that conformation can be managed best if the internal structures of the foot are kept in balance. And, of course, when it comes to conformation and soundness, people tend to agree on the old saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Bibliography

Duberstein, Kylee Jo.  “Evaluating Horse Conformation.”  University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, 4 Apr. 2012.

Lawrence, L.A. “Horse Conformation Analysis.”  Washington State University Extension and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2006.

Morrison, Scott. “Hoof Capsule Distortion And Its Relationship To Foot Lameness.” American Association of Equine Practitioners, n.d.

Oke, Stacey.  “Horse Conformation Conundrums.”  The Horse, 1 Oct. 2010.

Van Heel, M. C. V.et al. “Dynamic Pressure Measurements for the Detailed Study of Hoof Balance: The Effect of Trimming.” Equine Veterinary Journal 36.8 (2004): 778-782.


by Cindy McMann

image 1: Pixabay; image 2: (Creative Commons BY-SA)

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