Posted by Nessa on August 05, 2003 at 22:36:14:
My Arab has a "club foot" (left front) that he was born with. Conformation defect I guess. He has no heel and his toe grows longer than the other foot. This is making the angle of his pasterns very uneven from eachother. I have been working him quite a bit over the last couple of weeks (mostly lunge and round pen work). Yesterday I noticed he was short strided and off on his left lead. He looked uncomfortable. I've been dealing with his foot for years now. He has never had any lameness problems and I don't think he is having them now. I recently moved and my new farrier told me that there isn't much he can do with it. If he props up the foot he could get navicular. So he's been keeping his other (right) heel down. I wanted a second opinion on this because in the past that's basicly what has been done... we've used some kind of support for his heel so he doesn't put so much pressure on his frog and/or stretch the tendon too far. He's never had problems with it and I don't want any to begin as he gets older (he's 15 now). I'm looking for a second opinion... ANY help would be SO appreciated. Please email me: NessaV@columbus.rr.com
Thank you!