Mare with club foot

[SmithK19]

Hello everyone, I recently aquired a 3yr old mare, she has a club foot, the right front. The prior owner had the sugery on the tendon to correct the foot but the follow up care, i.e. trimming was not followed. Can you give me any advice on this matter?

[Ronald Aalders]

Well, I guess it's a little late for the advice not to buy the mare. There a so many fine horses around, sweet an' all. Why would you want to buy a horse like that?

Maybe you could post some pics for us to look at and get an idea what kind of club we're discussing here?


Ronald Aalders

[calshoer]

Its too late now to do much more than maintain it as best as possible. Pictures would help determine the severity of the problem and offer more specific hoofcare suggestions. And please, do NOT BREED HER under any circumstances. Club feet are often (usually) genetic in origin.

[SmithK19]

Ok I will post pics tomorrow and just for clarification the prior owner is a breeder of very "high end" horses, she wanted to "dispose" of this mare because of her foot. I did not buy the mare she was given to me and I know the club foot is not a good thing but she is a good horse. Also I have ABSOLUTELY NO intention of breeding her. She will hopefully be sound for trails and that is all. But thank you for your thoughts and I hope you can give me some great advice tomorrow!

[Jack Evers]

As folks have said, we need pictures, but there are many club footed horses out there doing well as long as they are maintained w/o any extreme measures to "fix" them. I have one with many endurance miles, a former client (she's moved away) had one that even did well as an open jumper.

Unless it's an extreme club she should be a fine trail horse.