Do you ride a crooked horse?

Addressing a straightness issue means teasing out cause and effect, explains Dr. Liz Barr MRCVS

- Dr.Liz Barr MRCVS

APPLYING the term “crooked” to a horse may cover a number of conditions, from more obvious developmental and congenital abnormalities, through lameness issues, to subtle nuances of training and difficulties with achieving straightness in certain dressage movements.

In its most severe form, crookedness is recognised at birth or in the first few months of life, as either crooked limbs – known as angular or flexural limb deformities – or a spinal deformity.

Angular and flexural limb deformities normally affect the fetlocks, carpus (knee), and hocks and should be addressed early in the foal’s life – before six weeks of age for fetlocks and six months of age for knees and hocks. Treatment consists of changes in feeding and management along with appropriate farriery or foot trimming, or a medical approach such as casting or splinting of the limbs. In certain cases, surgery may be necessary.

A foal may also be born with a spinal deformity. Lordosis is the term for excessive downward curvature or “swayback” conformation; kyphosis refers to excessive upward curvature, at times termed a “roach back”, while scoliosis means excessive sideways curvature of the neck or back.

Although severe deformities, particularly scoliosis of the neck, are often not compatible with life, mild conformational defects are common. There is a belief that lordosis, kyphosis and scoliosis can be caused by abnormal positioning of the foal in the womb, but there is no real way of proving this theory. Many horses in their twenties and thirties develop sway back confirmation as a normal aging change.

NATURAL BEND