Re: club foot

["Kris Hazelbaker" <shajarah@cybrquest.com>]

Hello all.

My mare with a club foot doesn't get much feed out of a feeder.  She is
grazing almost exclusively.  She definitely scissors, with the clubbed foot
back as she grazes.
> I've heard the theory that a horse that continually scissors his front
legs
> with the same foot back while grazing can cause one foot to become clubby.
> As it becomes more of a club foot he'll keep it back more thus beginning a
> vicious cycle.
That's the Truth!
>the one that he likes to keep forward tends to grow much more
>toe than heel, and he ends up with 2 different front feet.  But, they're
>looking more alike with every shoeing!

What I've heard in this thread is that the clubbiness can be gradually
improved, but that isn't what I've read in the past.  What I've heard here:
    1) Keep the club foot trimmed, especially heels.  (In the past I've been
told that only puts strain on the tendon and the foot, without making a
difference in the long-term).
    2) Keep the opposite foot trimmed to make it easier for the horse to
place it in the "back" position while eating.  (This makes sense to me, in
the past, I've been told to work on making the feet look alike by letting
the clubbed foot grow longer and keep the heels shorter.  This says make the
good foot more like the clubbed foot.  Not identical, just more similar.)
    3) This could take 6 months to see an improvement.

Wasn't there a discussion about the nutritional causes of clubbing quite
some time ago?  Anyone remember the particulars?  Seems like there was a tie
to the moisture regime that affected the mineral uptake/content of pasture
grasses, so that (at least in anecdotal observation) some years produced
more clubfooted babies than other years.  I tend to lean to the nutritional
cause in my mare's case, as she's had three babies with no clubs.  Maybe the
sensitivity to nutrient imbalances is there though, and her babies have just
lucked out with better nutrition than she had, and didn't develop the clubs.

Kris Hazelbaker
Idaho