Re: [RC] The nutritional guide to lame babies - Mike & Kathy Kelly
My thoughts on this comes from what I have
learned in the pro-barefoot circles. Club feet are thought to result from
not enough movement and soft footing. Arabs are thought to be especially
susceptible because they are a hard-hoofed horse and require hard ground for
their hooves to function and develop properly.
One researcher (help me out here, anyone!) observed
that mustangs did not have any club feet when first rounded up and confined, but
that with confinement they soon developed club feet.
Subject: Re: [RC] The nutritional guide
to lame babies
First off, I'm not talking about a
true, extreme club foot, I'm mostly talking about a "semi-clubfoot" that
comes in degrees and is in conjunction with a low heeled hoof. I've seen
pictures of 'foundation' arabs that have the same thing. I've seen a picture
of Abu Farwa that showed his high heel/low heel fault. IMO, this has been bred
into the breed because breeders don't care. I see it in some lines more
frequently than others.
Have there been published studies
on the nutritional cause? If it is nutritional, why only one foot? How
come I don't see the high heel/low heel as frequency in other breeds? I rarely
see it in warmbloods and I see lots of warmbloods in my area. Europeans
don't allow horses with hoof faults to become approved breeding horses. Do
only arab breeders over feed? I'm not saying nutrition doesn't play a
role but I do believe very strongly that genetics do. If it is genetics
that preposition a horse to over sensitivity to imbalances in the diet -
it still is genetics. Why knowingly breed for it?
Club feet can skip generations so
just because a club footed mare doesn't produce a club footed foal doesn't
really prove anything.
I've had to deal with three arabs
over the years with this type of hoof structure and it is something that I
really feel strongly about. There are so many issues that come with this
structure and like other things, it really can become a problem with the sport
of endurance. It is something that needs to be exposed, examined and fixed. It
is a fault and it should be treated as such, especially for the halter horses
that go on to influence future generations.
Subject: Re: [RC] The nutritional guide
to lame babies
Excuse me, Lauren, but nutrition and early
environmental influence are the main factors in club-footedness. And
likewise, "I have no doubt about this." The genetic component seems to
be an over-sensitivity to imbalances in the diet--indeed, some families are
much more prone to them, given bad management. But horses with "all
the genetics in the world" for club-footedness will NOT produce club feet if
the horses have BALANCED diets and are not overfed. It is becoming
prevalent in our breed primarily because babies tend to grow up one of two
ways--either undernourished with imbalanced diets and no foot care, or in
"show" feeding sorts of situations where they are heavily grained and
"pushed." There isn't much in between. And either one is a
recipe for club feet, especially if the youngsters are comfined, to
boot.
Subject: [RC] The nutritional guide
to lame babies
I strongly disagree with
Linda's post about club footedness being related to too much food
(nutrition). Although I know nothing about morgans one of my big pet
peeves in the arabian breed is the frequency that I see horses with club
feet, or mostly high heel/low heel. THIS IS GENETIC. I have no doubt about
this but I won't rule out other less frequent causes of this major fault.
