I looked at a horse today - not that I need another, but a
lady lost her house in a fire and then her husband died within a month and she’s
already raising her grandkids, so needs to find homes for several horses.
He’s a 10 yo purebred arab, but no papers.He was quite hyper when I first saw him, but that was after being cooped
up for 2 days from a storm, then let out for few minutes and then recaptured
and brought back to the barn w/o the other horses.Later he calmed down and was almost even
too calm when I rode him.
He’s been chewed up by other horses, so not much to
look at until you see him move. Then he is very impressive.Big even stride, really catches your
breath at the trot.His overall
conformation is not totally thrilling – long legs (that are big and solid
which is good) and a short back, a combination which concerns me from the
interference perspective.
But the biggest flaw is his right front (of course) which is
pretty clubby.I’ve had
horses with a couple degree difference and it hasn’t
been a problem.This club is
probably 4-5 degrees different and pretty obvious.It’s not a bad foot
otherwise.I’m going to
measure the angles tomorrow if I can find some solid ground.
So my question is, how big of a deal is this?What should I look for in his stride or
maybe shoulder or back palpation to determine if this will cause him a problem
or if he has internally adjusted to it and it’s best to leave it alone?
I have a friend who just had a ligament cut to deal with the
issues she had with a somewhat worse club foot – it wasn’t anything
she noticed a problem with until she started training for endurance rather than
more low key trail rides.
I have probably decided not to get this horse because I wasn’t
looking for a long term horse but rather one to train and condition and
sell.I can’t afford to add
another long term horse to the herd (in fear for my life!) so I would need to
be confident that I knew he didn’t have a real problem and that I or a
vet could communicate that to a buyer if that was the case.I haven’t spoken to my vet yet,
since I just saw him this morning.
I’d like to help this lady out and he is cheap enough that
I could make some money if he was as good a deal as his trot makes him look.Or maybe he could be a good long term
horse if I sold a couple of my mares that I have for sale.
