Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE Newsletter Archives

Foal leg problems

From: Heather

Hi Jessica; The people who board my fillies had their first three foals this year!!! The first is a bay Arabian colt. They named him Scottie (barn name). He's really cute (but since when has a 3 day old foal ever been ugly?). He's actually pretty friendly and easy to handle too, even though he hasn't been handled much. Boy was he in trouble when I got there. I love messing with foals and imprinting them. Poor keed! The mare of course waited to foal until the one day the owners weren't watching her (they had been watching her day and night for two weeks), in the middle of the afternoon. I told them that was going to happen, but they were sure they would see one born this year. hahahaha, mares are very tricky that way! The second foal was a bay filly. She is very cute also. The third foal was a chestnut colt (I got to see this one Heather (wondering when the rest of the mares will foal), Kali & Lady (hey, just cause there is a new kid doesn't mean you can neglect us!)

Hi Heather! A lot of foals have very strange-looking legs for the first few days. Some of these problems are self-correcting, and will go away within a few days as the foals become stronger and are turned out with their mothers to take exercise. Very large foals often have more trouble, and have problems that take longer to correct naturally, or that will require professional help from the vet or farrier or both.

Some angular limb deformities have a genetic cause, and some are brought on or made worse by improper feeding or trimming, or by lack of exercise. But there's often quite a lot you can do by getting professional advice and assistance early.

In some cases, just adjusting the diet and exercise in accordance with your veterinarian's suggestions will take care of the problem. In severe cases of bucked knees (knees constantly flexed), knock knees (one or both knees pointing inward), and contracted digital flexor tendons (foals walking on tiptoes with pasterns upright, the vet may prefer to cast the leg(s) for a week to ten days. In extreme cases of weak flexor tendons (foals walking on their fetlocks, with their toes tipping upward), the vet or farrier may be able to help by putting special shoes on the foal for a week or ten days.

The foals' owners should have their vet out to look at the foals -- especially that filly. I'm sure they will; you should suggest it to them, but don't be surprised if they tell you that the vet has already seen her. It would be unusual for someone to go to the trouble and expense of breeding foals and then not care whether they develop correctly -- but it wouldn't be a unique situation, either. So do your best to persuade them to have the vet out -- they need the vet! And they will probably need the farrier every two or three weeks for the next year.

- Jessica

Materials from Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE, The Newsletter of Holistic Horsemanship® may be distributed and copied for personal, non-commercial use provided that all authorship and copyright information, including this notice, is retained. Materials may not be republished in any form without express permission of the author.

Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE is a free, subscriber-supported electronic Q&A email newsletter which deals with all aspects of horses, their management, riding, and training. For more information, please visit www.horse-sense.org

Please visit Jessica Jahiel: Holistic Horsemanship® [www.jessicajahiel.com] for more information on Jessica Jahiel's clinics, video lessons, phone consultations, books, articles, columns, and expert witness and litigation consultant services.