[PoisynRose]

Has anyone heard of this? My friend went to see a prospective horse to buy last night and apparently the owner says its has box hoof. We tried researching in ever book I had available for it but we can't find any information on it.

Has anyone else heard of it? If so what is it?

[Blistering Winds]

I bet they mean Club Foot. Or Stump Foot is another thing I've seen it called.

Does the foot look really steep in angle compared to the others?

What do you want to do with the horse? How severe is the foot?

[Blistering Winds]

Basically Club foot is this.


The hoof is deformed. The coffin bone, instead of being at a 50-55 degree angle, it is more at a 65-70 degree angle or more. THe hoof wall directly corrilates with the coffin bone. So the hoof wall SHOULD be the same as the coffin bone, unless they had farriers attempt to fix the hoof, which does more harm than good.

Some horses can be lightly ridden with no lameness problems. With proper foot care and knowledge and understanding, the horse can live a productive life.

The shoulder is also usually affected. Their ride isn't as smooth, and have difficulties really stretching out.


We have a horse in the School's riding program who is club footed. She is rarely ever lame....last time she was lame, it wasn't on her club foot. She got caught in the fence. She is ridden several times a week both english and western.

It is all how the care and the severity of the foot affects the horse. If left alone and not attempted to be "fixed", many horses are perfectly sound. When the farriers start messing with it, you end up stretching and possibly bowing tendons in the process.


Anyways, if you are looking at some serious riding, personally, I"d shy away from this horse.

[Craig]

i would have thought it meant the horse has suffered with laminitis and still has some toe distortion which makes the foot look "box" shaped.

your friend may want to get the horse looked at by a Vet, to determine the likelyhood of future problems.

[Dawn]

I have heard club feet called box feet before. I think it's just a difference in terminology, but it'd be best to be sure as well.

[DesertBred]

What kind of horse is it? There are some breeds that commonly have Club foot. I have a friend at my barn who has a National Show horse who has one club foot, and she has no trouble at all with it. She jumps, does dressage and rides everyday and her horse has never taken a lame step. We have an excellent farrier who is very familiar with the syndrome which helps I'm sure. There are some guidelines on maintaining a club foot on the TX A & M web site. Depending on the severity, the horse may or may not have any trouble with it. Definitely do some research to find out about it, from there you should be able to make a good buying decision.