Pigeon huntin’ today…
Jul 02 2007
Now that we’ve covered back at the knee, let’s talk about pigeon toes. While they have not photographed this horse directly from the front, you can still see that his left front turns inward. This impairs performance much worse than being slightly splay footed (pointing out), by the way. I’ve seen horses that looked like Donald Duck but still performed and held up amazing well. But a pigeon toed horse is very unlikely to stay sound if you do anything more stressful than showmanship at halter with him.
Quoted from their ad: “Quarter Horse Stallion turned 2 years old in May. He has a very calm demeanor and will probly be a little over 15 HH when he’s done growing. Modest rehoming fee. He’s halter broke, likes baths and stands for grooming. He’s slightly pigeon toed but the farrier says he can help him with proper trimming.”
Do you suppose the farrier is willing to offer a package deal to trim all of his future babies to correct their pigeon toes too? By the way, good farrier work can only do so much…ultimately a crooked leg is a crooked leg. I know, I know, he’s black and he’s pretty, but he needs to be a pretty, black gelding.
This mare looks sweet, and I feel bad for her, because this front end just screams “I am going to be a lame companion only horse by age 12 tops.”
I am trying to figure out exactly what the front end is all doing, but one thing that is painfully clear is that the legs point inward to a degree where the feet are not as far apart as the area where the legs meet the chest. I think the feet may actually point outward, so she isn’t technically pigeon toed. Does anybody know the term for this mare’s front end? I mean, other than some obscenity followed by “I sure hope nobody ever breeds her.” ? I mean, the leg comes in but the toes point out and the only way I can describe how her legs are set on is “funky as fuck.”
Hey, thanks to all of you who are sending me material. We have some really conformationally-challenged equines coming up, more terrifyingly bad jumping form, and yet more stallions who resemble a member of the Yak family.
Oh hell, maybe I’ll just throw that one in right now. For just $300 the Abominable Snow Yak can be yours. This is a stallion, folks. Be very afraid. BTW nice fence.
Also BTW, Brigid’s daughter, who commented on the previous post, totally gets it. You can love your horse like crazy and still be clear minded enough to recognize he or she is not breeding quality. If everybody showed that kind of maturity, horses would be much better off. Am I mean spirited? Well, in exactly the same way that most comedians are. I’m not judging a rated horse show here folks. It’s the Internet.
4 comments to “Pigeon huntin’ today…”
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Does anybody know the term for this mare’s front end?
The term is “base narrow” (the opposite fault is “base wide”).
Thank you for this blog.
Really.
You are saying exactly what experienced horse trainers/ sellers/ breeders have been saying for eons: “Who thought THAT was a good idea?”
Each individual horse may or may not have his own merits, but only the very, very best examples should be kept as breeding stock.
This chestnut was just a bad picture, I went and looked at her. She’s fine. This picture doesn’t even look like her.
I’ve actually met a piegon toed Hano and he stayed sound until he got his hocks injected improperly. Took kids to the Maclays and all the way up through 3’6″ childrens hunter and jumped 5′ oxers. It didn’t bother him at all, but he was imported straight from Germany into an “A” show barn.