25 replies to this topic

[sls]

I have heard several people on the forum mention horses with straight stifle are more problematic to locking stifle and/or patella problems.

Does anyone have pictures that show the difference between horses with hind leg(s) that are too straight that causes Patella (locking stifle) versus horse legs that do not? I can not see the difference.

Much appreciated.

[Minimor]

I can show you a photo of a horse with a very good stifle. This is our mare Scarlet--and I've posted this photo on here before--this is the best stifle I've ever seen on any Mini and I always say that if all Minis had a stifle like this, there wouldn't be a locking stifle problem in the breed!


Note the width and muscling this mare has in her stifle area; also note the angulation of her stifle.


If I had time I have a vet book with photos of good & bad stifles, and their photos show the angles--great reference for anyone that doesn't know what angles to look for....unfortunately I simply do not have the time just now to set up my scanner & get the page scanned in for you.

[disneyhorse]

Okay these photos are not ideal, but they're what I have in Photobucket at the moment.

This yearling Shetland pony colt had locking stifle:



This yearling Shetland pony colt is now coming-three and so far, has not had his stifles lock (knock on wood!!!) The first colt, I sent right back to the breeder and did not ask for my money back. I personally will have nothing to do with a horse with locking stifles.



Let me post this, I will look at the pictures side-by-side here and see if I have anything to add...
Andrea

[Shari]

They are finding in Icelandic's with Locking Stifles, that they are "camped out" to varying degrees. Would be interesting to find out if that is the same in the mini's.

[minimule]

This is the only photo I have left of her but this filly had a locking stifle.

[~Lisa~]

You can see those with locking stifles are very straight in the stifle - it is not tragic although nothing I would want in a breeding animal. I had a large horse who had stifle surgery and went on for years to compete in west pleasure- hunter and was a great trail horse.

[lilmiraclesfarm]

I don't know if this will help in what your looking for but I thought it was a different perspective. This is a 5 yr old mare with a pretty bad case of a locking stifle. The stifle is on the left side, which your seeing in the moving pictures. It comes and goes. Sometimes its minor other days it locks like crazy.

[hobbyhorse23]

Nice animation, lilmiraclesfarm! Here's my chronic locker, who is finally free of the awful condition since surgery in March of last year. He was overweight in this early photo and the deep angle of his croup and pelvis fooled me for years into thinking he wasn't straight in the hindquarters.



What I didn't realize was that his discomfort caused him to contract his hindquarters and hunch up his lower back, making all the joints look steeper. Can you see how there's bands of muscle bulging vertically between the top two yellow lines in the photo below? Those shouldn't be like that.



Since his surgery he has relaxed all those contracted muscles and stands much, much straighter in the hind end. His pelvis is still very steep but it's more apparent now that the stifle is pretty straight. This photo was taken this spring- try to look past the angle of the clipped hair.



Can you see what I mean? His bodyworker pointed out that a lot of apparent "conformation" is actually posture, and if certain muscles are being held abnormally tense they can pull the body out of its natural alignment and cause the horse's conformation to look different than it actually is. Fascinating! I'm seeing that at work in the yearling I have now as well. He looked HORRIBLY post-legged this week and I asked the body-worker if he really is post-legged and that's causing the locking, or is the locking causing him to stand in a way that makes his joints look bad? She believes tentatively that it's postural at this point since when he folds his legs to take a step his stifle looks quite deep indeed, whereas Kody's stifle stays shallow and incorrect through all stages of movement like the mare above. It's hard to describe what I mean, but it's like Kody's stifle is too high and too far back. The bones aren't as long as they should be and the angle ends up too straight so they can meet. The baby doesn't have that problem but stands funny because he feels awkward and worries he will lock.

I don't have any pictures of the youngster online but can try and post some shots of his hips and hind legs later.

Leia

[kaykay]

I have noticed over the years and you can see it in the pictures that a lot of horses that lock also have very small hips. Form follows function for sure.