Need Picures of horses' hind legs with locking stifle.

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.

sls said:

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.

Click to expand...

my horse has a slight flared toe that the vet thought was a patella issue. i can show you photos , but will have to send them via e-mail. please PM me with your address. I have some info on what to look for with UPF.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

Wonderful information! Great animation! In all my years of having & raising big horses never encountered this issue so this is very helpful! Thanks!

I had one that got pretty bad when you worked him. I no longer have him so won't post pics. But he wasn't straight up and down in the back like you read sometimes. But he was badly cowhocked, toed out, and had a weak hip. How he was able to move so pretty I have no idea.

Now this guy he is your all-around performance horse. If he was ever going to show a locking stifle he would have by now, especially what happened to him couple years ago due to me not noticing it. Anyways this boy is awesome and if only I could have a million more like him. Too me he looks alot like Minimor's mare at the stifle.



Ok now lilmiracles is just showing off . Thats pretty cool and shows it really well. My horse I sold he did that. These minis I find are very bad considering locking stifles and I think people need to pay more attention to it.

My mini Midnight has locking stifles, both hind legs.

she still walk, trot, canters well though and loves to jump!

Midnight>



And midnight jumping<

And my other mini Angel who doesn't have a stifle problem>

Click pictures to enlarge

Because locking stifles can be such an issue with minis and there are some wonderful photos - complete with animation - on here, I wonder if this could be put on the Best of the Forum?

Great point about the posture aspect - that makes so much sense. I've had a couple with locking stifles and it does often seem to go hand in hand with a shallow, weaker hip. The worst we had - and worst I've ever seen - was a filly who started locking when I put her out in a big field with her dam. She would lock and stay locked on both legs, very pitiful looking. We had surgery done on her at a much earlier age than I (& vets) would have prefered, but she was just miserable. Her dam never had a problem & neither did sire but in hindsight it was apparent that he produced the problem. The filly is in a pet home, and the stallion is gone & gelded. He gave me two, the other a gelding I drove and just adored who only had issues when he was stalled for a period of time.

Jan

How about a mini with a stiffle (left hind) that looks like it pops/clicks? No sound, cant feel any differance when I put both hands on each side and feel while walking, nothing. Just notice when my mini walks and it looks just like it slightly pops in each step.

Would that be considered a locking stiffle or possibly something else that can be fixed or go away as my mini matures?

Someone mentioned to me a OCD? I will be taking her to the vet as well, just wanted your opinions too.

What is the surgery that you had done.?

My little guy has his left hind that locks from time/time. You can see it when he walks at the trot he looks just fine. He is a great little performance guy, and tries to please nonstop. I just want to help him with this. He wins many classes (driving) but I don't put him in halter because of the leg.

Will excerise help him? If so can you advise what type.

To everyone,

Thank you so much for your input. I am really trying to "get it".

In looking at the pictures to determine how "straight the stifle" is you are looking at the hock and feeling the bone up to the hip to determine if it is straight or at an angle?

The more at an angle the long bone between the hock and hip is the better?

And the contributing factor is it the weak hip and/or lack of muscle in the hind quarters?

Also, is this hereditary? If a colt/filly is two and shows no signs (but mare or sire did have) is there a good chnace it will not appear?

Sherry

A couple of the posts in this thread seem a tad confused . Just for the record, "Patella" isn't a condition. Patella is the correct name for your kneecap. The stifle joint is analogous to our knee. Horses' stifles are designed so that they can "lock," allowing a horse to sleep while standing up. There is a place where the patella sits to do this. This is a normal part of the way the leg functions. Unfortunately, in some horses, the patella will slip into place when it isn't meant to, or won't come out when it's supposed to. That's a locking stifle.

When we talk about straight stifles, we don't mean straight like a ruler, just not as much of an angle as we would prefer to see. As Leia said, it seems to have to do with the lengths of the bones and their relationships to each other. Muscle development plays a role, too. As does activity - I knew a QH mare that would lock up if she was stalled for more than a few hours (like overnight.) As long as she was able to move around, she was fine. As to whether it is hereditary - well, the condition itself isn't, but the conformation that can make it likely to occur certainly can be. A lot of young horses go through a stage where they do this, and outgrow it as they mature. It can appear in an otherwise sound horse as a result from an injury in the stifle area.

There are a couple of different surgeries that are done to try to correct this problem, and they meet with varied success. The more radical surgery actually severs the ligament that allows the patella to get into its notch. This is what was finally done to Leia's Kody. Kody's legs no longer lock, at any time. Kody is now apparently pain-free (Hooray!!), but the trade-off is, he can no longer sleep standing up. (Sorry, Leia, I don't mean to steal your thunder. I know of several horses that have had this surgery, but Kody's the only one whose name I know!)