High heels = straight pasterns?

I'm looking at a six year old gaited mare about two hours away from me. She's flashy and has the training I want BUUUUUTTTT...

She seems to have straight/upright pasterns. Prompt deal breaker. But then I looked a little closer and say that she has a lotta heal and almost no toe.

Looking at her summer pictures posted on Craigslist, I also noticed in THOSE pictures she has a MUCH better heel angle and more toe. She obviously has short/small pasterns but they don't appear to be very upright, or so upright as to be problematic.

Has anyone dealt with anything like this? I really like her, but if she's going to have joint/arthritic problems at 15 then I'm not going for the deal.

She will be an extensively ridden trail horse, no barrels/jumping/etc.

She prob just has a stupid farrier lol , who is trimming the toe to much do you have anypics?

I agree it could just be a bad trim job. If you have a good farrier, they can usually do some corrective trimming or fix a problem that was caused by another farrier.

I have a mare who grows a lot of heal and if the farrier does not know what they are doing they tend to like to try and take off too much heal and in the end makes it worse. A good farrier can take a horse with a lot of heal and get them leveled out. Most of the time it has nothing to do with pastern angles. However it could.

This is the pic that I got, I don't think she's cow-hocked. I think it's more the way she's standing in a relaxed pose. My guy's all have good straight legs and they looked horribly toed out if they decide to stand funny :)


And this is the summer Craigslist pics:

It is hard to tell from that angle.

I don't know about cow-hocked but in that first pic she does look sickled... bad angle though.
You should ask for pictures of her feet.

I would have your farrier look at her, or ask that her farrier meet you to see the mare. If the farrier just left on too much heel, then it shouldn't be a problem. However, if her feet naturally grow that way, then it could be a struggle and take a lot of time to get the heels lowered safely.

She's beautiful!

I would see if you can bring your farrier to meet her and get his/her opinion. Think of it as your PPE. =]

From my experience with gaited breeds, the heels tend to be a little long to help the horse breakover in their gait. I think this guy would go as good without all the heel. If your not looking for motion then a more natural trim would probably fix all that.
I wouldnt rule him out just because of a trim or the pics, go and see for yourself. If your not sure, take better pics and re-post.