pigeoned toed

I was wondering what exactly pigeoned toed means and if it is ok to jump on! And do heavy riding with.

THANKS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!

The horse in my avatar is pigeon toed (you can sort of see it in that picture). It means the horses hooves don't match up to the horses knees (point inward, outward is called toed out) and can vary in severeness.

For a mild case, like my horse has, I have never had to 'tone down' my riding with him. We do long trail rides, pleasure horsemanship, play around with games, low low low jumping, etc. The problems usually come as they age, they usually have more joint issues such as arthritis. I've had my horse on a joint supplement for several years now as a preventative and he is in his mid-teens with no issues.

I'm interested in other replies too, there aren't many pigeon toed horses in my area so I've had to learn most of this information on my own.

ETA: I can't speak for heavy jumping, as I'm not a jumper at all, but I've been able to lightly jump my horse with no issues. Also now that I can see my avatar you can very much see my horse's pigeon toe, it's his front right foot.

^ What OuttaTheBlue said. I would much rather have a horse who is pigeon toed than toed out (which is where their hooves point out). I know horses at a camp who get ridden almost every day for either 3 hours or 2 hours, and some do pretty high (4 feet) and are perfectly fine. Of course, it depends on how much the horse is pigeoned toed, Casey's right front is moderatley pointed in while her left is barely pointed in. Almost all horses who are pigeon toed can do the same level of work compared to other normal horses.

Why is that?

Well, at least on the front. Horses who are pigeon toed on the front paddle outward slightly and therefore they are less likely to hit their legs together, whereas the toed out horse is the opposite. However on the hind legs it is better to be toed out as they can go farther forward without clipping themselves.

That's exactly what Casey is like..

Pigeon toed means the same in horses as it does in people, it means that their toes point inward toward each other instead of straight ahead.

Here is a fairly extreme example of a pigeon toed horse.


I have a horse that is moderately pigeon toed. I've been using him for ranch type work; roping, cutting, long days at fast gaits, hauling ass over rough terrain, for the better part of 9 years now. He has never taken so much as a single lame step.

The best thing you can do for a pigeon toed horse is take preventative measures. Ensure you have frequent visits by a good farrier to keep him well balanced and prevent him from getting long in the hoof. If you want, a joint supplement would never be a bad idea. Probably putting good support boots on him when you jump as well would help to some extent.