The precious little foal was born with windswept legs or (angular limb deformities). What a sad site. This foal mom was veted regularly, feed like a queen with nutritional feed, and this just happened. Yes, this was my first foal. I cried and cried because I felt I had let it down. The mom was treated with royalty and things just happen sometimes. This is the way it is when breeding horses sometimes.
My local vet, in town, was within minutes of the birth and assured me that the foal would recover with time. I had never heard of windswept legs or angular limb deformities in foals. You could just say that the foal was born unable to walk or even get up.
One of the most important areas to examine after a new foal is born is the legs. This is important if a foal is born prematurely as some of the bones in their joints may not be formed completely. In this case, the foal was a few days late. Vets states that any foal that is born weak should have their legs examined closely. In this case, the foal was unable to follow the mom and feed. We had to quickly get the moms milk to the foal and help the foal to even move around. Our well known vet kept assuring me that the foal would be better as time went on. Some of these foals with immature bones require bandaging and splints or even casts to prevent further bone damage. There are several surgical procedures that can be performed if stall rest and bandaging are not effective in straightening the limb. These can be performed later except in the fetlock where surgeries for straightening the leg must be performed at two months of age.This horse grew to 16 hands and became stronger as months went by. We actually showed this horse in competitions so he was really 95% recovered as a yearling. We are proud of him because he recovered, was a happy horse, sweet, and did not mind working in training. Three days later he had another buddy to play with on the farm. These two were lots of fun while growing up.
He looks so weak in this photo but he grew up to be full of energy and just the best. This horse remained a stallion for the remainder of his days on the farm. I have request for boarding and just received a request for boarding a stallion in the Jupiter, Florida area. Please email me if you have a place for boarding a stallion. PALM CITYS HORSE TALK
This is another angle of his hind legs. It only effected one side. The vet said that is the reasong it is called in slang language WINDSWEPT LEGS.
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