PRESS RELEASE (Edited)
The ninth installment in the 2025 OwnerView webinar series was held Nov. 12 and featured a veterinarian from Rood & Riddle discussing foal conformation and possible corrections.
The conference is hosted by The Jockey Club and the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association and presented by Bessemer Trust, Keeneland and Stoll Keenon Ogden. The panel was sponsored by Rood & Riddle and Juddmonte Farm.
A Q&A was sponsored by West Point Thoroughbreds with attendees asking questions through a Q&A link.
Gary Falter, project manager for OwnerView, moderated the panel with guest Dr. Ali Broyles, a surgeon at Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital. Dr. Broyles obtained her undergraduate degree at Middle Tennessee State University and her DVM from Texas A&M University in 2010.
The first question covered how soon after foaling a veterinarian or farm manager can assess a foal’s conformation. Dr. Broyles stated that in the neonatal phase of life, meaning the first couple weeks after foaling, they are looking for flexural deformities in the pasterns, because many of those issues need to be addressed early.
“So, the ones that are very contracted that are maybe walking on their toes or they’re having trouble standing on their own, those are the ones that need to be addressed very quickly with bandaging or splinting or oxytetracycline,” Dr. Boyles said. “The ones that are more lax, you can, depending on the severity, just kind of restrict their exercise, but those tend to improve with doing nothing—with just letting the foals get stronger.”
Dr. Broyles was also asked what veterinarians look for as the foal leaves the neonatal phase.
“At that point you’re starting to look more at the fetlock. Does the fetlock turn in or out? And then also at the carpus or the knee,” Dr. Broyles said. “Are they knock kneed or are they bow legged? For the fetlock, some things we can do to correct them are surgical correction, but also some conservative treatment, meaning you can have your farrier trim one side of the hoof or add extensions on one side of the hoof to try and promote the correct growth.”
The discussion progressed to whether these corrections are cosmetic or actually help the horse stay sound in the future.
“There was a study in the early 2000s that looked at conformation abnormalities and how they affected racing and how that affected risk for injury and they found a correlation,” Dr. Broyles said. “So offset knees or carpal varus is going to put that horse at risk for problems or lameness in the fetlock region in addition to the carpal region.
“As surgeons, we’re much more critical if the foal is turning in or has offset knees, meaning we’re going to encourage correction there because that deformity is going to predispose them to injury.”
The panel also included a video of the procedure used to fix fetlock varus, particularly Dr. Broyles inserting transphyseal screws to correct the conformation abnormality, which Dr. Broyles walked the audience through.
The replay of Tuesday’s Thoroughbred Owner Conference panel is available at bit.ly/OVVideos.
The final 2025 Thoroughbred Owner Conference virtual panel, “Industry Efforts to Support Individuals in Need,” is scheduled for Dec. 9 at 2 p.m. ET. A full schedule can be found here: bit.ly/OVSchedule.
Return to the November 14 issue of Wire to Wire
