Hocks - Bowed, Cowed, or Normal

From fhotd member Apples
http://standardbredhorses.yuku.com/topic/463


The blog post today references cow hocks, so I thought it would be good to start a discussion about the hind leg from the rear. Many people have a hard time determining what "cow hocked" means. Most of those people believe than any horse that "toes out" in the back is cow hocked. This is false. Horses are supposed to toe out in the back. In fact, if the rear toes point straight forward, chances are your horse is BOW LEGGED.


The key to a good hind leg, is that the entire leg is on the same plane. That is, if you were to stand directly behind the tail of your horse with a large sheet of glass, and dissect one of his hind legs, the glass would simultaneously go through the middle of the foot, pastern, hock and stifle. The sheet of glass would not be parallel to the horse's spine either, it would angle away from the horse's front end. If you were to dissect both hind legs with 2 sheets of glass and then looked at your horse from above, the 2 sheets of glass would look like this: V.


The reason the stifle must be angled slightly out, is so that the stifle joint clears the barrel when the horse brings his leg forward. The reason the rest of the leg below the stifle must angle out, is because the whole leg must be "straight" relative to the stifle in order to most efficiently bear weight down the centre of the whole of the leg in order to reduce stress. If the rest of the leg below the stifle is not "straight" then the only other thing it can be is crooked. Crooked legs are never good.


The root key to the Cow Hock is in the STIFLE, not the hock. A rule for assessing legs is that whenever you see anything wrong with a part of the leg, look at the joint above to give you insights to the root of the problem. The visual key of Cow Hock is the cannon bones when viewed from the rear are not parallel to each other…. They will be closer to each other at the top (near the hock) than the bottom (near the foot).

I've underlined the key problems in the 2 unwanted conformational traits.


Hind legs that are normal have:

1) stifles that face out,

2) hocks that point in,

3) toes that face out, at the same angle as the stifles.

All these points are then on the same plane. The horse's cannon bones when viewed from the rear will be parallel to each other, even though the toes point out.

Hind legs that are Bow legged have

1) stifles that face out,

2) hocks that point straight back,

3) toes that face straight forward or inward

Hocks and toes are on the same plane, but it's incorrect (the plane should not be parallel to the spine), the stifles are on the correct plane, but a different plane than the hocks and toes. The horse's cannon bones when viewed from the rear will ALSO be parallel to each other.

Hind legs that are Cow hocked have:

1) stifles that face straight forward,

2) hocks that point in,

3) toes that face out.

Hocks and toes are on a correct (and same) plane, but the stifle is not. The cannon bones when viewed from the rear will NOT be parallel to each other. Hocks will be closer to each other, pasterns will be farther from each other.