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  Discussion on Cat-Hammed?
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Member:
tangoh

Posted on Wednesday, Nov 28, 2007 - 5:26 pm:

A friend I know has a 2 1/2 year old MFT filly who I believe may be cat-hammed. She is very wide through the pelvis, but narrows through her thigh/stifle. She also stands very base narrow in her hind feet and when she walks, her hind feet are very close together. She doesn't consider her cowhocked, as her hind cannons are straight down from her hocks and she does not toe out. However, she does consider her to have fairly crooked legs with sickle hocks. She has an amazing overstride. Maybe too much so? Not sure what would qualify as "too much". Her hamstrings also seem really long and "stringy" to her.
Her question is: At 2 1/2 years old, could this lack of muscling be caused from being stalled most of her life, with little turn out (probably from the age of 6 mo. to 2 years). Or, is it genetics? If she is cat-hammed, how will this be a detriment?

She noticed on pg 21 of PCA series, Dr. Deb says Horse #3 "exemplifies the hind limb conformation known as cat-hammed,..." And she goes on to say that gaited horses need to be able to trot and canter as well as gait.

Her filly does hard trot and canter, so she's relieved that her conformation allows for those gaits, as well as her fox trot gait. She's had her for almost 3 months now, and has seen some improvement in the muscling in her quadriceps, but not enough to get excited about.

She hopes this information will help to give her some insight.

Thanks so much for any help!
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Thursday, Nov 29, 2007 - 8:39 am:

Hello Sherri,
Going from Capt Hays ground breaking "Points of the Horse" (1904 for my addition) all the way through Evans "The Horse" of 1990 I cannot find a definition for the term cat-hammed. On the internet it seems to be used a lot about livestock but no consensus to its meaning. If Dr Bennett provides one post it and we will put it in our list of horse terms.

Also let me say without looking at her horse I can only answer the questions in a general way and not with reference to her particular horse. With all those caveats let me try and take your questions in order:
1) A horse, gaited or not, has too much over stride when they begin to strike (interfere) with the front feet.
2) Certainly at 2 and 1/2 most horses will have a lot of muscling to go. How much will certainly be effected by past nutrition and genetics.
3) Most conformation strengths and weaknesses are best judged with the horse in motion but there some universal generalities. While almost no horses are absolutely straight, anytime a leg does not stand straight (think of "plumb") under the horse when viewed from in front of behind there are uneven stresses placed on the structures of the leg, and in particular the joints, in portion to the degree of lack of straightness.

Dr Bennett may think it is good for gaited horses to know how to trot but I don't know any owners or trainers of TWH's or Paso Fino's who feel this way. Personally I like gaited horses that canter and all our horses are trained to canter but there are many who feel a collected canter or lope detracts from the quicker 4 beat gaits. For instance PF trainers feel that it is difficult to have a horse than has a nice balanced canter and yet will still paso largo. I think this is true but we have a young PF stallion who Janette (my wife) believes is developing both.
DrO
Member:
maggienm

Posted on Saturday, Dec 1, 2007 - 10:35 am:

Sherri, if it is possible please post a picture of the filly in question.
In general, and I'm sure you know this, any horse that is overly stalled will not have sufficient muscle.
Many two yr olds look awkward.
Her build is indeed a result of genetics.
Now the obvious aside. When looking at a horse with the idea of figureing conformation consider if you are used to looking at good to ideal samples of what you are looking for.
What I mean is someone who is used to looking at nice 'old school' quarter horses may have a hard time looking at some lighter (but still correct for their breed)muscled hind quarters.
I find after spending time with my draft cross everything else looks fine boned.
Keep in mind one particular angles performance is determined by how it is connected to and the angle of the other joint and so on.
So if one part of the horse( stringy hams) seems poor (according to the book)there may be a compensation for it up or down the leg.
Also, some horse simply perform better than their conformation suggests they should.
Personality and charactor can more than make up for minor faults.
I hope some of this helps.
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