Do you have a cow-hocked horse?  Have you been told over and over that it’s just poor horse conformation and there’s nothing you can do to help the problem?  Well guess what?  There are exercises and stretches that you can do with your horse that can help him become more balanced and less likely to develop other problems that can come as a result of this posture.  It just requires a little time and consistency on your part and a willing attitude on the part of your horse.

Anatomy Of A Cow-Hocked Horse

Let’s begin with a demonstration of the anatomy involved.  Stand up with your toes pointed straight ahead in a normal standing position.  Now, I want you to turn your toes out about 40 degrees.  Do you feel where that pulls in your legs?  Do you feel the strain in your knees and ankles and the tightening in your inner thigh?  That’s what your horse is doing.  Now imagine walking around like that all the time! 

Your horse’s hock is the equivalent of your ankle and your horse’s stifle is the equivalent of your knee.  Once you make this mental connection with the anatomical landmarks and how they correspond to your body, you can begin see the many problems that can (and will) eventually start cropping up on a horse that does this all the time.  You can really appreciate this once you feel what that does in your own body.

You felt the tightening of the inner thigh muscle on yourself when you stood in this position.  That is the muscle that is engaged and is helping to pull your legs into that stance.  This is called the semimembranosus muscle, and in most cow-hocked horses will be quite tight. This also puts a strain on the stifle joint.

This joint is very complex, with several ligaments that act in concert for the joint to function properly.  When you have too much pull on one side and not enough on the other these ligaments become unevenly loaded and the stifle cannot work correctly.

These ligaments must work in concert.  You’ll find a lot of horses with this cow-hocked posture will eventually develop stifle issues like upward fixation of the patella, or “locking stifles” as it is sometimes called. The constant strain on the hocks and surrounding soft tissue can also lead to conditions like tendinitis, bone spavin and arthritis in the hocks.

Strategies For Cow-Hocked Horses:  Exercises And Stretches

So what can you do to help your horse if he has this problem?  The first thing that needs to happen is the semimembranosus muscle has to relax so that it can stretch back out, allowing the leg to return to a more “normal” position.

Regular and consistent equine massage therapy and stretching can help overcome the muscle memory and relax the muscle fibers so that they can accommodate this new and unfamiliar posture.  This can take time.  Most likely your horse didn’t end up cow-hocked overnight – it was a long and slow process, a long-ingrained habit, that got him there.

Once you get the muscle to relax, you must also prepare the opposing muscles to begin to take up the load and do the job that they have not been allowed to do.  You will find that the quadriceps muscles on horses with this posture will be very weak and have a depressed, or “scooped-in” appearance.

These muscles will need to be slowly built back up again, while at the same time relaxing and stretching the tight inner-thigh muscles.  There are several exercises that you can do to accommodate this.  A very passive exercise would be to stand facing your horse’s hindquarter, grasp his tail, and slowly but firmly pull it toward you.  You’ll notice the quadriceps muscle contract and the hock will shift outward toward you, stretching the inner thigh muscle at the same time.

Repeat this 5 to 10 times in a row at first about 3 times per week.  Gradually add more days per week and more repetitions as your horse becomes more fit.

Additional exercises for building all the right muscles are hill therapy, backing up hills and weaving backward around obstacles.  All of these exercises can be used to build the quadriceps muscles, increase flexion in the stifles and hocks, and increase mobility through the pelvis.

The exercise of backing a weave pattern is the exercises that I recommend the most and is particularly helpful in retraining your horse to use those back legs properly, engaging the outer thigh muscles while at the same time stretching the inner thigh muscles.  It is extremely important for this exercise to be effective that your horse step back and over approximately 45 degrees with the hind legs.

A lot of horses will try and stop the back end, pivot on the back leg and then move the front end over.  Keep the horse moving backward, but ask slowly, one step at a time.  See my article “Rib And Pelvic Exercises For Horses – Backing The Weave Pattern” for more details and a video demonstration on how to teach it to your horse.

However, if your horse’s quadriceps are very underdeveloped, you will definitely want to add in the other two exercises mentioned above to help your horse build the correct muscles to support the new posture.

Manually stretching your horse’s legs is also a key tool in overcoming this ingrained posture.  A full range of basic leg stretches will ensure that your horse stays balanced and flexible.  Key hind leg stretches for this condition will be rotation of the hip, abduction of the leg (away from the body), and backward extension of the leg.

A variation you can teach of the abduction stretch which would also be very beneficial is the Parelli Natural Horsemanship “Lead By The Leg” game.  This involves using a lead rope around the pastern – ONLY if your horse is good about things around his legs.  Gently put pressure on the lead rope and ask the hind leg to come out to and be placed at different points away from the body.  Key angles will be on the clock face 1:30, 3:00, 4:30 for the right hind and 7:30, 9:00 and 10:30 for the left hind.

Before beginning any therapy on your horse always consult your veterinarian to make sure that your horse does not have any preexisting conditions that would be aggravated and that your horse is physically capable of performing any exercise program you may wish to start.  These exercises are not meant to replace regular veterinary care and consultation.

Now that you have some strategies to try with your horse, the key is to be consistent with them.  You will need to perform these at least 3 days per week in order to overcome the muscle memory built into your horse over the years.  The longer they’ve had the condition, the longer you need to overlay the new pattern to overcome it and have it stick.

Try these exercises and stretches with your horse for 30 days and then come back here and tell me how it went in the comment section below this article.  What worked for you and/or what did you find challenging about the exercises?

Lisa Carter is a Certified Equine Massage Therapist (CEMT), with multiple certifications from several different equine bodywork schools.  She incorporates her knowledge and experience with Parelli Natural Horsemanship, equine bodywork and as a veterinary technician to provide her clients with the resources they need to make informed decisions for their horses.  She encourages and facilitates network building between equine health care professionals, working together to find the best combination of therapies to meet the needs of the “whole horse”.

Are you ready to get better results with your horse?  Put your equine health care team to work so you and your horse can be doing what you were meant to.  Click here to get started!