🧐 Did you know : How a horse grazes reveals a lot about their musculoskeletal comfort and asymmetry. Take some time just watching and observing your horse grazing.
Just sit and relax, enjoy the view... 🥰
Here are a few things to look out for :
✅ The most comfortable, symmetrical horses graze and move around constantly, often not lifting their heads up as they move. They nibble and step - nibbel and step...
✅ Symmetrical horses also graze evenly to the left and right - spending approximately 50% of the time with their left leg forward and 50% with their right forward like someone using a grastrimmer... skimming from one side to the other.
✅ Uncomfortable horses find a grazing position that’s comfortable for them nibble and eat for a while, but then lift their head up to move to the next spot.
✅ Asymmetrical horses will split their forelimbs wide to graze and prefer one foreleg being forward most of the time.
✅ This asymmetry is usually reflected in the way they move, bend, and protract their forelimbs.
✅ This mostly dominant leg, can cause mechanical lameness and asymmetrical hoof conformation.
Interesting isn't it ? You will never look at a grazing horse in the same way again !