over reaching in horses?

Question

who knows why horses over reach i.e. hit back of front feet with hind feet.and who knows how to stop it.

Answer 1

the best way to help this is to put bell boots on your horses front feet. this could be caused by a conformation defect, having a young horse who is still learning how to carry himself, or your horse feeling some sort of pain and avoiding it by over reaching.

Answer 2

There can be several reasons for a horse to over reach, the main one occuring when running during competitions in an arena where speed is required during a turn. There is no method of stopping it that I know of.
The best and easiest way to deal with this issue is to equip the horse with protective gear when riding.
The below links have more info and pics of the equipment needed to prevent/limit injury to the horses legs and feet.

Answer 3

The most common cause of over reach, or forging, is stiffness in the shoulder causing a shortening of stride in the front end. The hind end will run into the front end. An equine massage therapist can help with this. Corrective shoeing treats the symptom, not the cause.

Answer 4

an over reach occurs when a horse moves his hind limb further than his forelimb or picks his hind limb up more quickly than than his forelimb striking into the fore foot with his back foot & causing injury. it can occur in all 4 paces, although is more likely to occur in trot, canter & gallop than walk.

This is more likely to occur in horses which are unbalanced & stiff, not working correctly on the bit & in horses with poor conformation & possibly muscle damage. As long as you know your horse has not medical reason for over reaching (eg sore back which means he isn't using his shoulders) then I would suggest training to improve your horses way of going therefore improving his balance & reducing the incidence of over reaching. encouraging your horse to work on the bit (which lightens the forehand & will therefore mean you horse become more energetic in front & should pick his legs up more rythmically) & also raised pole work will help. working your horse regularly in this manner will improve the horses muscles so it will be less likely to occur when the horse is out in the field.

Many horses are more inclined to over reach when being ridden at speed, again all you can do is train your horse to gallop on the bridle so it becomes more balanced & lighter on the forehand but in the meantime I would recommend using a quality brand of overreach boots or bell boots. some i have used with great success are made by Professionals Choice & also Pro- Equine. N.E.W. boots are also very good at helping to prevent injury

Answer 5

Use bell boots when you're woking him and try squaring off his toes on the front feet and trim the back feet normally. If the front feet are square he'll break over faster and those front feet might be out of the way by the time the back feet get there. It worked for my horse.

Answer 6

If you're going to use bell boots, do yourself a favour and get the kind that open up and have to be done up, not the kind that are closed and have to be stretched over his feet. They are a nuisance if they get wet or muddy, especially if your hands are cold.

Answer 7

try over reach boots or some times changing the type of shoes they wear works

Answer 8

Our Arabian mare did this, badly, as a youngster. It was finally solved by trimming and her growing out of a gangly awkward stage.
Sometimes corrective shoeing helps.

Answer 9

the horse is not balenced properly and infact it is the riders fault as well as the horse. who have poor conformation. use over reach boots x

Answer 10

well if it carrys on put a stick on the hind legs and keep it there if he kicks give him a tap for being naughty he will stop ater a wile