Club Foot

Even in its least pronounced form a club (boxy or upright ) foot is apparent at a glance, The angle formed by the hoof with the ground appears too straight, and the heels, as compared with the toe, appear much too high.
When the condition is mild, the wall of the toe is about twice as high as that of the heels, while in the most marked form the toe and the heels may in height be nearly equal. Such animals, by reason of their 'stiltiness,' are unfit for riding, but in driving work will perform equally well as the animal of normal-shaped feet.
When a club foot is the result of injury, overwork or contracted tendons, the gait becomes stumbling and uncertain. The body-weight is transferred from the heels to the front of the foot, and the shoe shows undue signs of wear at the toe.

Causes.
The club /upright hoof is undoubtedly hereditary, and is even seen as a natural conformation in the feet of asses and mules. When found in the horse, however, it is considered a defect, and is associated commonly with an upright limb, and a short, upright pastern.

Treatment.
When the condition is congenital, no treatment at all is needed. In fact, interference would tend to minimize rather than enhance the animal's usefulness; for, in this case, the club-shaped feet are in all probability due to faulty conformation . In other words, the upright hoof is in this case is a natural result of the animal's build, and interference would be counter-productive

Where the condition is a consequence of excessive paring of the toe, or insufficient removal of the heels, the condition may be remedied by proper treatment by a competent farrier. In cases where the abnormality has been brought about by wounds to the flexor tendons, the alteration in the direction of the limb is often so great as to produce 'knuckling over' of the fetlock. This can be helped by the use of a shoe with calkins and an extended toe-piece .