[Fwd: RC: FW: conditioning effects]

[wsabg@t-online.de (Wolfgang Schwingenheuer)]

Steph Teeter wrote:

>      Shod horses that are de-shod will show a great improvement in hoof
> condition with exercise.  In fact, exercise, along with proper trimming, is
> one of the most important parts of rehabilitating laminitis, contracted
> heels, navicular, hoof imbalance and some tendon and joint problems.  Dr.
> Hiltrud Strasser, in her book Lifetime of Soundness, recommends horses get
> 20 miles of exercise per day - every day - for optimum health.  The feet on
> the horses she has trimmed and applied her theories to are incredible.  Huge
> frogs, perfectly symmetrical hooves, thick walls, etc.  Some of these horses
> (that she's working with) are endurance horses in Europe.

Hi all,

I can second this. I had problems with Ninja's hooves last year. The walls were
cracked because of an incorrect shoeing with a plastic shoe (Marathon). What to
do? Riding-Season was over, I had a lot of work at my office, so we took of the
rest of the shoes, trimmed the feet and put Ninja on the field. He was unshod
for a bit more than 2 months, with only some slow riding. After that period, I
called the farrier and he was very surprised. The hoof walls got thicker,
stronger, the frog "reshaped" etc. An overall improvement of all four hooves. We
shod Ninja again with the Marathon and now they hold for more than 8 weeks. The
farrier has real problems to remove the nails for re-shoeing because the quality
of the hoof is so good now. Two weeks ago we re-shoed and even with the
Marathon, the heels got wider, the hoof is better balanced. And we have a new
frog under the old one, which we had removed!
I would say, top hooves within 4 months. I guess we will take off the shoes this
year after riding season again for a good couple of weeks.

Wolfgang + Ninja 11 (hey, I bred four baby frogs, how to feed them?)
Germany