RE: Darolyn and Barefootin' (extremely long)

[Deanna German <finishis2win@columbus.rr.com>]

Karen,

Looks to me like the shod horses in your referenced material from Dr.
Strasser were shod very poorly or kept in stalls with minimal exercise from
an early age. (Don't European horses get a lot less turnout than most of
ours?) I'd be interested in seeing pictures of these shod horses feet and
comparing them to our distance horses' feet.

also, first paragraph:

"A barefoot horse is capable of performing all the tasks that could be
expected of a horse, without requiring any kind of protection of the hoof,
PROVIDED that the hoof has not been weakened or deformed by the actions of
man through unnatural treatment and living conditions."

This prefaces everything else Strasser says, leading me to believe it is of
the uptmost importance. Define "unnatural treatment and living conditions"
please. I just read another post where the horse is keep on crushed stone.
This and some of the other requirements just aren't practical for boarded
horses! How many of us board our horses? I'm guessing at least half.

I also want to know just how many of these barefoot horses other than
Darolyn's are out there doing endurance mileage. No, 25 miles is not
endurance mileage. How many miles in a season are they doing? How many LD
miles? How many multiple day rides?

Come on all you Strasser students, out with it: how many of you are doing
endurance, how many miles per horse and how many career miles?

I've got a feeling that there are some barefoot people doing a lot more
endurance in their head than they're doing with their horses (a simple
search on the barefoot riding advocate names on the AERC website suggests
that this might be the case).

What is Dr. Strasser's horse experience? Eventing? Flat-track racing?
Dressage? Endurance? What's Dr. Strasser's "Dr." in?

Deanna