Dr. Strasser (To Deanna)

[guest@endurance.net]

Karen Standefer hrschk@yahoo.com
>>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.<<

Not any more poorly shod that the ones that Kurt cleans up messes on over
here in the good ole US.  Turnout doesn’t have to be on lots of acres.
Many of the successful horses in Euro countries that are barefoot are only
in paddocks adjoining their “use to be” closed stall doors.  As I stated
in another post, the distance horse’s hoof is going to be better because
they get more blood circulation since they do so much consistent exercise.
However, they, will also have the same damage from shoes.  The resulting
issues are prolonged because they, by nature of endurance, receive more
exercise. Ringbone, sidebone and arthritis are all pretty common ailments
among our endurance horses.  These maladies can all be avoided by
barefootin’ and correct hoof mechanism.

>>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.<<

My horses are boarded and I haven’t changed anything in their pasture to
make the place more abrasive for them.  But, because they ARE endurance
horses and are being ridden a LOT, that hasn’t been a factor.  I would
imagine most endurance horses are already kept pretty well as naturally as
possible.  We all know they need movement for their guts to work.  Most of
us try to provide that as much as possible.  The reference by Dr. Strasser
to natural living conditions has to do with not just what it best for the
hoof, but also what is best for the horse psychologically.  Her studies
are to promote an overall healthy horse.

>>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?<<


Responded to this in a previous post.


>>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).<<

Yep, we’re all blowing smoke until we’re out there competing.  However, we
can blow pretty good, huh?  Most of us are actively conditioning our
horses hooves and bodies in order to be ready to compete.  It’s no
different that taking a youngster and legging it up.  It’s done with long
slow distance.  You don’t just pull shoes and expect the horse to be able
to continue at it’s previous work level.  There aren’t many of us who are
starting with barefoot horses.  Most of us have pulled shoes on horses
with miles on which means they have to rehab before they can get out and
work.  For many of us it will be 1-2 years before their hooves are healthy
again.

I’m going to pose the question to you as I have others:  How does that
 3/8” of metal around the edge of the hoof make the horse able to become
invincible to the pain of a 2” rock?  Nobody has answered that question
yet.  I couldn’t answer that question either, so I started checking to see
just what the heck that little rim of metal did to make my horse not feel
rocks on his soles.  The abbreviated paper that I posted early is a simple
synopsis of what I found when I started searching for answers.  After
dissecting many hooves and seeing results of even more dissections,
reading Pollit’s studies (which were done to prove a specific horse shoe,
BTW) and reading a ton of stuff by Dr. Rooney as well as Bowker, Ovicek
(sp), Jackson and whatever else I could find, the only thing that made
sense was Dr. Strasser’s compilation of all the research she had done and
found by others.

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

Dr. Strasser is an equine veterinarian.  She has devoted the past 20+
years of her life to hoof studies.  She rides a LOT.  She fox hunts in the
rocky hills of Germany and is normally out for the whole day.  As you
know, fox hunting is not a slow sport.  She also runs a hoof clinic and
has been rehabilitating horses that have seen their last good day in the
mind’s of other vets (both navicular syndrome as well as severely
foundered horses).  She begins the riding of each of the horses in her
clinic when they are at the stage that they can carry a rider’s weight
again.

>>Deanna<<

Karen