latest barefoot ride

Hi Folks,

Just a "barefoot" comment here.... just returned from Frigid Digit Ride in the Dallas TX area. We competed 20 Barefoot Horses from my barn, plus another 4-6 folks that champion the cause. Barefooters finished 3,4, & 9th in the 50 with the 9th place horse winning BC!!!! 6 of our 7 100-mile horses finished (the one that didn't went out on metabolics). The course was fairly dry, a bit of mud, & a few rocky areas scattered throughout.

Now after having my horses barefoot for 12-15 months, I'm seeing incredible hoof walls, concavity, and nice big healthy feet on horses that couldn't go two days w/o a shoe w/o their hoof falling completely apart. I rode the 100 Saturday on a horse that had laminitis in 1996 and once he was sound, I refused to compete on him unless he was fully padded to protect his very flat soles & what I envisioned as a compromised "hoof"... Saturday as I trotted barefoot (and painless) over rocky outcroppings, pounded down asphalt roads, went through sand, mud, and gravelly pastures and thought about his past and now his future, it almost brought tears to my eyes. Three of the barefooters were doing their 1st 100, one was doing her 2nd. All trotted out sound at the end of the 100 and all their feet look beautiful today.... No slouch times either.. all of us finished within 1 hour of the winner or close to it.

I've been to Martha Olivo's clinic, (my first one Dec. 2001, & I became sold), then I went to Dr. Hiltrud Strasser's n Fl. last summer, when I suddenly inherited a foundered horse to fix, & I realized how much I didn't know, & likewise wanted to learn, & on Feb. 4/5 this year, I'm attending Todd Merrill's clinic in Humble Tx. to try to further my knowledge even more. I even bought the (gasp) almost $600 book. I love it.. end up sleeping with it as I'm trying to get thru it b4 the Clinic in a few days.

Just when I think, I've just about "got it"... I have another great "ah hah", through something someone says, a horse's foot shows me, or I finally read it enough times to understand what Hiltrud or Sabine meant. Every horseman in the world should get down on their knees and thank not only Dr. Hiltrud Strasser, but all the scientist, veterinarians, and farriers who have devoted time & energy to finally figuring out how the horse's foot really works, and what can be done to make not only his foot healthy, but his whole body.

I'm 51 years old, I own/manage 50 horses now.. (that work for a living). I've had horses all my life... I've NEVER, I mean NEVER have had such a powerful revelation in everyday horse keeping in my life as the "barefoot movement" has afforded me. If you can read... read the books Lifetime of Soundness, if you can walk & talk, go to a clinic. Your horse's life and your own will never be quite the same.

Sincerely,

Darolyn Butler-Dial AERC #25 20,000 miles plus

Darolyn Butler-Dial & Mark Dial (COWBOY)

CYPRESS TRAILS EQUESTRIAN CENTER & HORSEMAN VIDEO SHOWCASE

Proven Endurance Horses for Sale or Lease.

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Represents: Sharon Saare Saddles, Professional Choice, Advanced Biological Concepts, & KM (Human Electrolytes)

ADVOCATE :THE WHOLE HORSE TRIM (Barefootin")

21415 Cypresswood Dr. Humble, Texas 77338

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e mail: darolyn@swbell.net http://home.swbell.net/darolyn/

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