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"Wherever man has left his footprint in the long ascent from barbarism to civilization, we will find the hoofprint of a horse beside it." John Moore
Case Studies
Here are several case studies for your perusal to see what
can be done and the sometimes dramatic results that obtain when horses are
treated in this manner. Remember that it isn't enough to just trim the
horse. One has to keep in mind the whole picture of what is going on:
Movement, nutrition, dentistry, saddling, riding, exercise are all part of what
need to be considered in the daily care of your horse.
| Beau
is a 9 yr old quarter horse who had a serious injury
while living life as a ranch horse in Texas. He's changed owners so
many times that no one quite knows what happened to him or how he came to be
in his condition but the new owner's vet speculated that he might have
gotten caught in barbed wire and torn off part of his front left lateral
heel and felt that the injury was never properly taken care
On his page are pictures of him in shoes after the
injury, then without shoes, his first trim and just recently.
All the damage to his hoof seems to be in the soft
tissue of his coronet band. There's no way that I know of to tell how much scaring
there is and if it will ever heal but he is sound for his purpose which is the
occasional trail ride.
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Briante
is a 9 yr old Dutch Warmblood who came to us with very
contracted feet looking more like "U's" then round even though he'd never
had shoes on.. This is a horse whose breakover needs to be
diligently managed as any lapse in this and his heels contract.
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Caliente
is my 9 yr old Arab that I bought when he was 4 for
the purpose of endurance riding. I've never raced him but I did get
him to Level II Parelli. He's gone from living in the High
Desert sand of California to the sugar sand of Central Florida. He has
a few cuts on the bulbs of his front hooves, one of them requiring stitching
as it cut to the artery. When I first got him I knew nothing about
proper hoof care and only a little bit more about horse care. My
intuition was dead set against the idea of shoes or stall keeping, however
and I kept the same farrier that had been doing him as he was ok about
keeping him barefoot. This was a cowboy farrier from Texas whose
knowledge of hoof anatomy and dynamics was even less than my own so when
Lyle 'Bergy' Bergaleen came to town I attended his seminar and after that
decided to take care of my own horses feet. Not because he had any
particular
problem that I was aware of (even though he did have a
problem: contraction) but just because it was more satisfying to do it
myself. That led to Jamie Jackson and that led to Hiltrud Strasser and
certification as a Strasser Hoofcare Professional. |
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Sugar
is an 18 yr old Arab mare whose vet and farrier recommended euthanasia.
This is, too often, the end result of traditional treatment with foundered
horses. I wish I could tell you how often it happens but I've yet to
find any reliable statistics on the matter.
The attempt to fill in the missing hoof wall with acrylic and shoe her to
support the coffin bone was exactly the wrong thing to do. These ideas
sound fine but they do more damage than good. Even on 2 to 4 grams of bute
a day she was in so much pain she could barely walk. Her feet were
literally rotting off of her due to lack of blood flow from high heels. When
I pulled the shoe off her right front foot and got a look at her sole on the
lateral side it scared me. If I had put the hook of my knife in it and
pulled it would have come out to the corium.
Today, she trots! (Feb 2004)
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