I think I moved him just in time as its been 95 to 102 degrees here all week with no break in sight! I was very happy to learn that the new owner is very happy with him and he seems to be doing very well in his new northern Wisconsin home. He even has a new girlfriend! I am nursing a toothache and staying in the air con

 
About my trip 07/03/2010
 

Below is a photo I took on the way to Manawa where I met Santa Claus (John Dallas Chapman) and Tania Wadzinski.
 I took my trailer to the Hawk manufacturing plant in Manawa and had some stuff done to it that required it stay there over nite. I was lucky enough to have Nancy call Tania ( a friend and former client) and she put me up for the night. Manawa is an hour and half from Antigo where I had spent two nites with Nancy. That was after one night at David and Sue Grill's farm where I left Corde. He will have a cooler life with Alex Pelley, Sue's trainer. I felt I left him in capable hands at a beautiful farm in Northern Wisconsin.
When I drove down to Manawa, I saw beautiful big barns and silos. I stopped at a cheese factory where they were making cheese curds, those squeeky delightful morsals Nancy first turned me on to. When I got to Tania's, she was busily trimming one of her minis. She had an appointment and was leaving me for a few hours so when Santa trotted up in his "sleigh" and invited me for a ride, I jumped in. Afterwards I realized how crazy that was. Fortunately, we made the trek to his home 2 miles from Tania's in his buggy (drawn by a 2 yr old shod hackney mare) without incident but I did see my life flash before my eyes when a 18 wheeler flew by! Santa turned out to have a herd of horses and enjoyed them. Their feet were mostly neglected (but I could say the same about a favorite trimmer friend of mine too).
 I was very impressed with the horses Tania owned.Not only were they slick and healthy looking, their feet were in excellent shape. Tania hadn't gotten to trim a few of them and I volunteered. For someone this age to have this many horses and keep them this healthy and trimmed beautifully is quite an accomplishment.
My trip to Wisconsin required a stop in Indianapolis, halfway. I stayed at Cuttin Up Stables with Mike and Melinda both going up and coming back.
I won't say I'll never go back up to the area again but its pretty unlikely. If I ever do, I would want to fl

Picture
 
 
I just got back and Corde is going to be very happy in his new home with cooler temperatures! I will miss his sweet face but his anhydrosis should improve and he will get the attention he deserves. It was an epic trip but I love this horse and I did it for his benefit. I will write more after I get the other horses taken care of this morning.
 
Trimming my mare 05/24/2010
 
Its just so easy to maintain a healthy footed horse! I tweaked her a week and half ago and since it rained yesterday, I decided to give her a proper trim, Her feet have excellent concavity, great suspension, excellent wall horn and good laminar connection. It only took me a few minutes with the rain softened feet to trim a little off the bars and heels and the caulky sole. I rasped the edge of the wall all around and boom! its done! Perfect feet! Perfect trim!
 
 

My husband and I took two of my horses up to ride on the Pilot Mountain trails. the trails are somewhat rocky and gravelly and I had just trimmed my flatter footed gelding so I decided to put boots on him. He was really good with the boots, landing heel first, striding out and going over everything. My mare was great without boots. She was careful but not bothered by the rocks.
I saw a pretty bay quarter horse tied up to the hitching post when we got back to the trailers.  He was shod of course, and took pitifully short tsteps and was lame when he was ridden off.

 
 
You know, I really don't want to keep cranking on the vets and farriers but then I see something on TV that just really frosts me. This last time was on The Horse Show with Rick Lamb. It was about this vet that has invented this high tech "lameness detector". So to show how it works, they put it on a horse that has shoes and obvious (to me) a contracted high-heeled right front foot. The left front foot was flatter and this is so typical. It's very elaborate with sensors on various parts of the horse, the handler trots the horse (with his lead rope gripped tight and the head of the horse held to the left and high) down a concrete barn aisle. What a load of manure! But it's expensive manure! I'm sure that vet plans to sell those lameness detectors and make a lot of money on all those shod horses with contracted feet.
 
 
IT's that time of year again! The grass is growing, people are saddling up their horses and expecting to go on a nice long trail ride and many people get their vaccinations done on their horses as well. All this adds up to a recipe for laminitis.
Now whether or not you have your horse barefoot, you need to consider several things.
1. Vaccinations. Personally, I do not feel they are necessary and no longer give them to my mature horses (which is all I have now) I haven't given vaccinations for the last 4 or 5 years and my horses have been perfectly healthy. But this is something you have to consider for yourself. Just consider the fact that giving all the recommended vaccinations at one time has the potential to cause a laminitis reaction.
2. Clover. There are sugars in all grasses but there is a lot of sugar in clover. There is a specific chemical in clover that is toxic. But too much grass, too quickly can trigger laminitis. The same goes for too much feed at one time. This toxicity poisons the horse. If the horse has poor circulation in his feet whether due to shoes, or lack of proper trimming, the less poison is needed to trip the laminitis trigger.. But grass is the natural food of horses! So if the horse has good functioning barefeet, grass is usually not a problem. (clover or fertilized grass IS a problem!) Clover grows quickly in the spring on over-grazed pastures so consider having a weed killer product that is not toxic to horses sprayed on your pastures (keep horses off them until you have some rain and the clover has died out)
3. Riding. We all want to get out on our horse and go for a nice long trail ride and gallop. But consider whether your horse has had regular exercise like that. Direct trauma can cause laminitis. Build up your horses's endurance and think before you gallop down a hard road.
4. Allergies. You know allergic reactions can manifest into swelling of the nasal passages but I believe there is the chance that some horses are more pron to develop allergies which cause them to swell in other places, including their feet. But it's just a thought.
5. water. hooves need it and sometimes a wet winter is followed by a drier spring and summer. Think of soaking your horses feet like you think of watering your plants. Its too late to water the plants after they've died.
Mostly though I think its a combination of all these factors.
Ok gotta go
 
 
Billy and I met while fox hunting over 25 years ago. We have had many horses over the years and have enjoyed riding together. I think it is important to have some activity that you can enjoy doing with your husband. This past couple of weeks, we've been steadily "defragging" our farm. Since about 10 years ago the city sewer put lines through our property, the fence around the far pasture had been taken down in places. We worked hard digging post holes and replacing fencing and now have two horses grazing there. We've been fixing things around the farm and house and I managed to talk Billy into riding my mare. We have been on a couple of trail rides here on the farm and one out with the hunt club on one of our fixtures in Caswell Co. It was great to be out riding, working and enjoying each other's company.
 
 
A fellow Strasser alumni posted that she had recently attended the Hoofcare Summit in Cincinatti where Gene Ovnicek gave a program on trimming under-run hooves that was decidedly like a Strasser trim! The presenters at this function are usually vets and farriers given to other vets and farriers. He used "opening cuts" which were invented by Strasser and advised trimming the heels and bars down "bordering on surgery" (his words) He also mentioned checking with thumb pressure to make sure you weren't too thin.
Then there was another post where a trimmer had a client that called a vet on her "navicular" horse. After she told the vet she was pursuing a barefoot route to curing her horse and wanted to know what parameters the trim should include. Guess what the vet said?  Lower heels, trim bars way down and use opening cuts...!!!??? So now we have vets and farriers that are advocating something that we Strasser-trained trimmers have been doing all along! Apparently Pete Ramey is also advocating opening cuts in his video. He "discovered" that this technique helped to open up contracted heels. Well DUH!!! Strassser again!
 
 
Well I was convinced I was going. Even though I had mixed feelings about it, I was excitedly looking forward to spending the summer working at Jackson Lake. But when I called to find out if I had the job, they said all the positions had been filled. I think my age had something to do with the decision. I'm sure they hired some young cowboy which would better fit the part of a wrangler than some 55 yr old over weight woman. Still its rather depressing. I know I could have done a good job and would have enjoyed it but maybe its just as well. Several people, my trim clients, my family including my mom didn't want me to go anyway. And I didn't want to leave my horses and my dog. But with Jayson's marriage in July, I would have had to get off for that weekend. So