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
 
 
I will just say that there are a few people on Facebook that I enjoyed reading their updates. One was my mother's church's former pastor who lives in Jordan or somewhere over in Bible land. But there are a lot of people who don't seem to have enough to do. All these little games and stuff. Who has time for all that??!! So If there are people out there who want to communicate with me they can call or email me directly. And if they really want to know what I think about something, if they can't find it in this blog or on my website, they can ask me!
So one more thing I have to say. The vast majority of vets and farriers and other barefoot trimmers too, do not know as much about feet as a person who has been through the Strasser Hoofcare Professional's course. There are a few good trimmers out there that did not go thru Dr. Strasser's course but have a really good idea how to trim correctly. There are a larger number of people out there professing to do a natural barefoot trim that still have things wrong. I mean wrong according to balance and function. And function as it relates to anatomy, not function as it relates to riding down the road. Both are important but you can certainly ride down the road on a shod "sound" horse that has been de-nerved and has pathologically deformed feet. Soundness does not necessarily mean healthy! True healthy feet are sound and can feel. There's so many people, professional trainers, vets, farriers, etc. that don't know the difference.
 
 

It just seems like every time I turn around I am getting subtle hints that going to Wyoming is what I will do. Like the other day when I glanced at the newpaper Billy was reading while we were headed down the road and i saw, "Go West" as the headline and "in the summer time" was playing on the radio. I worry about who will pick the ticks out of my horses' tails and who will monitor Corde when it gets really hot? Who's going to trim their feet? Worm them? And then Jayson's wedding... am i being selfish by wanting to go to Wyoming? I have to buy a saddle or find one that someone will loan me. I did get some new tires on the Great White and I've looked at my route. 77 to 64 to St. Louis then 80 to Jackson. It will probably take me 2 or 3 days of driving. I can sleep in the car if I take one of my foam mattresses which i would take so I can have good nites sleep. The hours are 6am to 4:30 but a breakfast and lunch break are in there and it will be horse time. I will really miss Lyric and what I want to happen is that I will come back more in love with my hubby. And lighter by a few pounds would be nice too. Should I take my trimming stuff and generate some income trimming out there? Probably not. But I would want to take some trips around the area. What if Yellowstone blows? Well I would be a

 
 
I really have a lot to consider but I might take a summer job taking guests on trail rides through the Tetons near Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It's a chance to get away and do something I've always wanted to do. I can't take my horse or my dog which I wish I could do and I have to bring my own western saddle and sleep in a dorm room with another worker. It's very little pay but I'll be able to send some home and make a little to enjoy being out there. I haven't been hired yet but the guy called and said they wanted me and gave me a few days to think about it. I've thought about it and I want to go!
 
 
So that is my life I guess. I trimmed two horses this morning then threw a western saddle on Chapin and was delighted that he remembered everything I taught him. He's really a nice horse and getting off a 15.3 hand horse is lots easier than getting off a 17.3 hand horse!
 
 
I went to a friend's farm today and trimmed one of her young TB horses. See case study page. I also worked with it quite a bit to overcome the rough handling it received from farriers in the past. I got her very soft and yielding giving me her feet so that I could trim them. It snowed while we were out with the horse! Then Jayson met me at Brightwood and we had a wonderful ride dispite the cold weather!
 
 
I took the big guy, Corde, and rode Fri. Sat and Sun. Hauled Spencer, Betsy's horse and she got a cute house we rented right in the horse district. We kept the horses quite a ways out of town but they were able to stay in a paddock instead of being stalled so that was worth the drive out. Betsy and I rode whip with Why Worry Hounds on Fri. Then Sat we brought the horses to the house and rode to Hitchcock Woods where the Aiken drag hunt was. I rode in the second flight with most of our group and jumped some of the jumps. Corde got pretty tired by the second run. He hit a root or rock and I could tell he was not quite sound afterwards. But the next day I ran him around the paddock to see if he looked sound and he did so we went out with Why Worry again. This time we were running too and decided to cut out with some others a little early so we could get back home before dark. We were all tired and it was truely a fun weekend.
 
 
Man oh man am I glad that nothing happened I couldn't handle! He only bucked once, and it was a yeehaw I feel good buck jump in the air so it wasn't intended to get me off and I managed to stay on. But since I was leading the field, everyone got a good view of his antics. We ran hard and I just prayed we wouldn't fall in the mud because it was treacherously wet sloppy ground. He needs to go to a big strong man that can really ride.
 
 

Dr. Bowker is a research scientist but sometimes it only takes common sense to think about what is right and what is wrong.
Horses have hooves for a reason! They use their highly modified middle fingernail to gallop away from predators. The very shape of the coffin bone would tell anyone that the horse is not meant to bear weight directly on the edge of that sharp bone and certainly not if it is tipped forward with the bone column of the pastern straight up! I think on that we would all agree (except those farriers and vets who make money on that kind of pathology)
The leaf spring action of the joints of the foreleg combined with the incredible strength of the deep flexor tendon and it's attachments, is strong enough to hold a 17.3 hand horse (and his fat 200 lb rider) on one tiny foot as he lands from a jump! The integrity of the hoof capsule and it's design from the layers of horn down to the individual tubules are all responsible for absorbing shock.
But what most people don't even consider is the health of the laminar wall. It is the springs of the trampoline that hold the jumping surface to the frame. Without healthy laminar horn, the horse would HAVE to rely on a metal ring to keep the hoof tightly bound to the internal parts of the foot. And to be sure, if any blood and nerve function occurred, he would soon be unsound.
Dr. Bowker and others advise against periferal loading. The shoe is periferal loading but so also is a hoof that has over grown wall. Well .....here is where I believe we can look at the different wild horses which have adapted to various environments. The ferel horses from the wild west have very thick walls and soles, with a good amount of concavity and foot arch. The horn is worn into a functional natural hiking "shoe". The horses of the marsh lands around southern Spain have wide flat feet that help them keep from sinking into the mud. The wild asses and Zebras of Africa have very tight highly "contracted" feet to deal with harsh footing. Horses evolved AND adapted to various environments. But the hoof horn in a wild ass has a fat frog but no sole contact. That would be periferal loading as it is not loading the sole..
I do know that my horses very much like their feet when their coffin bone is well-suspended and they have an edge of horn slightly above the level of the sole. The ones of my herd that have unfortunately sustained laminitis from shoeing days and have a slightly ski-tipped coffin bone, do not have the luxury of growing a very high wall above the sole level. And the two horses I have that have very flat feet probably have flatter coffin bones as well. One was from being under-run and the other I believe occurred when he was born too early and his bones were very soft. Its a kindof a "so they're started, so they go" kind of thing. He is also genetically predisposed to having a wide foot as he is a warmblood.

Now the idea that bar grows sole. I can see how a researcher who is slicing sole samples to view under the microscope would come to that conclusion on many a horse. But the idea is like thinking that our fingernails grow the skin on our fingertips. It just doesn't make common sense. But in the case of my under-run horse, his bars do indeed mix with his sole horn. This however is a deformity, not a natural healthy condition.
And as far as those vets who believe the sole should be thick to protect the coffin bone, that is the case only if the coffin bone has already lost both it's concavity and its attachment. I know that wild horses can suffer laminitis from being trapped in a grassy area but then walk out of it if they are released. When we keep horses in pastures that are lush and have tons of acorns and are fed grain as well, we are causing the laminitis to occur. They can't walk out of it (unless the fence is down!) But think about this too. A camel walks on the thick pad of it's foot, with the toe nails in front. The pad is essentially like the horses' frog.