Turn Around in Australia
by Karen Eden

In January, 2002, David and Karen Eden attended the first basic seminar that Dr Strasser gave in Melbourne, Australia. Soon afterwards they aquired MC....

We choose MC in Nov 2001 and picked him up in February 2002, just after the seminar. The day we transported him home, we noticed he was dragging his rear hooves through the sand in the arena he was being worked in. By the time we got him on to the hard quartz ground, he was dragging them really badly. We were very concerned with our new purchase, as we hadn't really noticed it when we first looked at him.

We did our first trim and sent the photos to Jane Kempton, who was a student Strasser Hoofcare Specialist at the time. His hind feet were too steep with slight rotation of the coffin bone and an incorrectly applied mustang roll ( by the farrier). In the front feet he had contraction, wall flaring, pushed up lateral cartilages, overlaid bars, unlevel walls and underslung heels!! He was standing under himself and showing tension in his muscles. Overall horn quality was poor, but not too bad. Jane said to get the trim as close to correct as we could and see how the heel dragging went after that.

Within days, MC was not dragging his hind feet nearly as badly, and as our trim improved over the next few months, the hoof dragging disappeared. Today he still does not drag his feet, stands more square, has much less in the way of underslung heels, and has only a small amount of decontraction to go, and as the hoof grows out we only have very a small area of separation. His horn quality is great, with functional hoof mechanism and things are looking bright.

The biggest change apart from the visual quality of his feet is in his ride. He now has a much improved canter - before he had to be pushed up into a canter, but now a slight squeeze does the trick, not to mention it is much smoother. His backups left a lot ot be desired, now he backs up lightly and is able to put the weight into the hindquarter for a really good yield for as many steps as you ask. He also tends to be a lot hotter than he used to be!! He can be ridden on the gravel roads and it is only the large rocky quartz that he says 'ouch' on. We used to avoid these trails when we had shod horses too.

So even though David and I have only had one basic course, an advanced course with Todd Merrell ( which was a fantastic fun educational weekend) and done one supervised trim with a CSHS, we have achieved oustanding results and are a short way from having a horse that no longer has pathological feet. We have repaired most of the damage done by a "qualified farrier" and considering this horse used to be owned by a vet ( who told us she knew what hooves should look like and his were fine!) we do thank Dr Strasser and all the dedicated team of CSHS she has, especially Jane and Todd. Although we still have so much to learn, and could make improvements to our trim still, we are getting wonderful results with Dr Strasser's trim.

Karen Eden Karen.eden@mallesons.com

(December 13, 2002)

Note: Photos are provided for reference and educational purposes only, and are not meant to indicate guidelines for trimming. Every horse should be trimmed as an individual. Opinions vary as to what constitutes "correct" but keep in mind - there are NO PERFECT FEET, not even in the wild. Owners are cautioned to seek professional help for the trimming of their own horse's feet. Owner trimming of pathological feet is not advised. Photos may not be reproduced, copied, or distributed in any way.

©2006 by The Horse's Hoof. All rights reserved. No part of these publications may be reproduced by any means whatsoever without the written permission of the publisher and/or authors. The information contained within these articles is intended for educational purposes only, and not for diagnosing or medicinally prescribing in any way. Readers are cautioned to seek expert advice from a qualified health professional before pursuing any form of treatment on their animals. Opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the publisher.