DAVID AND CLAIRE'S SHOTGUN RANCH

Navicular Disease is a vascular disease (insufficient blood supply) and, as such, is affected by changes in shoeing, ground surface (clay vs. sand vs. road) and exercise. The quarter horse breed is said to have more problem with Navicular Disease because of the genetically small foot on a 800 - 1000 lb. body. Thoroughbreds come in a close second. Quite often, Navicular Bursitis precedes bony changes because it is the soft tissue structure beneath the bone. For that reason (and others), you can have a clinically lame horse with radiographic changes or without and to confuse the issue further, you can have radiographic changes and no lameness. This can be compared to "Russian Roulette", but not with such severe consequences. Many horses with clinical ND can be kept sound with good shoeing and (most important) isoxsuprine (vasodilator drug). However, your Vet would be correct in not predicting long term soundness in a horse with progressive ND.

Not very encouraging...is it ???? Most traditional veterinarians won't give you much hope. However, they will agree that the symptoms are caused by contraction but they can't tell you exactly why the hoof is contracted. Enter Dr. Strasser.... who defines Navicular/contraction and furthermore tells you the causes and how to reverse it. So simple ....really. Why so much controversy then? Because her theory contradicts traditional veterinary medicine. Change and new concepts are hard to accept....for all of us. After all we have been shoeing horses for centuries. Unfortunately thousands of horses are sent to their death because we are unwilling to open our minds. I am not saying that Dr. Strasser's trim is the only barefoot trim that can reverse navicular disease. There are other barefoot trims out there, it is up to the individual horseowner to find the best one for their particular horse. However, I believe that barefoot is the only way to decontract a horse's hooves. We were very lucky that Dr. Strasser's trim worked for all four of our horses. But it's not just about a trim, it's not that simple.

Our Horses' Worse Enemy

Many of our horse's ailments stem from confinement and improper trimming/shoeing techniques. Horses were built to be in constant motion. I will not go into more detail here but I strongly recommend reading Dr. Strasser, Jaime Jackson and Pete Ramey's books. Even if your horse is not having problems, reading these books will not be a waste of your time. There are numerous books out there on natural horse care, find one that best fits your situation. Check out this site:
http://www.booksonhorses.com/ Even with limited acreage you can still provide your horse/horses with a close to natural environment. If you provide your horse with the closest thing to a natural lifestyle that you can, you will be surprised at the benefits. Such as a much lower incidence of gastro-intestinal disturbances, vices such as cribbing, weaving, etc, will significantly diminish maybe even disappear altogether. Your horse will be much healthier, happier and easier to manage.

How to Check your Horses's Hooves for Contraction

If your horse's hooves are contracted don't wait for him/her to exhibit signs of lameness. All you need is a ruler or anything with a straight side. Lay your straight edge along the collateral grooves and extend these lines past the bulbs. See diagram below and don't laugh at my artwork.

If these lines fall inside the bulbs, your horse's hoof is contracted.

These are photos of Thunder's left front hoof. Thunder is 13 years old, he was shod for 6 months out of those 13 years. This is a healthy hoof with normal heels, not under-slung as many domesticated horses' hooves tend to exhibit. Notice his nice wide frog. Keep in mind that this is a horse that lives in the desert, his hooves may seem dry by some standards.

Now... let's take a look at Doc's left front hoof.
The photo on your left was taken 01/21/01 after his first Strasser trim. The photo on your right was taken 10/05/05.

Doc is now 17 years old. He was shod at least for eight years of his life. He was diagnosed with navicular before he turned 10. A year later we embarked on the barefoot journey with him. His symptoms were immediately relieved and have never returned. His hoof is still slightly contracted (look at the size of his frog) especially if compared to Thunder's hooves. However, his hooves are no longer boat-shaped and as under-slung as they once were. His hoof is slowly decontracting but the important thing is that he has been asymptomatic since January 2001.