The Hungarian Association of Equine Practitioners and the Hungarian Farriers Association published a professional statement about health-risks of trimming according to “Strasser method” or “natural hoof care” in December 2014.
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The joint professional statement was not left unnoticed. Due to the debate in public media we organised a round-table talk to allow both parties to present their views. Just use the spent time as an indicator for the complexity of the issue! Although the meeting was scheduled to last for about 90 minutes, even after 4 hours we did not come to an end but simply had to finish the discussion.
Our host was Dr. Balázs Gerics, associate professor at the Dept. of Anatomy and Histology of the Hungarian Veterinary School in Budapest. Natural hoof care was represented by Natalija Aleksandrova, the teacher of this method in Hungary along with her student and help in organising courses, Ferenc G. Szilágyi. Arguments for the traditional way of trimming and shoeing were presented by Dr. Orsolya Kutasi, DiplECVIM, Zsolt Ormándi, the president of the Hungarian Farriers’ Association and me, Dr. József Molnár, vice-president of the Hungarian Association of Equine Practitioners. The event was attended by some representatives of the equestrian press.
Dr. József Molnár, Natalija Aleksandrova, Ferenc G. Szilágyi, Zsolt Ormándi
During the discussion we asked Natalija and Ferenc to outline the guidelines they use in their work. Prior to going on with presenting my ideas I would like to underline that we met in our guest rather nice, easy-going and horse-loving people. I can just admire their courage that they tried to convince us about their views. I would like to stress these above points because my negative remarks below refer to the method only and is not a personal issue. It became evident during the discussion that both parties aim at the well-being of horses – but see the way to it rather different.
Right at the beginning of our meeting it became clear that there is no one working in Hungary as a qualified Strasser-trimmer, being entitled to use this brand name. Though they work according to the Strasser principles, they apply the term “natural trim, hoof care” instead.
According to the natural hoof care followers’ statement horses can be healthy only if they live without a horseshoe, free, on a large area in a stud. They do not even trim horses not living under these conditions. Benefits of free-roaming are basically acceptable (and our point is much more complex) but we swiftly agreed, that it would lead to a drastic decrease in horse population and major sections of equine usage were to be deleted.
We had a long discussion about one of the major conflicting points: the ways of trimming and the anatomical – physiological backgrounds to it. According to Strasser system the ground surface of the coffin bone (distal phalanx, P3) has to be ground-parallel (thus the coronary band has to have a 30’-angle, the dorsal/front hoof wall a 45’-angle to the ground when viewed from the side) since feral horses hooves are like this – as they state. Our point is, however, that this parallelism is not true and this is proven by hooves of feral (and non-feral) horses (see references 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5). Several investigations proved that the angle between the solar surface of the distal phalanx and the ground is in the range of 5 to 10 degrees.
Radiographs of a wild Przewalski horse from Hortobagy. B. Hampson and his team (Dr. Orsolya Kutasi among them) examined 10 wild Przewalski horses on Hortobagy. Solar hoof angle was 6.3 degrees, dorsal hoof angle 56 degrees on average.
Hampson and Pollit examined 100 Australian feral horses and got an average of 5,7 and 53 degrees for the solar and dorsal hoof angle, respectively. Natural hoof trimmers do not care about over-stretching the deep digital flexor tendon by lowering the angle. There is, however, a much higher risk of life-threatening injuries resulting from lowering the heel-angle even by two degrees only, as seen in race horses (see reference 6), but they do not pay attention to it either. This is the first point we cannot accept, we even consider it for many cases as dangerous.
We completely disagree on hoof-mechanism, this well known phenomenon of spreading, widening heels, the dorsal hoof wall and the frog moving towards the ground when the horse puts weight onto the limb. Simultaneously the frog pumps blood. According their statement blood is going to be sucked into the hoof during loading and pumped out when the foot is lifted. It is just the other way round as can be followed easily: the pastern bone (P2) pushes as a piston into the hoof thus pressing the blood out of it.
Strasser declares the horseshoe blocks (according to Ferenc reduces) hoof-mechanism. In the discussion on Facebook someone even stated it strangles the hoof (we get back to it later). It might be true if the shoeing is done very badly, but a correctly set shoe is going to be polished by the movement of the heels above it. This is a further theory we have to refuse. Correct shoeing might slightly reduce but does not obstruct hoof-mechanism.
The main part, however, comes next. There are some declarations in the field of Physiology and Pathophysiology formulated by Strasser no veterinarian can leave uncommented. These are the points I would like to inform the reader about because they are not true and may harm horse’s health.
Strasser states that the heart of the horse is as small compared to its body, that the pumping effect of the hoof-mechanism is responsible for about 60% of the blood circulation. If we shoe the horse the hoof is going to be strangled, thus the horse’s blood circulation is not going to work and kidney failure, allergy etc. might result. Prestidigitation! Let’s get back to our mind.
The heart beats in a relaxed horse some 25 – 40 per minute and is about to eject with each single beat 1000 ml from both sides. This means the full amount of blood (25 – 40 l) is going to be turned over within some 60 – 90 seconds, whereas the hoof-mechanism pumps 10 – 20 ml only. Both halves of the heart are going to eject at top performance some 1700 ml blood at each heartbeat, and this happens 200 – 220 times in a minute! Accordingly 340 l/min blood has to be forwarded by both left and right halves of the heart. Meanwhile some 120/min strides are taken in gallop at a speed of 60km/h resulting in 480 hoof-mechanisms. This will forward 5 -10 l blood only. Can this be 60% of the total circulation?
Dr. Strasser states that a horse might die during their treatment because the heart of the horse previously shoed for years is overloaded and cannot accept the treatment. Let not deceive you! The heart of the horse performs its task – to circulate blood – excellent, see references 7, 8, 9 and 10. By-the-way: heart- and kidney-failure are rarely seen by veterinarians.
Similarly astonishing is the theory that the hoof is about to secrete toxic substances and degradation products of proteins. Let’s calculate a bit! The horse is about to eat on a daily basis some 15 – 20 kg hay and 5 kg oats. The row protein content of hay and oat is 23% and 10%, respectively. This is a daily protein-input of 5 kg, which brings us in six weeks up to 200 kg. Should we believe the 100 g horn produced meanwhile is to ease kidney and liver? No! The hoof is simply not an organ of secretion!
Certainly no-one believes that the sensibility of the hoof would be lost due to shoeing. How and why should a shoed horse react for the hoof tester? Most likely everyone already witnessed that an ill-directed nail gets into deeper layers during re-shoeing. Can the nervous system be regarded as damaged and interrupted? No! The horseshoe – lying mainly beneath the insensitive horn capsule and not the living tissue – does not interfere with the proper functioning of nerve endings.
The top of pseudo-theories, however, is most likely related to the formation of abscesses during natural trimming. The explanation goes as follows (be aware!): the horseshoe stops the blood supply to some areas of the hoof, due to the work of a natural trimmer this blood circulation is re-established – and the organism is expelling previously deceased material. Some pathophysiology follows: the organism starts to expel deceased material immediately and does not wait until the natural hoof trimmer comes along. The abscesses are actually formed because the sole was made probably very thin, accordingly it did not protect underlying structures properly anymore, thus concussions, haemorrhage resulted and these sections perished – and are really about to be expelled by the organism.
To finish with a positive remark I would like to mention a condition where good results were achieved by the method: the heel-cracks. In these issues failures of the farrier – to high heels or studs – are to be blamed. The Strasser method is about to cut the heel (excessively) thus solves the problem.
To summarise:
The Strasser method is based on false theories, drastically selected and from their context isolated details of physiology, anatomy and pathophysiology, incorrect interpretations and/or translations of publications. Accordingly these are either just partly true or deviate completely from the scientifically proven facts.
The majority of “natural hoof trimmers” are most likely people with good intentions, but mislead – and they think they were thought the truth.
2015.03.20. Dr. József Molnár
Vice-president of the Hungarian Association of Equine Practitioners
References:
- Improving the Foot Health of the Domestic Horse ,The relevance of the feral horse foot model: B. A. Hampson and C. C. Pollitt
- Morphology of the Hooh: M. Craig and J. Craig Epona Institute
- Corrective Farriery: S. Curtis
- Foot morphology and health in Przewalski’s horses in the Hortobágy Puszta, Hungary: B. Hampson
- Equine Podiatry: Floyd, Mansmann
- Kane AJ, Stover SM, Gardner IA, et al. Hoof size, shape, and balance as possible risk factors for catastrophic musculoskeletal injury of Thoroughbred racehorses. American Journal of Veterinary Research
- Heart weight and running ability H. M. GUNN Department of Anatomy, University College, Cork, Ireland
- The Equine Heart How it works & what can go: Todd C. Holbrook, DVM
- Equine athletes, the equine athlete’s heart and racing success: Lesley E. Young Animal Health Trust, Newmarket, UK
- The Equine Heart: Bill Thomas, DVM, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine
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