The Hoofcare Specialist’s Handbook

The Hoofcare Specialist’s Handbook
by Dr Hiltrud Strasser, Dr. med. vet., PhD and Sabine Kells
“This book embodies evidence to validate an opinion that a zoologist without experience of horses might well assume to be self-evident. Such an impartial observer could be excused for wondering why such a big book was needed to make four rather obvious points. First, being large mammals, horses should not be immobilized in small cages for 23 hours of the day. Secondly, being herd animals, they should not be kept in solitary confinement. Thirdly, being herbivorous grazers, they should spend sixteen hours a day with their heads at ground level. Fourthly, because the shape and consistency of their hooves has been determined by millions of years of evolution it is both impudent and imprudent for man to impose a different and supposedly improved model.

Twenty years ago, Dr. Strasser initiated a self-funded line of research to test a hypothesis that was diametrically opposed to consensus opinion. Swimming against the tide, she established a clinic that was specially designed to enable her to carry out long-term tests of her belief in the barefoot horse. Still a lone voice, she took pains to present her impressive findings not only to her veterinary colleagues but also to farriers and horse owners. She wrote scientific articles and published two groundbreaking books that are a model of how science should be communicated to the public.

Not satisfied with words alone, she has now added deeds in the field of adult education. She has established an international certification program in hoofcare. The program is of a quality and rigor of which any university would be proud. This modestly named handbook, ably co-authored by Sabine Kells, one of Strasser’s first students, is the course text. I confidently predict that such a comprehensive and scholarly work is destined to become a classic.

On behalf of the horse and all friends of the horse, I salute and thank her.”

Robert Cook, FRCVS, PhD
Professor of Surgery Emeritus, Tufts University, USA

This is the textbook for the Strasser Hoofcare Professional Certification Course, an extensive, 800-page color and black and white illustrated, hardcover book.

Costs: $874.50 CDN or $825.00 U.S. + shipping and handling
Available from these sellers.
[email protected], or phone us at: 503-625-7829
Option 2) textbookorder.pdf