I started my own hoof care journey by giving up
I help you understand what your horse’s hooves are telling you – so you can make the best hoof care decisions.
Many hoof problems are not caused by one single issue, but by how different factors come together over time.
That can make them difficult to understand – and even harder to solve.
My introduction to hoof care was, in a sense, a failure.
The first horse I ever had ran into hoof problems. The serious kind – they effectively ended her riding career. To avoid this happening again, I realized I needed to know more.
Therefore, I studied basic farriery in the Netherlands – and walked away from it. Not because it wasn’t interesting. But because every answer seemed to open three more questions. And none of the farriers teaching us could give really good answers.
The one thing I did come away with was a deep respect for how complicated the hoof actually is and how much damage can be done by people who don’t fully understand what they are working with.
New knowledge and a new direction
What brought me back to hoof care was a new horse and a chance conversation.
I asked somebody if they could recommend a good farrier. She referred me to a barefoot trimmer instead. His demand before he would even look at my horse was that I would read up on the subject first.
So I did. And the missing pieces fell into place. The questions I had walked away from years earlier suddenly had answers. It wasn’t always easy – accepting new knowledge also meant accepting that I had made mistakes with my own horses. But it was the clearest moment of understanding I had experienced in all my years of working with horses and with hooves.
The problem with ‘normal’
For generations, shoeing horses with iron shoes and metal hoof nails has been the standard. So much so that we have largely forgotten what a healthy, unshod hoof actually looks like.
Shoeing almost inevitably changes the hoof over time. The hoof wall is nailed to a rigid structure, restricting the natural flexion and expansion that happens with every step. Blood circulation is affected. Shock absorption is reduced. Over years, many shod hooves become narrower and more contracted — and because these contracted hooves have become so common, we have started to see them as normal.
They are not normal. They are the result of a management choice with consequences that accumulate over time.
Sounds familiar? It should. Because this pattern is just as valid for hoof care as it is for riding and training: decisions that seem fine in the short term, can have very negative consequences for both horse and rider over time.
Hooves grow from the top down
The fact that hooves grow from the top down is is one of the most important things to understand about hoof care – and one of the least discussed.
Hooves grow from the coronet band downward, slowly and continuously. The true effect of any change you make to a hoof today will not be fully visible for weeks, months, sometimes a year or more.
In other words: the trim or the shoeing you do today is already shaping the hoof your horse will stand on next year.
This has two implications.
First, patience is not optional – it is built into the biology of the horse. There are very few quick fixes in hoof care, only decisions whose consequences unfold over time.
Second, every trim or shoeing carries more weight than it might appear to in the moment. You are not just making the horse comfortable for the next six or eight weeks. You are influencing soundness for years to come.
It’s not so difficult to make hooves look good after a shoeing or a trim. But looking good and being healthy are not always the same thing. Even if the hooves look better, and even if the horse seems to move better – the hooves can still be accumulating damage that only will show up much later.
*By the way: Want to keep a closer eye on your horse’s hooves between visits? Or seeing how the hooves develop over time? Learning to take good hoof photographs is one of the most useful things an owner can do – as long as you take those pictures the right way. It’s quick, easy and cheap:
Everything old is new again..
Since around the start of the twentyfirst century, there has been a steadily growing interest in keeping horses barefoot. In recent years that movement has accelerated significantly. There are now horses that compete at the highest levels of international sport without iron shoes, including winning Olympic medals barefoot. Something that was once considered possible only for foals, broodmares and retired horses.
But this is not a revolution. It is a return.
The negative effects of iron shoes on hoof health have been known for centuries. In the past, that knowledge was largely set aside because horses were essential working animals, and iron shoes were the most practical way to keep them usable across hard surfaces and long distances.
We needed horses. We made compromises.
Most of us no longer need horses in that way. Therefore it’s time to take a good look at those compromises and see if they are still necessary.
Idealistic but unrealistic?
Going barefoot is not simply a matter of removing the shoes and hoping for the best. The early barefoot movement held up a demanding ideal: a horse that could be used over any terrain, at any speed, for any distance — without shoes and without compromise. For some horses, that is achievable. For many, it is not, and chasing that ideal does the horse no favors.
The more honest and useful framework is this: barefoot is a management approach, and hoof boots are part of that approach. Using boots when the terrain or workload demands it is not a failure — it is good judgment. The goal is a hoof that functions as naturally as possible, with as much protection as the situation genuinely requires.
The three hoof care traps for horse owners
There are a few traps both farriers and barefoot trimmers can fall into that I see almost every day.
One of them is that they become so focused on the hoof in front of them, that they forget that there actually is a living horse on top of those hooves. Unfortunately, that can also mean that hoof decisions are made that risk having a negative effect on the horse (mentally and/or physically).
Another trap is using difficult words over clear explanations. Some hoof care experts seem to think that using the most complex way to describe a problem, or a solution, proves to your clients that you are competent. Although actually the opposite is true: you need to be very competent to explain a complex subject (like hoof care) in a way that is both correct and easy to understand.
On top of that, as explained above, there is a biological time delay between a hoof care actions and the final result. That delay can be weeks, months and sometimes even years. So if an expert proposes a change in your horse’s hoof care, it might take a very long time before the REAL effects become visible.
Many horse owners are left confused because of these three reasons. They just never get the correct information and the broader perspective to make the best hoof care decisions for their horse. Sadly, in many cases that also means the soundness of their horse deteriorates over time.
The hoof trim is the easy part
Here is something I tell every student in my hoof classes:
Learning to use the tools, and to do the trim might be difficult – but it ‘s actually the easiest part.
The difficult part is deciding on how to adapt that trim to each horse, and to each set of circumstances.
To make the best decision for each hoof, I need to understand the horse behind it.
Hooves do not exist in isolation. Good hoof care takes into account factors such as breed, age, use, the surfaces the horse lives and moves on, any medical history, current and upcoming demands and (last but certainly not least) the owner’s goals and circumstances.
The trim itself is the result of weighing all of those factors and finding the approach that leaves the horse comfortable today while protecting soundness over time. Not just one or the other. Both.
This is what is meant by horse-first hoof care: it is not a technique. It is a way of thinking.
Just as good riding asks ‘how is this affecting my horse’s body and mind?’, good hoof care asks the same question.
I teach understanding – not just technique
My approach to hoof care teaching is not just about passing on a particular trim technique. Different horses need different things, and teaching technical skills without understanding is a recipe for damage and problems.
What I teach is understanding: hoof anatomy, how it is shaped by management and use over time, how to read what a hoof is telling you, and how to weigh the factors that determine what this horse, at this moment, actually needs.
Good hoof care requires knowledge, experience and careful judgement, not formulas. After more than forty years working with horses – as rider, trainer, instructor, breeder and hoof care provider – I have learned to look beyond the foot itself.
My experience across these roles allows me to see the horse on top of those hooves, and to adjust each trim with that wider picture in mind.
My own path led me away from hoof care and back again – through frustration, through asking the right question at the right moment, through reading what I should have read earlier, and through the humbling process of changing my mind about things I thought I already understood. What I came back with is a conviction that took years to earn: you cannot do right by a hoof without doing right by the horse it belongs to.
The hoof supports the horse. The horse carries the rider. With a sound foundation, everything becomes easier.
Do you want to know more? Start here.
Understanding hooves starts with learning to really look at them. Clear, consistent photographs are often the first step toward meaningful assessment — whether you are asking for advice or you just want to keep track of your horse’s hooves over time. (Which I highly recommend!)
However: for those hoof photographs to be really useful, they should be taken a certain way.
Download this free guide and find out how:
Or would you like some hoof help?
Do you feel that horse-first hoof care is the right way for you and your horse, too?
There are several ways we could work together on this. Such as:
- Actual hoof trimming for your horse (currently mainly in Norway)
- Consultations on hooves and hoof care (online)
- Hoof classes: all practical and theoretical levels, from beginners and upwards
Hit the button below to find out more:
Understanding your horse is where everything starts.
