Hoofworks: Barefoot Basics

Peter Laidley was one of my very first hoof trimming mentors, and instilled some good attitudes and trim techniques that I practice to this day.

He is know as the ‘gentle hoof bloke’ and has a lovely way of working with horses as he trims and teaches in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Europe and South Africa.

The back of the CD jacket says “Natural Hoofcare…. For horse owners young or old…this is hoof care made easy!!!

Teach your horse to enjoy hoof care.

How to trim your own horse’s hoofs, Tools, Examples, Stories, Anatomy….and much more.”

This is one of the best Australian written works on natural hoofcare and is really a reference book on CD which allows interactive learning complete with short video clips to demonstrate various trimming techniques. I found these to be very helpful.

Peter’s introduction on the CD explains his philosophy.

“This series is about horses feet…

There has been a lot written about “natural lifestyle”, environment, nutrition, exercise and medication for horses.

Without undervaluing these subjects I want to concentrate on understanding the normal form and function of the horse’s foot and the process of trimming to best maintain that form and function.

I assume that every horse was born barefoot and make no apology for the fact that I remove horseshoes whenever I can.

It is the way I do things and it solves a lot of problems.

I do not need to pretend that I work miracles every day or that my horses, or my clients’ horses, are particularly special other than to me and their owners. Each horse is an individual with individual strengths and weaknesses.

Most of my clients do not have big budgets or expensive horses, rather many of them have companions and friends that they just want to keep as healthy as possible.

We have seen remarkable improvements in health and performance when we changed these animals from either being shod, or unshod but neglected, to being high performance “Barefoot”. Conditions which defied healing with expensive therapeutic shoeing responded better to economical care. Muscle pain which kept re-occurring when the horse was shod now responded to the massage or chiropractic treatment.

And my greatest reward has been to see young (and some not so young) owners learn to communicate with, and care for, their own horses.

Although I have tried to put as much practical instruction into this material as I can, there is no substitute for “hands on” training, with an instructor or a more experienced friend.

Each specific horse, and hoof, has its own challenges and rewards so having a friend or group of friends to talk to about your progress can be a great help.”