I’ve been a low level endurance rider since the early 1990’s. Five years ago I became worried about the concussion on my horse’s legs. He was doing a lot of miles and I could ‘read’ the hard 80km rides from the tell tale rings growing out in his hooves. He  would pull up the day after an endurance   ride with puffiness and filling in his legs. So I started to explore alternatives to traditional shoes.  I  went through Natural Balance & plastic shoes, and finally I came to the conclusion that it would be best to run him without shoes altogether. People like Darolyn Butler Dial were doing it successfully in the US – and winning, barefoot – so I knew it was possible.

But in 2003 it took me months  to find someone to come and trim (as opposed to shoe) my horses. When John Gorman removed the shoes from my endurance horse, Zapateado,  he could barely walk across the gravel driveway.  John then drove off, leaving me to it! And since he lived 6 hours away, I couldn’t expect him to come back and trim regularly. I felt like I was bobbing around in the ocean without a liferaft. And it was frighteningly apparent that if I was going to go barefoot, then I’d have to learn to trim my own horses, myself. I was really stuck. It would have been MUCH easier to go back to shoes. But by then the scales had fallen from my eyes. I could SEE how shoes actually disadvantaged horses. There was no going back. I had to condition my horse to run barefoot, and I had to learn to look after his hooves myself.

So I organised an Equethy clinic (www.equethy.com). There I struggled with the tools & - typically -  managed to trim  just ONE of my own  horse’s hooves (along with a few cadaver legs).  The next day I doubled my productivity. But I have to admit, it was exhausting at that stage. Then I got a hoof stand and life got much easier. Next a decent pair of nippers.  Some proper tools. And more training.  I did a week-long course with Martha Olivo. Another two day Equethy Clinic. Then a weekend with Pete Ramey.

Next thing I was preaching to the neighbours and jumped the fence  to start trimming their horses. Soon word spread, and I was trimming up and down my little high country valley.

Since then I’ve been competing successfully in 80km endurance rides barefoot. But I’ve also continued learning about barefooting. I’ve done a second clinic with Pete Ramey and I’ve also embarked on a traineeship with the American Association of Natural Hoofcare Practitioners (AANCHP). It’s a two-year program based on the successful completion of six mentorships, and the attainment of proficiency across a range of modules including hoof boot fitting, horse handling/psychology and demonstrable rehabilitaton & documented case studies in my care.

I’m an accredited EasyCare Hoof Boot Advisor, and a founding member of the fledgling peak body for professional trimmers, the Australian Hoof Care Association.

If anybody had told me ten years ago that I’d become a horse toe cutter, I’d have laughed out loud. But I’ve become passionate about what seems an odd area of interest, because I can see how horses with proper hoof care have a much better level of wellbeing. Also, its possible to make a difference to many horses, taking them from virtual cripples to happy, healthy horses, based on regaining healthy hooves.