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> Kaia Sorem / Article / Hoof

Q: What is natural hoof trimming all
about? I hear about it but I wonder if
all horses can go barefoot. Mine always
break their feet off when they don't have
shoes on.

A: My neighbor was attending the natural
trimming school, and she is always ahead
of the curve, so I was interested in what
she was studying. I understood that many
different specimens of wild horse feet were
studied in great anatomical detail, but I was
very skeptical that my own horse with a
lifetime of horrible feet could ever go bare-
foot other than just letting his feet grow
ever longer.

Last Sunday, we had a great barefoot trimmer,
who used to be a farrier, come out, and I have
to say, I was nervous as could be letting him
work on this horse. What he did blew my mind
completely. There is way more to this
than emulating wild horse feet. What this method
entails is something that I have espoused for
many years. That is when horses are kept shod,
they continue to grow a long toe which just seems
to get longer over time. The barefoot trim
changes the arc of flight of the foot by allowing
the horse to load the heel, frog, and bars of
the foot and spare the toe! The toe is taken
off so that the horse has a rounded toe. Over time,
this allows the hoof to grow out without the
prying of the toe on the sensitive laminae of the
foot.

This horse was one of those that you would say
could never go barefoot, his feet have always
been his weakest point. He walked off sound, and
went on for several days to go skying, bucking
and kicking like never before. I am now a true believer
in this technique!

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