NATURAL BAREFOOT TRIMMING:

Cecilia and I are a husband and wife team that work very hard to ensure that every horse we come in contact with is taken care of to the best of our ability.  We promote the "Natural Barefoot Trim" and believe that it is the best choice for the horses.  We have raced horses in the sport of endurance all over the United States and the world barefoot over every kind of emaginable terrain with phenominal results. Cecilia's mother, Darolyn Butler (www.horseridingfun.com) has a horse ranch and trail ride business in Humble, Texas and has a herd of horses that range from 45 to 60 and any given point in time, all of which are barefoot.  The majority of her horses are USEF and FEI passported and ranked in the top percentage of horses in the world every year and we race them "BAREFOOT".

Now saying this let me clarify the term "BAREFOOT".  When I say barefoot I mean we do not nail shoes on our horses feet.  We do use some products to help us ensure that the bare foot is protcted.  On a soft grass or sand course we will most likely just go completly natural.  If we are going to a race where the might be some hardpack and some gravel and road crossing we will use a product call Hoof Armor (www.hoofarmor.com) which is a two part epoxy that is applied to the bottom of the horses feet that gives the a protective barrier between their foot and the ground.  This product is non-intrusive and wears off buy itself over a period of time and is awsome in the instances where you might need a little more protection.  We used Hoof Armor in the Presidents Cup in the UAE in Febuary 2011 where Cecilia took 20th.  If the terrain is extreme with alot of rocks and hazards on trail we use EZ Boots  (www.easycareinc.com) These are a strap on or glue on boot that covers the horses hoof that protects from just about anything you can throw at them.  After you are done riding or racing you just pull them off and let your horse go back to being barefoot. In the Presidents Cup there were a couple of loops that Cecilia felt she need a little more protection on, so we opted to put the EZ Boot Gloves on for the two middle loops. Once she rode through the bad spots we unstrapped the boots pulled them off and let Hoof Armor bring us home.

We trim horses all over the state of Texas and have been called to consult on horses as far away as Florida, Missouri, and Utah.  We have worked on Navicular, laminitic, and Foundered horses. We have treated horses with broken, split, cracked and rotten hooves.  We will do our best to help anyone that calls us with their horse issues.  Now you do not have to have a horse with bad feet to call us we do also trim and work with horses with good feet. Cecilia and I have studied the work of the best trimmers in the world like Ramey, Strauser, and Olivio and incorperate their techniques into our trimming every time we pick up a horses foot.  We have also come to realize that just like a human foot, every horses foot is different and the same. They all have the same basic shape and angle but at the same time the all have to trimmed and balanced in their own way. What you do for one horse may not work for the next.  It all depends on how the foot grows, whether they are club footed, or have laminitic issus.  Are your horses joints and muscles and tendons allowing their foot to grow straight and true or is their an issue that might be needing attention that might be effecting the way your horse wears their foot.  We try to answer and resolve these questions as we get to know your horses feet. A horses foot is a very complex organ that requires the proper attention, if their feet aren't right it throws the whole horse off balance and can cause major medical issues.   

We perform a hoof trim that replicates the natural "shedding" that happens in the wild.   When a horse is in the wild it has been shown that they travel up to 60 miles per day.  With every step they are grooming or self trimming their own feet.   A domesticated horse averages less than 3 miles a day.   With the domestication we have put horses on smaller pieces of land and even put them in stalls for 20 hours a day. The inability to move freely or travel over a variety of terrain hinders their ability to maintain a healthy foot with good natural trimming "shedding".

The general horse person feels that a horse needs to have shoes to be able to perform or even function properly.  That is completely false.  Here is a question for you, how many hearts does a horse have?.  If you were to ask me that question I would answer five, the one in their chest, and one on the end of each of their legs.  The foot is a pump that moves blood back up the leg.  When blood traveles down a horses leg it bring with it the majority of the toxins that are in a horses blood.  As the blood is pumped back up the leg, by the hoof mechinism, the toxins are filtered and released through the lamini.  When the hoof is shod or not functioning properly then the toxins start to build up and can lead to various kind of hoof desease from white line desease to thrush, from laminitis to even founder and death.  So you see it is not just a hoof, it is a very important part of a horses anatomy. 

 If you look closely you can see the arteries open and close as the hoof expands and contracts.  Note that the coffin bone descends with the solar floor and the walls move outward on weightbearing.  One can easily see how leaving the bars long or at wall height would pinch all the tissue between the bar and the navicular bone thus making a horse very heel sore with a tendency to toe walk.

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