Bare Care Barefoot Trimming

11/05/2026

"Anatomy doesn't care about idealogy" 👏

This page is dedicated to science-based discussion of equine anatomy, biomechanics, pathology and hoof health.

The information I present is based on dissection, histology, radiography, published research, clinical observation, and the work of highly respected veterinary researchers and educators including Professor Christopher Pollitt and many others in their respective fields.

I am not willing to repeatedly debate or entertain claims that:
• laminitis is simply caused by “bad trimming”
• coffin bone rotation or sinking does not occur
• the hoof capsule somehow “moves up”
• radiographs and pathology are irrelevant
• serious laminitic pathology can be diagnosed purely by ideology rather than evidence

Healthy scientific discussion is welcome. Repetitive promotion of misinformation is not.

This page is not a platform for pushing unsupported theories, cult-like rhetoric, or social media dogma that contradicts established anatomy and pathology.

If you come onto this page repeatedly attempting to derail educational discussions with these arguments, your comments will be removed and you will be blocked.

My focus is, and always will be:
curiosity,
evidence,
anatomy,
science,
and helping horses through truthful education.

Anatomy does not care about ideology.

Please feel free to block my page from your news feed. I really don’t have the energy or the time to keep arguing about these constant pseudo scientific statements dressed up to sound like facts.

Lindsey.

01/05/2026

01/05/2026

29/04/2026

29/04/2026

🙌 “you have to go round the f*****g circle many times when healing horses”…. 🙌

This was the basis for hours of fascinating conversation with Bit and Bridle Fit Consultant James Cooling yesterday when assisting James with his herds hoof care.

If you haven’t dived deeply into complete rehab and training of horses involving improving their hoof morphology, you maybe won’t understand the wisdom of this statement until you do.

In essense it means, any change to one element of the horse which results in changes to proprioception, balance, posture, movement and development, will result in the need to assess, and potentially alter other elements of the horses care and management as well as changes potentially to the horse-human interface - saddle, bridle, bit, and way of training.

And in essence, we need to also be adaptable and change too - be it what we ‘do’ to the hooves, the diet we select, the way the teeth are trimmed, how we ride, and what we ‘do’ with the horse.

This is why methods don’t work.

I really enjoy working with James and his horses because they are trained to a high quality. I get to see the impact of the changes to their hoof health and morphology as well as their bodies, and demeanour over time. James describes what moves they work on and we discuss what I can now see in their hooves, which helps inform their training sessions.

Development of hoof and horse takes time. Often, far longer than one might imagine.

Forget the belief that it takes 9 months to heal a barefoot horse. That is nonsense and gets many horses and humans in deep trouble.

It takes the time it takes, and if you have to go round the f*****g circle a dozen times, who cares? The fact you are means things are changing - hopefully for the better!

This is team work, with the horses welfare right in the centre.

Random photo below, not of James’ horses, but illustrating the incredible changes which can occur in ONE trim.

The circle begins…

How do you trim yours?

You get to decide…

To join our VIP membership subscription and access benefits: https://www.holisticequine.co.uk/membership

For high quality educational resources in general relating to welfare focused, evidence based integrated hoof care, visit: www.holisticequine.co.uk/academy

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15/04/2026

The horse feed industry makes a fortune off confusion.

The first problem is that the average owner genuinely does not know what they’re looking at.

They are not standing in the feed store mentally sorting through starch, ESC, fat, by-products, fibre sources, oils, fillers, palatability enhancers, mineral balance, or whether the ingredient list is even specific enough to mean anything.

They are looking at the front of the bag.
The pretty name.
The promises.
Maybe the word “safe.”
Maybe “low starch.”
Maybe “metabolic.”
Maybe “cool.”

And then trusting that somebody upstream has done the right thing.

But upstream is often just sales.

The produce store worker might be lovely, but a lot of them are not properly educated in equine nutrition. They are selling what the rep told them, what moves off the shelf, what customers ask for, or what they have heard repeated often enough to believe. Then the feed reps themselves are often selling within the company line.

So owners are often making decisions in a chain of marketing, not a chain of independent knowledge.

And that is where the real problem lies.

Because by the time an owner gets to the point of buying a bag, they often think they are making a careful, loving, responsible choice. They are not standing there thinking, brilliant, I’ll buy the cheapest by-product-based filler with vague ingredient groupings and a shiny label.

They think they are helping.

That is exactly why the industry gets away with it.

And Australian horse feed absolutely has this issue with by-products and vague category language. Not all bagged feeds are equal, and a lot of them are built around what is economical, available, palatable, and marketable, not what is the clearest, simplest, cleanest option for the horse.

Then those same feeds get dressed up in words that sound scientific, calming, performance-based, gut-friendly, metabolic-friendly, or premium.

That is the bit that needs to be called out.

Because owners hear “premium” and think quality.
They hear “low starch” and think safe.
They hear “complete” and think balanced.
They hear “metabolic” and think suitable.
They hear “cool energy” and think that sounds good.

And sometimes none of that actually tells them what they need to know.

Simpler feeding matters.

In a lot of cases, if people stripped things back and fed more simply, more transparently, and more intentionally, many horses would probably do better and owners would waste less money.

Not everyone has the time or confidence to balance everything from scratch.

But as a general direction, simpler is often safer than a mystery bag with a glamorous name.

The real issue is that complexity protects the industry.

The more confused owners are, the more they rely on branding.
The more they rely on branding, the more the company controls the narrative.
And the more the company controls the narrative, the less pressure there is for true transparency.

So the heart of the issue is this:

The horse feed industry benefits from owners not knowing how to read a feed bag properly.

And underneath that is the softer truth:

Owners are often undereducated in this area, overwhelmed, and trying to do right by their horses in a system designed to sell them solutions.

That is why education matters.

Not because every bagged feed is evil.
Not because everyone needs to formulate every feed from scratch tomorrow.

But because owners want what’s best for their horses, and at some point we do have to stop handing that responsibility over to marketing.

11/04/2026

How many times have you heard, or said, something like this?

“He’s just a bit footy.”
“She’s a bit short on the hard ground.”
“He’s always been like that.”
“She’s just a bit sore after trims.”
“He just doesn’t like gravel.”
“He’s just lazy.”

Because this is exactly how a lot of horses slip into a crisis without anyone realising how far things have progressed.

Not because the owner doesn’t care.
But because gradual change is incredibly easy to miss when you see your horse every single day.

A horse with an acute laminitis attack is obvious.
A horse with subclinical laminitis often isn’t.

They may just:
Have a shorter stride
Not want to walk or stand on hard ground
Avoid gravel
Be harder to trim
Be sore after a trim
Not want to turn tightly
Not want to move forward like they used to
Have a digital pulse when they didn’t before

And because it happens slowly, it becomes normal.

That is what catches people out.

What would be obvious to someone who saw your horse four weeks ago can be almost invisible when you are watching it happen one tiny change at a time.

The same thing happens with weight.

A horse doesn’t suddenly become overweight overnight.
But over time they get a little rounder.
A little creasier.
A little less definition over the ribs.
And because the horse world has normalised animals being overweight, people stop seeing it.

This is why prevention matters.
This is why regular checks matter.
And this is why professional eyes matter.

Often, the people who see your horse every few weeks notice more than the people who see them every day. Myself included!

So here’s your reminder:
take the photos
take the videos
watch your horse walk on a hard surface and a soft one
watch them turn
feel for digital pulses
compare them to footage from a month or two ago
and ask a professional if you are not sure

Because sometimes the biggest welfare difference you can make is noticing the problem before it becomes a crisis.

If your horse is “just a bit footy,” don’t brush it off.
Go and look again.

11/04/2026

I’ve been going through a lot of old pictures for PowerPoint presentation in creating and it’s spurred a lot of thoughts.

As I’m having discussions in the comments of my posts I’m realizing that many people following me are horse owners that are really motivated to learn more about hooves. I have had many great mentors but honestly I have learned the most from the horses. And because I’m in this trade I see on average 10 horses a day five days a week. So on average 50 horses a week. That’s on average 200 hooves a week. That’s on average 1200 hooves every 6 week cycle. That’s a lot of hooves!

I think it’s great that owners are so motivated to learn and are trying so hard to do what’s best for their personal horses hooves. They see their own horses everyday. I see them once a cycle. They will almost always know their horse better than I do, just due to the fact that they see them and around them so much more than I am. I lean heavily on my clients to learn as much as I can about their horses so I can give them the best hoof care possible.

The same is true for hoof care providers. Because we see so many horses and so many hooves we are much more immersed in the overall subject every day. We get so see before an afters and what’s working and what isn’t working on a much larger scale than most horse owners. You can’t help but learn new things every day just due to exposure to higher volume. We just see and get our hands on more horses and hooves. As long as we are open to learning we generally learn something new almost everyday.

In one of my previous posts there was a comment about heels being too high on a mini hoof that my friend had trimmed and shared the picture. From the lateral view the heels did appear to be very high. But minis especially those recovering from laminitis can have some very “interesting” heels that I have actually never seen yet on a standard sized horse. So if you were a horse owner that only had experience with your own horses or a limited number of horses compared to how many a lot of professionals see, you would most likely assume the farrier/trimmer left the heels WAY too high. But what you don’t know, not because you aren’t knowledgeable on hooves, or aren’t trying to learn as much as possible, but merely due to lack of exposure, is that many laminitic minis have heels like the hoof shown below. Yes the heels are crazy tall but you can also only take them down as far as that black line. This still leaves inches of heel height but it’s all soft tissue. If you tried to take the heels down further you will make that horse bleed. Unless you had seen or experienced this before you also probably wouldn’t realize that on a laminitic mini this might only be 3-4 weeks worth of growth.

So if you see a lateral view of a mini hoof where the heels appear to be stupid long they might not technically be long as far as wall height is concerned. It may just be the stage of rehab they are at. The hooves might be growing so fast that even on a 3-4 week cycle it’s hard to get ahead of the distortion. It might be that the owner cares a tremendous amount about their horses well being but they can’t afford to have a hoof care provider out as frequently as their horse needs.

If you haven’t seen a hoof like this there’s now way to know what the true situation is. Many hoof care providers learn these things just through practical experience and the number of horses and hooves we see and work on. But when you are looking at pictures of mini hooves online it’s definitely something to consider.

11/04/2026

11/04/2026

There’s something I want to quietly reset.

When I started this page, I had no agenda. Just curiosity.

A need to understand what was inside the hoof—and why what I was seeing on the outside didn’t always make sense.

I wanted to share my joy, my findings and what I learned with the world.

That hasn’t changed.

But the space around it has.

Somewhere along the way, the conversation has become noisier.
More debate, more opinion, more division. And while some discussion is healthy, a lot of it isn’t helping the people who are here to learn.

So I’m drawing a line in the sand.

This page is returning to its roots.

It will be a place for observation, dissection, anatomy, and biomechanics.
A place to explore form and function.
A place grounded in science, evidence, and what can be seen.

I will continue to share what I find, what I question, and what I learn—drawing heavily on the work of those who have come before us. The great researchers, anatomists, and clinicians whose work gives us a foundation to stand on.

I am not here as someone who knows everything.

I am here as someone still learning—just with a scalpel in hand and a willingness to look.

What I am stepping away from is unproductive argument.

If I don’t respond to an argument it does not mean I agree, disagree or am not educated sufficiently to discuss. It means I choose to let it go, to use my time and energy on the work that fulfils me.

If you’re here to learn, question, observe, and think—you are very welcome.

If you’re here to debate for the sake of it, to push ideology, or to turn the comments into conflict—this probably isn’t the space for you anymore.

That’s not a criticism. It’s just a boundary.

From time to time, I may share posts aimed more at professionals or specific discussions—and I’ll make that clear when I do. But the core of this page will remain the same:

Curiosity.
Evidence.
Understanding.

If that resonates with you, I’m really glad you’re here.

And here is a photo of a beautiful digital cushion from a much loved mare called Rosie. It gives me warm fuzzies. Hope you get them too.

30/03/2026