What are the opening hours?

Monday 9am - 5pm Tuesday 9am - 5pm Wednesday 9am - 5pm Thursday 9am - 5pm Friday 9am - 5pm

Equiliberta

Natural Horse Care Services

29/10/2026

If you want healthy hooves, horses have to live on a track! ☺️

Photos of one of my colleagues’ own horses’ hooves, living on her track 👌

23/10/2026

The wet season is officially open! We're working on the ground conditions. 🧱⏳️🌧

There will be no grass turnout this winter.

The subject of grass is controversial. Nevertheless, as someone involved in hoof care, looking at hooves every day, I cannot ignore the grass-related damage I observe in hooves and the lower limbs.

If you're curious about the effects of grass on hooves, I invite you to observe the new hoof growth coming down from the coronary band throughout the year.

We're now moving into winter, when horses will be primarily eating hay. Pay very close attention to any changes in hoof growth patterns as we approach spring. That's when the grass takes off, and we can observe stress rings forming. Some may be more pronounced than others, and much will depend on the intake of that fresh spring grass.

It's an interesting way to observe how seasonal changes in diet may be reflected in hoof growth patterns.

22/10/2026

Someone got spoiled today. Lovely morning spent with the VIP Carys. Her hooves have improved a lot this year. I attribute a lot of it to a much drier weather this summer and reduced grass intake, not my trimming. So much for healthy hooves comes through diet. Not like so many would love to claim, the trim.

Yes, of course, the trim is very important. We've got to know what to remove and when to stop. But the trim is proportionally only a smaller part of growing strong, healthy and a balanced hoof. We've some lovely heavyweight hooves.

20/10/2026

People wonder if it is possible or safe to have horses of different sizes on a tracking system. It absolutely is possible. Everything depends on the kind of living conditions we create for them.

For example horses that have been on restrictive diet will struggle with sharing food. Their mind is in a state of scarcity of food. They are usually the weakest link in a mixed herd as thry can create a lot of chaos or even dangerous situations. The development resource guarding and will attack other horses because of pre-existing condition that food is not always available. Look at panic buying behaviours in humans.

Here's a photo of one of my boys sharing a feeding station with a Shetland pony. He was gelded not long before and would still have some hormones in him. Yet, he seemed to have been able to get along with everyone in the herd. By the way, it was a well balanced herd of geldings.

When thinking about creating tracking system it is essential to get away from the idea that horses somehow need to eat less to lose weight. Holding onto weight can suggest other underlying issues, it is not necessarily diet related issue.

16/10/2026

Trimming big horses is not only taxing on the body. It is a continuous mental effort. An effort to better understand the horse, their needs, their fears, their expectations and desires.

Historically, trimming horses has been all about the hooves. To me, trimming is first and foremost about establishing a relationship. So many horses I see almost every day have trouble with having their feet handled.

I often hear that a horse cannot balance their body or hold a leg in the air because of a physiological issue. Yet, in every case where the owner has been willing to observe without preconceived ideas and follow my suggestions, I've seen rapid improvement.

Not because we have fixed the body, corrected angles or balanced the foot. But because we have changed the horse's experience. The horse no longer collapses, shifts, drops or swings because the negative associations with hoof handling are gradually replaced by positive ones.

My input is in empowering the owner with knowledge. Building a bridge of understanding. Resolving old fears, trauma and any associations horses have around hoof handling.

In many cases, horses have had years of forceful trimming, sometimes involving physical violence. I witnessed it being done to my horses before I took them on. I sometimes hear stories of horse abuse during hoof care visits. In some cases, one visit is enough to mess things up for everybody else who comes to trim after. One person is enough. One-time event is enough to scar the horse.

My most loyal clients don't come to me because of Paddock Paradise, laminitis rehabilitation or transitioning to barefoot. They somehow found me because they had no one else who would or could take their horses on.

I rarely say no. We share something in common. We know what it means to have a horse that has been pushed too far. Perhaps that's why these owners are far more open to my suggestions.

I know there are plenty more horses with issues being trimmed by other hoof care practitioners. Horses that are somewhere in between. Every individual trimmer develops their own style of trimming to make provisions for the issues these animals have developed.

It is really easy to break something. Much harder to fix it.

To all the trimmers out there, finding ways, struggling and caring for these challenging but giving horses, I see you!

Gracie is one of many examples of horses that need help. We are making rapid progress. This is what really makes my job worthwhile. Seeing horses relax, regain their confidence and learn to trust again.

Thank you to all my clients for trusting me with their horses.

14/10/2026

The term True Hard Sole Plane is a scam. Please do not fall for the trap on compaction. It is a complete fraud on natural hoof care.

The actual compaction takes place when solar plates, when prodded with the nipper, begin to loosen up, like a loose tile. Not quite ready to fall away on its own, but there's a little crack and minimal movement.

Solar plates often become compacted because of prolonged periods of drought and not enough access to moisture, like a water hole or wet ground. In Paddock Paradise, we'd create a water hole or something like a shallow pool to encourage horses to soak their feet from time to time.

An important point needs to be added to the overall water/moisture hoof situation. In environments like the UK, where winters can see excessive amounts of water, especially now with more extreme weather events, it is important to create a dry area where neither horses nor hay get soaking wet. An area where their feet don't need to be in mud. Mud damages hooves.

Moisture helps to soften the solar plates and remove the material, so their sole is much more likely to be at the Hard Sole Plane, providing there's healthy ground stimulation.

On the other hand, lack of moisture leads to the individual, thin layers of solar plates to laminate into chunkier-looking solar plates sticking together and hardening up. Those chunks can be pretty thick, even over 1 cm in thickness. Solar plates are not of uniform thickness, their shape is never linear, and they can be irregular. Nevertheless once you see how solar plates look like, you'll always be able to tell the difference.

Compaction, contrary to some of the claims, is not painful. What is painful, on the other hand, is excessive removal of epidermal structures (hoof armour), be it around the seat of corn, heel buttress or around the toe in excess to their natural thickness.

Sensitivity and soreness are not always born out of inflammation. Think of the hoof capsule as a container. If you thin the wall of a container too much, what will happen? It begins to lose its integrity. It begins to falter.

Please don't let anyone tell you otherwise: that the true hard sole plane is found with the flat rasp and heels taken down to almost nothing. Coronary corium at the back of the foot grows full wall thickness 1cm below the coronary band. There isn't always much mass to work with. Taking heels down too far is not safe. Compaction is not what is claiming. It is a scam. Under the guise of compaction plates not ready to shed are being removed, compromising the heels exposing Live Sole Plane.

Heels take an enormous amount of weight. Reducing mass by force in the most important places, designed for active wear, has detrimental long-term consequences. If you witness long heels, perhaps after a prolonged period of shoeing, you have to give them time. According to studies conducted by Jaime Jackson, supercorium needs about 2,5 hoof growth cycles (hgc) to remodel. That is about 2 years. Those changes should never be rapid and drastic.

Over-trimming the heels doesn't necessarily have to create negative palmar angles, but it will invariably weaken the supercorium's ability to produce a sufficient amount of mass over time. What is gained in the short term is lost in the long run.

Horses with thin soles and heels that don't seem to grow are an example of excessive hoof mass removal. Human nail biting is a great analogy. When nail biting is done systematically, it leads to a shorter nail plaque over time. But horses need their heels more than humans proportionate nail plaque. They depend on healthy and sound feet for survival.

Biologically speaking, the hoof is a living organ that responds to its environment.

PS. Photos showing an example of compacted solar plates. When scraped from the top, they remain firmly in place. When prodded with the nipper, they lose up and lift.

11/10/2026

Some Lines Should Never Be Crossed

In recent months there have been fiery online skirmishes over toe length, toe wall pillars, the heel buttress, and laminitis. At least one side of the battle lines have directly or indirectly implicated the wild horse model.

Toe Length and the toe wall support pillar

The wild horse model holds that no hoof should exceed its natural toe length. We now have mathematical equations and markers to safely trim any hoof to its natural length. But one side argues that long toes are sometimes necessary to endow the hoof with a toe wall pillar. While toe wall pillars are indeed a characteristic of the naturally shaped hoof, they are associated ONLY with the hoof’s natural toe length (N°TL), not just any length. This specifically puts the pillar on the medial toe wall in close proximity of the pedal bone (P3). Its precise position represents a confluence of each horse’s unique anatomy, temperament (alpha and beta personalities), ex*****on of their natural gaits, and weight bearing and ground reaction forces. Facilitating long toes OBSTRUCTS natural growth patterns and is arguably INHUMANE as well as being completely unnecessary. The good news is that the U.S. Great Basin wild horse model provides a ready pathway out of the man-made long toe syndrome.

The composite heel buttress

The wild horse model holds that no heel buttress should be shortened to less than its natural length. But one side argues that maximum lowering of the heel buttress is necessary to establish the natural alignment of the pedal bone (P3) within the hoof capsule. While it is true that nature aligns the base of the pedal bone parallel (zero degrees) with level ground (a support plane), it does this when the hoof is naturally shaped and not compromised by chronic laminitis or invasive trimming. Over trimming the heels can pe*****te the hoof’s hard sole plane (HSP) and destroy the lamellae of the bars and heels. But there is good news here too. Trimming the heels to their natural length is neither difficult nor complicated, when using the Natural Trim method based on the wild horse model.

Laminitis

The wild horse model holds that all hoof care methods collapse when laminitis is repeatedly fuelled by unnatural diets. But one side argues that laminitis has origins in trim mechanics, not diet, or not necessarily diet alone. But the chronic proliferation of matrix-metalloproteinases (enzymes) resulting in the collapse of the P3 suspensory apparatus and subsequent lamellar wedge, necessary for P3 rotation, has been proven by laminitis researchers Pollitt et al. to have causality attributed to streptococcus bovis and other pathogens of the lower intestine.

Jaime Jackson
for the ISNHCP

For those of you interested in exploring the subjects discussed by Jaime Jackson in greater detail, we recommend the following publications:

NHC Brief #4: Support Pillars
An explanation of the naturally occurring support pillars of the hoof, including their relationship to natural toe length.

NHC Brief #3: The Naturally Shaped Composite Heel Buttress
An examination of the composite heel buttress and its natural anatomical characteristics.

Links in the comment section below.

06/10/2026

It is a statement of fact that Hoofing Marvellous is the only platform actively using Hard Sole Plane term to describe their trimming methodology. HM propagandists know that Jaime Jackson is the only person who'd be able to push back and challenge them on HSP because he had coined this term to describe epidermal structures of the sole. He coined this term to address invasive trimming practices that would involve trimming or carving into the live sole.

HM crowd uses the fact that Jaime himself will not go out and publicly address their misinformation regarding his terminology, or the natural trim because he abstains from social media spaces.

I had said it before and I'll say it now. What HM is teaching is far removed from the natural trim method, which includes the type of tools we use to EXFOLIATE the sole. We DO NOT trim it, our role is to only mimick the natural wear. Nothing more than that. You won't see us using a flat rasp to rasp the wall down flush with the sole. You won't see any of the Isnhcp practitioners using loop knives on the sole either.

HM shills are afraid of ISNHCP representatives because we're the only group that can call them out on all of the misrepresentations that have been made public, as well as the information that is circulated privately within their groups. Since my last post on their work, I've been blocked by pretty much every single one of their business pages. Why? Afraid of scrutiny?

They do not respect other professionals and use the algorithms parameters that are optimised for emotional messaging and division to push their dishonest propaganda. Every profession has competent and incompetent people. But HM has gone a step further, they flood the zone with fake profiles and generate controversial content to further antagonise those in hoof care profession.

Lindsay Setchel, you've made a terrible mistake by targeting other professionals. It's not too late to admit it. They too are human beings who are trying to help. Perhaps their belief system is not compatible with what Jaime has pioneered, but he was always respectful of everyone. You're playing God, pretending that you can save some of the most advanced cases. What you're engaging in is highly unethical and dishonest.

On the other hand, my message to anyone following HM, or exploring barefoot. Please learn about the U.S. Great Basin wild horse model. No trimming method can save a horse alone. A successful transition to barefoot or laminitis rehabilitation always involves transformation of horse's habitat and lifestyle.

The damage done by steady access to grass progresses slowly, but it inevitably leads to some of the most traumatic outcomes. Grass is the real enemy. I wish that the hoof care industry would agree at least on this one point. You can read more on equine adaptation in Jaime's book The Natural Horse: Lessons from the Wild. It is, in my opinion, one of the most important books ever written on horses to date.

27/09/2026

Invisible damage done to the sole. If your horse cannot walk around without the hoof boots, laminitis is not always to blame. So much damage comes in different shapes and forms, that is only revealed through x-rays or post-mortum.

Natural thickness of the sole is anything between 1-3 centimeters. The horse to navigate over all terrain while remaining sound needs sufficient amount of armour underneath. Hoof care approaches remain divided on this idea. Many are compelled to rasp the toe wall flush with the sole, others rasp into it. These practices are guided by a set of theories. Some are rooted in the breakover theory, others believe that the sole should make active contact with the ground. In NHC, we acknowledge that the hoof was designed for peripheral loading and the wall should always make active contact with the ground.

These ideas clash very strongly when pathology in the hoof is present. In domestication that means almost always the hoof is trimmed to achieve visually aesthetic looking hoof. In reality, it often means that the integrity of the hoof capsule is lost. The perfect hoof is not achieved through trimming, but by naturalising horses diet. The trim has one role - mimick natural wear. In doing so we avoid overtrimming.

Natural Trim compells us to refrain from using certain tools at the bottom of the hoof because even an extra millimeter taken off systematically can lead to thin soles. Unfortunately thin soles are not uncommon and can cost horse a life in the long run.

The best approach is always prevention, because it is much harder to repair long standing damage than it is to prevent it in the first place. We use restraint when it comes to using trimming tools. Instead of scalping the sole with knife we exfoliate it using a method called nipper dragging, or a sole rasp, especially designed to only remove what would wear away naturally.

If you struggle with thin soles, drop me a message or comment below. I'd love to hear about your experience.

02/09/2026

Untrimmable by farriers.
Rehabilitated by a barefoot trimmer 😏

Turns out Gracie didn't need to be "made" to behave. She's not a naughty horse.

She needed a different conversation.

Learn more about hoof handling rehabilitation

Address

Leamington Spa
Leamington Spa
CV324

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 5pm
Tuesday	9am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm

Website

http://equiliberta.com/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Equiliberta posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.