04/05/2025
This morning I was in a mood.
In fact, I was downright grumpy.
I was likely not very pleasant to my trim clients (sorry y’all), and quieter than usual. I kept thinking about each foot I picked up, and how it would fit into the mold of various ideals I have been seeing around social media. Some groups would want me to change HPA, or bring back toes more, or lower heels more, or raise heels more, or take more bar, or trim less bar, or trim less frog, or trim more frog, or add XYZ for protection/correction/comfort… the list goes on. I doubt there was one trim I did today that would have pleased everyone on the interwebs.
I know I sound like an actual broken record, since I feel like I say this exact statement every few months, but the hoofcare world can be crazy and full of drama. There’s always someone claiming they have it all figured out, and that their way is the right way. Or the only way. Or if only everyone else did it their way, all horses would be saved. But since others don’t do it their way, horses are dying. And it’s their job to yell it from the rooftops. .
And with some of these bold statements of right and wrong we often have various groups of people who have an ideal of what we should do to the feet in XYZ scenarios.
Listen- I am not immune. I am guilty of it too. Most of you know I’m insanely passionate about navicular rehab, so much so that I wrote 2 guide books about it. That’s how much I think about how to rehab navicular. And I know I probably get pretty preachy about it too.
But that’s also why I try so hard to shadow and work with hoofcare providers outside my own little bubble, to see other ways of doing things - EVEN IF I might disagree with them - to hear and understand and have conversations and bridge a gap. Because I never want to end up in an echo chamber where I think I am always right or my way is the only way.
Any time we apply the same exact trim or protocol to every single horse no matter the circumstances, we are treading towards dangerous territory. If we do that, no matter what we say, we are forcing our own ideals on the horse- and some horses simply don’t fit the mold, don’t read the textbook, or have a lifetime of pathology or injuries or damage that absolutely can’t accommodate our cookie cutter ideas.
We have to listen to the horse.
If someone is telling you that a certain way of doing things supersedes what the horse is saying they may need for comfort, I’d take a big step back, a big deep breath, and think long and hard about what we are trying to accomplish.
Some conversations I see on social media - even amongst groups who are WORKING TOWARD THE SAME GOAL! - make it seem like we are often burning more bridges than building them.
The horse comes first. The horse has a say. The horse has an opinion. And we need to listen.
This is exactly why I put together the Humble Hoof Podiatry Clinic for this October with Dr. Jenny Hagen, Ula Krzanowska, Celeste Lazaris, and Pat Reilly- all amazing clinicians who focus on biomechanics, wear patterns, growth patterns, and balance: so at this clinic we can look at conformation and movement, pathology, muscling, biomechanics of the distal limb, hoof wear patterns, and radiographs on various kinds of blocks and how it affects the horses’ balance, so we can start to get a better picture of how to adapt to an individual horse’s needs. Because they don’t all need the same thing for soundness.
And as a side note: one huge shoutout to Progressive Hoof Care Practitioners, one of our amazing clinic sponsors, for being an incredible hoofcare education community that doesn’t believe in having any one hoofcare “guru” and taught me over the years to listen to the horse and push my tunnel vision aside. This group is open to horse owners, trimmers, farriers, veterinarians, bodyworkers and more, to have a great supportive group and wonderful continuing education options.
(And yes- our podiatry clinic is SOLD OUT- but we do have a livestream/video recording option available here: https://thehumblehoof.com/product/october-25-26-2025-livestream/ )
