James Welz, Barefoot Hoofcare

James Welz, Barefoot Hoofcare James Welz, Equine Barefoot Hoofcare trimming services for Happy Hooves! Serving the Phoenix AZ area. His entire focus is on creating the healthy hoof.

Based in the Phoenix area (Queen Creek), James Welz currently has clients throughout the state of Arizona, and offers his wealth of experience and education to barefoot horse owners. Many client horses have been trimmed by James for up to 15 years. The horses he trims include trail horses, pleasure horses, barrel racers, cutting horses, dressage horses, hunter/jumpers and endurance horses. His spe

cial interest is performance horses, though he enjoys helping all horses achieve better hoof health. James has been a hoofcare professional (barefoot trimmer) since 2000. He was one of the first in this country to receive a higher education in barefoot trimming, and one of the first to begin a full-time career as a barefoot-only professional. James was, in his "former life," a technical wizard and computer systems administrator until his wife's mare foundered in 1999, and changed the course of their lives forever. In a desperate attempt to save this horse, they immersed themselves in the new barefoot movement, which had only just begun. James immediately began hands-on training with the only educated barefoot hoofcare specialist in North America at that time, Sabine Kells of British Columbia, Canada. In May 2000, he attended the controversial German Veterinarian Dr. Hiltrud Strasser’s first U.S. clinic tour, and promptly enrolled in her one-year course, the first holistic barefoot educational program ever offered in this country. After studies in both Canada and Germany, James graduated in May 2001 in Tuebingen, Germany, with a certificate from the European School of Hoof Orthopedics (ESHOP). James had been trimming about 100 horses professionally while attending school, but upon graduation in 2001, began trimming full time, soon more than doubling the number of horses. He has maintained a consistent client base of about 200 horses per month since then. During this time, he concentrated on learning from the horses, and developing a system that could merge theory with practical reality. His studies included wild horse hooves, Jaime Jackson's research, and Dr. Robert Bowker's research. His most important studies were conducted upon his own horses: seeing the cause and effect of every trim decision, month after month, year after year, upon the same horses. Without that experience, he never could have developed the system as it exists today. Many of his theories about the hoof are unique: building upon information from prior sources, but combined in a way that can only come from a truly mechanical mind (see HoofHelpOnline.com for more info). James is a 2001 graduate of the European School of Hoof Orthopedics (ESHOP) in Tuebingen, Germany.

10/01/2025

Dr Robert Bowker: Sensory Receptors in the Horse’s Foot
"We have always suggested that the foot is a “neurosensory device” and the horse uses the foot to gain information about its environment, as to whether ground surfaces are comfortable or not. The foot has many similar neurophysiological features of our finger tips and toes! While some would say that I’m just biased in thinking in this manner, as the field of neuroscience is the area of my initial training, I would like to proceed to show and convince you that the horse’s frog, and indeed the entire foot, has a major function for detecting the many and various sensory stimuli within the environment (both external and internal), and may even affect the entire demeanor of the horse."

Read the full article here: https://www.thehorseshoof.com/dr-bowker-sensory-receptors-in-the-horses-foot/

• The Horse's Hoof ALL NEW website: https://www.thehorseshoof.com
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Happy Hooves! - Yvonne Welz

09/22/2025

The Horse's Hoof Barefoot News September 2025 is released!
Sign up here: https://mailchi.mp/thehorseshoof/50-giveaway
What's in this issue? 🏇🏻 Dr. Bowker: Comfy Hooves with Pea Gravel 🏇🏻 A Tribute to Dr. Robert Cook 🏇🏻 What is Natural Hoof Care? 🏇🏻 Rescue Horse with Happy Hooves! 🏇🏻 Study: Turnout Improves Horses 🏇🏻 Cavallo Boot Giveaway 🏇🏻 And more!

09/16/2025

Understand the significance of holistic hoofcare and the communication gap between allopathic and naturopathic practices.

09/02/2025

Holistic Hoofcare in an Allopathic World
There is a clash going on behind the scenes that many horseowners are not even aware of, and that is the paradigm difference between the “allopathic” model of mainstream equine care, and the “naturopathic” model of natural, holistic equine care. It is important to understand both, and clearly know the differences. Read more: https://www.thehorseshoof.com/holistic-hoofcare-in-an-allopathic-world/

09/02/2025

What is Natural Hoof Care?
Keep it simple: Natural Hoof Care is a health movement for horses centered around 3 key principles: natural living conditions, exercise, and proper trimming/maintenance of barefoot hooves. Read more: https://www.thehorseshoof.com/what-is-natural-hoof-care/

08/26/2025

Pete Ramey: The Bars of the Hoof "Leaving a longer bar (and sole ridge around the frog) accelerates the process of achieving a deeply concaved sole by providing support to the internal structures and reducing sole wear. I already learned this lesson about the other parts of the foot years ago. The less I trimmed the sole, the deeper the solar concavity became. The less I shortened the foot, the shorter the foot became. The less I trimmed frogs, the more sound the horses were. Every time I have learned to back off, my horses became more sound, and the rehabilitation of pathologies accomplished more quickly. I was a just a bit slower in seeing the same truth about the bars. Now I’ve come to view them as a critically important weight-bearing structure and see that as with every other part of the foot, over-trimming them makes them grow too long, too fast."
Read more: https://www.thehorseshoof.com/pete-ramey-the-bars-of-the-hoof/

08/22/2025

Pete Ramey: One Foot For All Seasons? "what if the same horse routinely lives and works on perfectly flat surfaces? Then our natural P3 support is missing and that same deeply concaved foot will cause peripheral loading… The horse is right back to hanging unnaturally from the laminae. Healthy laminae are strong enough to withstand this occasionally, but the repeated insult will cause damage or failure of the hoof wall/coffin bone attachment. It is my opinion that the hard surfaces that are commonly blamed for “road founder” (mechanical damage to the laminae) are not the culprit at all; instead it is the peripheral loading that usually results from a hard, flat surface. The horse simply needs sole pressure/support."
https://www.thehorseshoof.com/pete-ramey-one-foot-for-all-seasons/

08/21/2025

Pete Ramey: One Foot For All Seasons?
New posting: timeless article from The Horse’s Hoof Magazine, Issue 25. Pete Ramey discusses how the sole shape is affected by the terrain of the season. Hard, flat dry ground, versus deep and yielding terrain? These details matter!
https://www.thehorseshoof.com/pete-ramey-one-foot-for-all-seasons/

08/18/2025

The Horse's Hoof Barefoot News August 2025 is released!
Sign up here: https://mailchi.mp/thehorseshoof/50-giveaway
What's in this issue? ☀️ Barefoot Hoof Care - How did it Begin? ☀️ The Humble Hoof Podcast: Carole Herder Discusses the Hooves of “Long Ears” ☀️ Cumberland Island Wild Horse Field Guide ☀️ Holistic Hoofcare in an Allopathic World ☀️ When Natural Meets Practical ☀️ And more!

08/07/2025

What?!!! A radical veterinarian in the 1800s said all horses need to be kept and ridden barefoot?!!! Yes, that's true!! Bracy Clark "was a veterinarian working at the Royal Veterinary College in London, a scientist and member of several international scientific organizations. He discovered, researched, and, beginning in 1809, published a number of scientific papers about the ill effects of the horseshoe, the anatomy and physiology of the hoof (already chronicling the circulation in the hoof, and how a metal shoe compromised it), and among other things, discovered and named the periople."
Read the full article here:
Barefoot Hoof Care Beginnings: Bracy Clark
https://www.thehorseshoof.com/barefoot-hoof-care-beginnings-bracy-clark/

08/01/2025

Uncover the history behind The Natural Horse and its relationship with other influential books in natural hoof care and natural horse care.

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San Tan Valley, AZ
85144

Website

https://hoofhelponline.com/

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