Barefoot for Soundness - Marjorie Smith
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Marjorie Smith is the owner of Barefoot for Soundness which is a website that is a voice for the experience and observations of several dozen barefoot-horse colleagues, plus the thoughtful contributions of many readers. |
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Marjorie's inspiration came from watching the farrier Tony Gonzalez teach about balancing hooves, where she saw a fidgety horse suddenly become calm after he shaved a small amount off the outside toe of one of its feet.
She credits Becky Tober, a Gonzalez student, for showing her how to see many kinds of imbalances in hooves.
Her experience of a "pasture trim" on her first horse (15 years ago) - when her horse became very sore to the point that Marjorie put shoes back on her - made her notice that you have to do something different to ride a horse barefoot.
When she moved East in 1998, Marjorie had the shoes pulled on her
horses, and started playing with the trimming tools. Trimming every 3 to
4 weeks for a year she worked her way through every imbalance there is,
always with lots of observation, thought, and experimenting.
While
figuring out how to trim, Marjorie found Jaime Jackson's book, 'The
Natural Horse'. Later she visited Jaime and saw his awesome set of wild
mustang feet; looked at them for hours and took their shape deep into
her core.
She also heard of Dr. Hiltrud Strasser, a German
veterinarian who developed a method for rehabilitating lame horses that
includes a barefoot, short-heel trim along with 24-hour turnout and
24-hours available grass hay. Marjorie went to a seminar, was inspired
by Dr Strasser's knowledge of physiology and mechanics of the hoof and
leg, and in 2001 took her 9-month Hoofcare Specialist course.
However
Marjorie found Dr. Strasser's trim invasive of the hoof - her horses
were unrideable for a year and a half, as well as the horses of friends
who took the course with her - so she went back to the wild horse trim
and terminated her certification with Dr. Strasser.
Barefoot for
Soundness, Marjorie's website, is packed full information including
lots of helpful photos and includes detailed steps on how to carry out a
wild-horse trim.
Return from Barefoot for Soundness to Natural Hoofcare
Please consider making a donation to help me keep this site going -
donations over $10 get a free ANHC ebook ($17.99 value)
Like the information
on this site?
Downloadable eBook now available containing all the information on this site - over 100 pages - in an easy to print and navigate offline version.
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Hoof Jack eBook
Downloadable eBook with detailed instructions and clear photos on how to make your own Hoof Jack.
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