• Services
  

Natural Hoof Care ~ Trimming Being a natural hoof care practitioner means I trim hooves. I don't shoe horses or prepare hooves for shoeing. The style of trim I offer is based on the wild free roaming horse and how they wear their hooves themselves as a result of thier environment and lifestyle. There is no magic rasp technique to it! The trim is simply the gap between natural wear and the lack of it in the domestic horse living in an unnatural setting. This in effect is giving the horse back the hooves that he would have in the wild.

I cover a wide area of the south east of the UK and trim a wide variety of horses. From mini's and donkeys, to horses with major hoof problems, horses in competition, many happy hackers and even the odd draft horse.

It is my aim to work at the horses pace. I don't believe in rushing them. If they need more time to get to know me and build trust then that is what I will do. I believe that if you invest time at the beginning your save hours in the end plus it's safer. I don't believe in controlling the horse in the conventional sense, this is the job of the horse owner. I am there to trim no train. In theses situations I will try and communicate with the owner and come up with a solution that helps to support the horse and his concern. I do this because if the horse is upset and tense then 1) I am in more danger and 2) it's not fair to expect the horse to do something they are concerned about. To me the horse is the client. If they are not happy then I'm not happy either. I have tried ignoring horses in the past and it's no longer the way I work. ( Thank you Clarance!!)

Horsemanship My experience with natural horsemanship started off when I was very young. But back then no one had heard of "natural" horsemanship, it was just horsemanship.

Many of my ponies came from the meat markets of Devon and Cornwall. I would walk around looking at those lost faces and "tune in" feeling my way around the market. Sometimes it was just too overwhelming and I'd shut off and be unable to speak with anyone. These experiences, and later on playing running games with my step mothers rescued arab stallion (which I later discovered as Join-Up) set the scene for my horsemanship education and lifelong facination.

I completed the Monty Roberts Horsemanship Certificate in 98 with Kelly Marks here in the UK and then travelled to the USA and worked at Monty's ranch from sept 2000 - sept 2001. I became a member of the Join-Up Team and toured with them in both the USA and in Europe.
Whilst in the USA I also volunteered at Return to Freedom American Wild Horse and Burro Sanctuary not far from monty's ranch. At the sanctuary I whitnessed the energy/ atmosphere surrounding unhandled horses for the first time. From that moment on it bacame horribly obvious the amount of stress we put on our domestic horses through. We ask them to do things they don't understand and for reasons they can't comprehend. Since then I have worked to make the relationships I have with both my own and my clients horses as light and as straight forward as possible. They are incredibly sensitive and perceptive animals and our corse ways dull these senses.

During the last 12 months I have been lucky enough to cross paths with Suntui, one of only a handful of Epona Instructors here in the UK working with Epona Equine Facilitated Experiental Learning, a theraputic approach founded by Linda Kohanov and Kathlene Barry Ingram in Arizona USA. This form of communication offers a whole new level of information that nearly all horsmanship "training" methods fail to recognise. By using the sensations we experience in our bodies ( fear, tension, joy, disassociation)  as information we can better understand what exactly the horse is reacting to when in our presence. Horses communicate alot through feeling so by listening to this information the dialogue between horse and human can take on a level if finesse.
I look forward to offering Epona Horsemanship to my clients in the very near future.

Swiss Horse Boot Fitting A decent pair of hoof boots are an essential piece of kit for the horse in transition. I have chosen Swiss Horse Boots over other boots on the market due to thier excellent track record and  capacity to fit a wide variety of hoof shapes, snugly and safely. These boots should ideally be fitted by a trained fitter but can also be adjusted before being sent out for the horse owner to do the finishing touches. Read more about my service    here.

Natural Horse Management Consultatancy As a Natural Hoof Care Practitioner with the AANHCP I offer not only trimming but several other services that support this work. As you will hopefully gather from reading about the AANHCP we're not just about trimming hooves. Our goal is to translate the ways of the free roaming horse into a format that can be adopted by owners of domestic horses.

A Natural Horse Management Consultation involves outlining a plan of action and supporting the process of transiting your conventional yard to one that provides an environment that allows free movement, social integration, and minimal areas of man-made stress. The emphasis is on supporting health through implementing natural living conditions. Read more about natural horse management here.

I offer help to both individuals and groups.