Jo Clark

I'd always trusted the farrier to care for my horse's feet but by the time he was 8, he didn't have enough hoof wall left to hold a shoe on. When a different farrier advised removing his shoes for a time I trusted him too, did as he suggested but found that my poor horse was so sore he couldn't even hobble across the yard. After a few months of struggling away feeling guilty, frustrated and very unhappy, I was desperate enough to take matters into my own hands and went on my first KC workshop.

Since then, things have got better and better and along the way I decided to qualify as an EP. I’ve now got five barefoot horses of my own who are completely sound and do all sorts of things including eventing and long hacks over all sorts of surfaces.

I now understand why things went wrong in the first place, what needs to be done to get the best possible set of hooves under every horse and how to make the transition to shoeless much easier for horse and owner.